Corporations are increasingly donating high-technology training and expertise rather than cash to help solve global problems. Giving experts say "tech philanthropy" efforts, such as a General Mills project to train people from the developing world to use food-production equipment, stems in part from growing demands from their workers to volunteer their skills to good causes.

Steve Paprocki, a philanthropy researcher and teacher at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., said there has been "a huge shift in the past five years," with the number of companies that offer the skills of their employees now matching the number that make cash donations. Read more…