Google for Non-Profits Blog

A 'Next' Step For YouTube Nonprofits

2012-02-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official YouTube Blog)

Last year we launched YouTube NextUp to accelerate the growth of the next big YouTube stars. Then in October, we announced YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer to turbocharge up-and-coming cooking and fitness channels by great YouTube video creators. We’re excited to share the latest addition to the Next Creator family of programs: YouTube Next Cause for nonprofits.

YouTube Next Cause is designed to help organizations that are already changing the world better use online video to drive action. At a one-day summit in San Francisco on April 2, selected participants will get access to everything from training in YouTube fundamentals, to promotion and community engagement tips, to one-on-one consulting sessions to grow their YouTube presence.

We’ve always sought to make YouTube a platform for nonprofits to broadcast their messages. And we’ve seen amazing things happen when the YouTube community comes together in support of great causes. With 4 billion views a day, we want to make sure nonprofits have the tools they need to reach the global audience on YouTube and turn video views into donations, volunteerism and awareness.

Applications for YouTube Next Cause are due on February 27, 2012 at 11:59PM PT, and the selected nonprofits will be announced on March 5. This program is open to organizations that are part of the YouTube Nonprofit Program (full eligibility requirements). You can apply online at: http://goo.gl/ODbI6.

Check out what nonprofits are doing on YouTube at youtube.com/nonprofits. And tune in around March 5 to learn more about some of the great nonprofit organizations chosen and what they’re doing to change the world!

Posted by Hunter Walk, YouTube Team

Lay Claim To Your Personal Conservation Plot With Adopt-an-Acre

2012-02-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite quotes is by American anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

We can each play an active role in changing the world for the better by preserving areas we care about. The Nature Conservancy has just made it easier with their Adopt-an-Acre program. They’ve updated their mapping tool today as the result of a Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant, which offers funding to organizations that create clever, cutting-edge applications using Google mapping technologies.

One of the solutions for widespread habitat loss is to acquire large plots of land for conservation. Since 1991, the Adopt-an-Acre program has protected more than 600,000 acres spanning from North America to Africa and Australia, even protecting offshore areas critical for delicate coral reefs and humpback breeding grounds.

Adopt an acre through the Nature Conservancy
There are two featured areas that allow you to adopt a specific acre, the Nash Prairie Preserve in Texas and the Warm Springs Mountain Preserve in Virginia. Simply fly to ground level on the embedded Google Map and choose your acre. You can also select your plot through Google Earth by clicking on the “View in Google Earth” link. This map enables any interested individual to make a pledge and help restore an acre of land to its pristine state.

The Nash Prairie Preserve in Texas is a beautiful and vital tall prairie grassland. These prairies used to cover wide expanses in the Bottomlands region of coastal Texas, but these areas have been reduced due to metropolitan encroachment. More than 120 bird species and 300 plant species thrive in this disappearing ecosystem, which you can help protect.

The Warm Springs Mountain Preserve in Virginia is the other area within a 77,000 acre wildlife corridor where you can adopt a specific acre. If you have a connection to the Allegheny Mountains in Virginia, or if you are passionate about preserving species like the interior dwelling songbird, you can choose from a variety of landscapes, pristine rivers and mountain forests to conserve.

Best of all, you can adopt an acre in the name of a loved one or as a gift to someone else. Their name will appear on the map alongside others who have entered their names in support of preserving our wild America.

Learn more about what nonprofits have done with mapping technologies on the Google Earth Outreach website.

Posted by Tanya Birch, Google Earth Outreach

Lights, Cameras, Causes: The 2012 Nonprofit Video Awards

2012-02-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

For the third year, YouTube is teaming up with See3 Communications to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a celebration of the best non-profit videos on the site. If you’re a nonprofit who made a video in 2011, you’re eligible and encouraged to submit.

It doesn’t matter if your organization is small and scrappy, large and global, or somewhere in between. We’ll award prizes like $3,500 grants, free admission to the Nonprofit Technology Conference, and a spotlight on the YouTube homepage to small, medium and large organizations, plus a special award for “Best Video Storytelling.”

Need more details? Watch this video:

The deadline to enter is February 29, 2012 and you must be a member of the YouTube Nonprofit Program at the time of judging, to enter. Full rules are available here.

Get those cameras rolling and good luck!

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube For Nonprofits Team

Public Alerts Now On Google Maps

2012-02-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official Google.org Blog)

Last week a new Google Crisis Response project launched: Google Public Alerts, a platform designed to bring you relevant emergency alerts when and where you’re searching for them.

If a major weather event is headed for your area, you might go online to search for the information you need: What’s happening? Where and when will it strike? How severe will it be? What resources are available to help?

The Google Crisis Response team works on providing critical emergency information during crises. Our goal is to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday, when that information is relevant and useful.

With the launch of Public Alerts on Google Maps, relevant weather, public safety, and earthquake alerts from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) will be accessible when you search on Google Maps. For instance, at the time of this post, “Flood Indiana” triggers an alert for a Flood Warning in Northern Indiana.

If you click through to “more info” on this alert, you’ll find a page showing more details about the alert, with the full description from the alert publisher, in this case the National Weather Service, a link to their site and other useful information.

Whether you see an alert depends on which alerts are active at a given location, their severity, and your search query. If you’re interested in seeing all of the active alerts in one place, visit our homepage at www.google.org/publicalerts. This page also provides a link to more information on our new platform and gives instructions to interested organizations who want to make their emergency data available through this tool.

We’re learning as we go and we’re working hard to continuously improve the range and relevance of the content you see, so we’d really like your feedback. Please send feedback our way using the link at the far right of our Google Public Alerts homepage.

We hope Google Public Alerts provides you with information to make better decisions in times of crisis.

Posted by Steve Hakusa, Public Alerts Engineer

Resources To Support A New And Open World For Learning

2012-01-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official Google Blog)

Googlers are the types who never really leave the classroom. Guest speakers come to campus to give talks on subjects ranging from fiction to physics. Diverse groups of people work together to understand and solve big problems while groups of Googlers engage in passionate debate in our cafeterias. Given this environment, it’s no surprise how highly we value our external work in education. We have a growing number of successful education programs from primary school through to university, as well as a suite of free and open tools that reach families and classrooms around the world.

Recently, we decided to gather our resources and lessons learned into one place for educators everywhere. “Google in Education: A New and Open World for Learning” highlights how people are using Google resources to enhance teaching and learning. This booklet isn’t your typical annual report; it’s a living document for educators to use year-round. We’ve also revamped our website, google.com/edu, to be a one-stop shop for teachers, students, parents and organizations to explore all of our offerings. We’ve launched a Google+ page, where everyone can stay updated on our educational tools, products and programs, and join the conversation.

To develop all of these new materials, we went straight to the source, relying on dozens of educators to provide stories and feedback. We hope these resources will inspire and enable teachers, while affirming our commitment to increasing access to an excellent education for all.

Thanks to educators, students and supporters everywhere for helping to extend our spirit of lifelong learning into classrooms around the globe.

For more information about Google in Education, visit www.google.com/edu/about, and to stay updated on the world of education at Google and connect with fellow educators, follow us on Google+.

Posted by Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Head of Global K-12 Education Outreach

YouTube For Nonprofits, Reloaded With New Tutorials And Features

2012-01-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official YouTube Blog)

Nonprofits are an important part of the YouTube community, and their videos have educated and inspired audiences since the early days of the site. We launched the YouTube Nonprofit Program in 2007 to help organizations take their work to the next level, and since then, more than 16,000 nonprofits have joined the program. There are hundreds of nonprofit organizations with millions of views on YouTube, and dozens with more than ten million views, like Greenpeace, Khan Academy and UNICEF.

We’ve made a couple of updates to the program that we hope will help nonprofits use video in new and compelling ways.

The Playbook Guide: YouTube for Good. This is a how-to resource specifically targeted at nonprofit organizations, with sections on how to create content, raise funds, connect with other community members and more.

Improved features. As part of our new Channels design, we’ve made the donate button on nonprofit channels even more prominent, making it easier than ever to support the causes you care about.

If you’re a YouTube Nonprofit Program with other ideas about how we can make the program better, tell us your suggestions in the comments below! If you’re a nonprofit in the U.S., U.K., Canada or Australia and not yet a member, visit www.youtube.com/nonprofits to learn more and apply.

Posted by Valerie Streit, YouTube Team

Biodiversity On The Move

2012-01-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Lat Long Blog)

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest author is Ari Daniel Shapiro from Atlantic Public Media (APM), a non-profit public media organization in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. APM was the recipient of a Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant, funded through the Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund at the Tides Foundation. We’re excited to showcase how Atlantic Public Media has weaved Google Earth and KML tours into engaging stories about the diversity of life.

Life gets around. Tiny Arctic Terns soar from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back, in a single year. A kind of sea algae known as “sea grapes” roam from Australia to the Mediterranean as stowaways, and then promptly conquer their new home.

As a radio producer, I’m used to telling these kinds of stories with audio, weaving together interview tape, ambient sound, and narration. For the last two years, I’ve worked with Atlantic Public Media and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) to produce an audio series entitled One Species at a Time. Each episode pays homage to a different organism that gallops or creeps or pulses on our planet. We collaborate on these stories with Marie Studer, the EOL's Learning and Education Director, who has championed our podcast as way to make the natural world come alive and generate excitement amongst people who want to learn about it and explore.

While our podcast and public radio programming brought these tales of the natural world to listeners all over the planet, we always look for ways to tell these stories better and share them more widely. Eduardo Garcia Milagros, a biologist and KML developer in Spain, approached us last year with the idea to use Google Earth as a platform for these mini-documentaries. Brimming with enthusiasm, he shared “When I first opened Google Earth, I went to see my hometown. Once I started exploring KML capabilities, I realized that Google Earth can be an amazing educational tool, especially when you have a good story.” Inspired by his excitement, we decided to identify species whose stories could really be best illustrated through a map, such as the Arctic Tern’s annual migration.

Our tour on Arctic terns can be viewed on YouTube or downloaded and explored in Google Earth.

Incorporating Google Earth into our narratives proved to be an interesting challenge for me and Jay Allison, my editor on the project and the Executive Director of APM. We wanted to make the most of the map as a medium to bring to life the tale of the Arctic Tern and other species for viewers. By integrating geographic animation and imagery from all over the world with the audio and images from contributing scientists, we were able to support and enhance the story. For example, in the sea algae tour below, we circle the globe to the Amazon rainforest to illustrate a phenomenon in the ecology of the Mediterranean.

Our sea algae tour can also be found on YouTube or downloaded for viewing in Google Earth.

These tours combine voice, sound, images, video, and data-driven animations to explain how two creatures have been able to travel so much of our planet. Coming from a public radio documentary background, we tend to approach things from a purely narrative or poetic angle, but Google Earth tours allow for audio/visual dialogue as well. The movement isn't purely in the story. The map can become part of a “conversation,” and we're just beginning to explore the possibilities.

We hope to produce more of these Biodiversity on the Move tours in the future; we’d like to hear what you think of them and what we can improve next time. Drop us a line on the Encyclopedia of Life blog.

Posted by Ari Daniel Shapiro, Atlantic Public Media and the Encyclopedia of Life

Celebrating Martin Luther King Day By Giving Back

2012-01-17T18:28:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official Google Blog)

Yesterday, Martin Luther King Day of Service in the U.S., Googlers around the country worked with community service organizations to lend a helping hand in their area and commemorate the holiday.

The Black Googler Network (BGN), an employee resource group made up of volunteers, spearheaded this effort to set up service projects in multiple offices. In the California Bay Area, we joined The Center for Music National Service in the MLK Day of Service & Song in various projects to beautify John O’Connell High School in San Francisco’s Mission district. Projects included mural painting, landscaping and organizing books and materials, and the celebration included time for students and volunteers to share their art and voice their feelings about the importance of the day.

In New York last week, we teamed up with the Harlem Children’s Zone for a full-day workshop with college students to review their resumes and conduct mock interviews, aimed at supporting the organization’s goal of ending the cycle of generational poverty. And in Ann Arbor, Mich., we joined the Ann Arbor Community Center and University of Michigan students to serve hot meals and give out winter garments to homeless families in need.

We’re proud of the ways Googlers came together to celebrate and we’re committed to diversity and cultural inclusion year-round, with a focus on closing the technology gap. Last year, our FUSE, CSSI, BOLD and BOLD Practicum summer programs brought hundreds of students from culturally diverse backgrounds to Google offices worldwide for summer internships. We hosted national pitch night for The Technovation Challenge for girls. The BGN’s efforts to aid minority and low-income communities included its annual BGN New Orleans Outreach Trip, and we hosted speakers Condoleezza Rice, Alice Walker, Belva Davis and Soledad O’Brien among others. We have even more plans for promoting diversity in 2012.

If you’re interested in volunteer opportunities in your area, visit mlkday.gov or allforgood.org.

Posted by Chad Sanders, Global Learning Systems, Talent

Ask Your Question In The 2012 Google Science Fair

2012-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

(Cross posted from the Official Google Blog)

Are human beings born curious, or can curiosity be nurtured through environment, competition or a good teacher? Everyone’s got a question—that’s ours. But we’re sure you’ve got tons of questions, too. Today, we’re inviting students around the world to pose their most pressing questions about the world around them and answer those questions through scientific inquiry.

Along with our partners CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, today we’re launching the second annual Google Science Fair, the largest online science competition in the world, open globally to students ages 13-18. Either individually or in teams of up to three people, students pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it. The entire process is detailed and submitted online, via a website template participants fill out themselves, so all you need to participate is curiosity, an Internet connection and a browser.

Last year, we received entries that strove to solve a wide variety of needs, from “How can I cure cancer?” to “Can I teach a robot to learn English?” to “Can I build a faster sailboat?” The breadth and depth of these projects was incredibly impressive, and this year we hope to see even more entries from the next generation of brilliant young scientists.

This year’s fair will be even more global than the last: We’re now accepting submissions in 13 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish and Russia). We will also be recognizing 90 regional finalists (30 from the Americas, 30 from the Asia Pacific and 30 from Europe/Middle East/Africa). From these 90, to be announced in May, our judges will select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. for our live Google Science Fair final event on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges (like Vint Cerf, Sylvia Earle and Nobel Laureates David Gross and Ada Yonath) will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18).

We’re also introducing a new category for this year’s competition—the Scientific American Science in Action award. We were so inspired by 2011 finalist Harine Ravichandran’s project, which attempted to solve energy surges in rural villages, that we decided to recognize an outstanding project that addresses a social, environmental or health need to make a difference in the lives of a group or community, as Harine’s project did for her grandparents’ village in India. The winner will also be flown to Mountain View for the finalist event in July.

The Google Science Fair opens today, January 12, worldwide, and we’ll accept submissions until Sunday, April 1 at 11:59pm GMT (or 6:59pm ET/3:59pm PT). In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your brilliant project can also help to win you some pretty cool prizes, like a $50,000 college scholarship from Google, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer or an internship at Google or any one of our partners. Our Scientific American Science in Action award winner will earn $50,000 and year-long mentorship to make their project goal a reality.

The winners of last year’s inaugural Google Science Fair became something like scientific rock stars. Shree Bose, Naomi Shah and Lauren Hodge met with President Obama, were invited to speak at big events like TEDx Women and were featured in Wired magazine. Shree, our grand prize winner, was named one of Glamour magazine’s 21 Amazing Young Women of the Year. White House visits and Glamour aside, every student in the Google Science Fair has the chance to do hands-on research that can truly change the world.

Visit google.com/sciencefair and ask your most burning questions at the top of your voice for the world to hear. Google itself was founded through experimentation and with the Google Science Fair, we hope to inspire scientific exploration among the next generation of scientists and engineers, celebrate scientific talent, create scientific role models and unite students around the world in the quest for learning.

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google Education Team

Google Apps Highlights

2011-12-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

The elves got an early jump on the holidays this year by leaving us some surprises in Google Apps over the last few weeks. Sharing from Gmail got a whole lot easier, and Google Calendar can make better use of precious screen space. We also have 10 new Google Apps customer stories to share from the tens of thousands that have gone Google in recent weeks.

Gmail gets more social
Last week we sprinkled a touch of Google+ into Gmail, making it easier to connect and share with people from your inbox. You can add people to circles right from an email thread through Gmail’s people widget, share photo attachments with friends and family on Google+ without leaving Gmail, and view a filtered version of your inbox only showing messages from people in your circles. We also improved Gmail’s address book by incorporating contact information shared by your friends, family and colleagues in their Google+ profiles.

New features in the Gmail iOS app
Just yesterday we added several new improvements to the Gmail app for iOS 4+. Now you can set up a custom email signature for mobile messages, manage your vacation responder, and view nested labels from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. We also added scribbles, a fun way to spice up messages by adding a quick hand-drawn sketch. You can create scribbles using a range of colors, brush sizes, lines, erasers and spray paints from your touchscreen device.

More free calls right from Gmail
Last year we introduced free domestic calling in Gmail within the U.S. and Canada, and we’re extending this free service for the whole year of 2012. We’re happy to help you keep in touch with those special people in your life, for free.

Hide morning and night hours in Calendar
If you don’t often have appointments early in the morning or late at night, a new trick in Google Calendar might be useful. Now you can hide morning and night hours, leaving more screen real estate for the times of day when most of your events take place. Give it a try in Calendar Labs.

Who’s gone Google?
Businesses and schools are switching to Google Apps in droves these days. From tiny startups to large enterprises and nonprofits to college campuses, we love hearing the inspiring stories that our customers share. Here’s a new batch of stories for your reading pleasure: TripIt, IPSEN, Ebby Halliday, Ticket River, VigLink, HeyZap, The Great Books Foundation, Utah K-12 schools, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and UC Santa Cruz. Welcome one and all!

For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog, and keep an eye out for this series here after the holidays. We launched more than 150 improvements to Google Apps in 2011, and we have a ton more in store for 2012!

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Team

Giving Back In 2011

2011-12-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

As the holiday season approaches we thought it was a good moment to update you on some grants we're making to support education, technology and the fight against modern day slavery.

STEM and girls’ education

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) open up great opportunities for young people so we've decided to fund 16 great programs in this area. These include Boston-based Citizen Schools and Generating Genius in the U.K., both of which work to help to expand the horizons of underprivileged youngsters. In total, our grants will provide enhanced STEM education for more than 3 million students.

In addition, we're supporting girls’ education in the developing world. By giving a girl an education, you not only improve her opportunities, but those of her whole family. The African Leadership Academy provides merit scholarships to promising young women across the continent, and the Afghan Institute of Learning offers literacy classes to women and girls in rural Afghanistan. Groups like these will use our funds to educate more than 10,000 girls in developing countries.

Empowerment through technology

We've all been wowed by the entrepreneurial spirit behind the 15 awards in this category, all of whom are using the web, open source programming and other technology platforms to connect communities and improve access to information. Vittana, for instance, helps lenders offer loans to students in the developing world who have have a 99 percent repayment rate—potentially doubling or tripling a recipient's earning power. Code for America enables the web industry to share its skills with the public sector by developing projects that improve transparency and encourage civic engagement on a mass scale. And Switchboard is working with local mobile providers to help African health care workers create networks and communicate for free.

Fighting slavery and human trafficking

Modern day slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry that ruins the lives of around 27 million people. So we're funding a number of groups that are working to tackle the problem. For instance, in India, International Justice Mission (IJM), along with The BBC World Service Trust, Action Aid and Aide et Action, are forming a new coalition. It will work on the ground with governments to stop slave labor by identifying the ring masters, documenting abuse, freeing individuals and providing them with therapy as well as job training. Our support will also help expand the reach of tools like the powerful Slavery Footprint calculator and Polaris Project’s National Trafficking Hotline.

To learn more about these organizations and how you can get involved, visit our Google Gives Back 2011 site and take a look at this video:

These grants, which total $40 million, are only part of our annual philanthropic efforts. Over the course of the year, Google provided more than $115 million in funding to various nonprofit organizations and academic institutions around the world; our in-kind support (programs like Google Grants and Google Apps for Education that offer free products and services to eligible organizations) came to more than $1 billion, and our annual company-wide GoogleServe event and related programs enabled individual Googlers to donate more than 40,000 hours of their own volunteer time.

As 2011 draws to a close, I’m inspired by this year’s grantees and look forward to seeing their world-changing work in 2012.

Posted by Shona Brown, SVP, Google.org

Grow Your Organization Through Google+ This Holiday Season

2011-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

We know you must be really busy right now trying to wrap up your year-end goals, especially fundraising targets, before everyone heads out for the holiday season. The Google for Nonprofits team would like to help. We’ve seen nonprofit organizations doing great work on Google+ to reach new people and build relationships with their audiences, and so wanted to provide you with a “holiday gift” of tips on turning your new Google+ followers into active contributors to your organizations this holiday season. This booklet is posted on our Google+ for Nonprofits community page where you can find lots of resources to get started.

In addition, you may have noticed that in the past couple days, a group of entertainers and individuals have started drawing attention to their favorite charities with the phrase #CauseILoveEm, and creatively showing their followers what they love about these nonprofit organizations.

+Russell Brand is asking fans to volunteer for two hours of charity work at +Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, +Los Angeles Animal Alliance or one of four other local LA charities. In exchange, he and Sarah Silverman will give fans two hours of live comedy.

+Usher and student participants in his New Look Leadership Academy asked people to do an international act of kindness and post descriptions of their acts including photos and videos as comments on +Usher's New Look Foundation. The acts with the most "+1"s will be re-posted by Usher and highlighted on the New Look Foundation website.

+Linkin Park posted a new video asking people to spread the word about +Music For Relief and their new Power the World Give Light campaign, which encourages people to donate to provide solar-powered light bulbs for families in Haiti without electricity. People who share their website online and drive the most clicks will be eligible to win prizes.

+Dolly Parton and +Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, her early child literacy program that provides 700,000+ free books every month, are sharing Champion Spotlight stories about their community leaders and are posting the 20 most inspiring Imagination Moments submitted by families who have benefited from this gift of reading.

Co-founder +Hugh Jackman and +Laughing Man Coffee & Tea asked people to share photos of themselves with Laughing Man's fair trade products (the profits of which go to charity) and to sound off on living their motto, "All Be Happy," using #CauseILoveEm to be included in a thank you photo album.

+Josh Groban and +Find Your Light Foundation announced the Fulfill-a-Wish campaign, spotlighting the needs of nonprofit arts organizations from across North America in videos and posts and asking for your help fulfilling these holiday wishes.

We’d love for you to take advantage of this movement to generate more awareness for your nonprofit. Ask your Google+ followers to share your organization publicly and with their circles using #CauseILoveEm, and letting people know why they love you in the most creative ways possible. Consider starting a quick campaign to engage new people ready to “share their love.” For example, give people something that they can do to get involved this month like posting a video about your cause, sharing a story related to your organization, or volunteering to be eligible for a Hangout for your program recipients. Please also join the open circle we’ve started on our +Google for Nonprofits +Page so we can suggest your organization to people wondering which nonprofits they can connect with and showcase.

We hope these tips and this viral program help you a bit towards achieving your year-end goals this holiday season.

Posted by Mimi Kravetz, Google.org Team

More Support For Grantees

2011-12-07T08:02:00.000-08:00

Do you have a question about Google Grants that you can’t find an answer to, even in our newly updated Help Center? Would you just rather talk to someone directly?

We’re happy to say that you can do both.

If you have a question about Google Grants and you want a good answer fast, the Google Grants Help Forum is the place for you.

We’ve just re-launched the forum with the new look and feel that you might already be familiar with from using other Google products like Gmail, and we think you’re really going to like it. It follows the same principles as the other products: focus, elasticity and effortlessness, but most importantly, it’s designed to get your questions answered fast.

We have dedicated Top Contributors (you’ll know them by the blue icon next to their name), Google employees (you’ll know them by the Google icon next to their name) and many active nonprofit participants ready with answers to your Google Grants questions. Plus, there are already lots of answered questions for you to browse. Your question may already have been answered!

But what if you just want to ask a real live person about your AdWords account? Well, you can do that, too.

Back in April, we announced free phone support for US and Canadian-based AdWords advertisers, and we thought this would be a good time to remind you that, as Google Grantees, this resource is available to you, too.

Just call 1-866-2Google between 8am and 8pm EST Monday-Friday and have your AdWords customer ID ready. If you’re outside the US and Canada and want to talk to an AdWords specialist, check this list for your local support phone number.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

A Nonprofit Goes Google To Further Enjoyment Of Reading And Learning

2011-12-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Mark Gillingham, Vice President of The Great Books Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to promote reading, thinking, and the sharing of ideas for people of all ages. The Foundation's 60 employees have been using Google Apps for over two years.

For the past 60 years, the Foundation has helped millions of students and adults make the reading and discussion of literature a lifelong source of enjoyment, personal growth, and social engagement.

We offer courses for teachers in person and online. The Foundation also publishes books, anthologies, and materials for all ages to provide quality texts to discuss.

We have a history of using free and open-source applications on our desktop computers and servers that are more flexible and powerful than the paid applications we had been using. Once we learned that Google Apps was available at no cost for nonprofits under 3,000 users, I gathered our IT planning committee to plan how to migrate 60 users from our existing system.

We had been using an onsite email system for years because it was part of our file system. Although we upgraded the system every two years, it never seemed up-to-date. We had issues reading certain types of documents and viewing images and web sites. Using the system away from the office caused problems because we needed special applications, which varied by operating system. The calendar was not compatible with our mobile devices and the document repository was difficult to manage. As a result, most staff did not utilize the IT solutions we were offering.

We planned our deployment with a local developer Rachel Baker, whom we met through NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network). She helped us understand what was required for a successful deployment and guided us through the process. We also used the Google Apps Marketplace to find a Google Apps reseller, Cloud Sherpas, whose specific migration knowledge and software helped us move all of our data.

At launch in 2009, our staff was thrilled to finally use a modern email program with highly reduced spam. Years later, some of us have still not gotten over this giddy feeling. More teams are using Google Docs to share internal and external documents. Google Calendar is the official way we schedule our meeting rooms.

Now in 2011, we're excited to try out Google+ in our organization to find new ways to collaborate. We are considering using Google+ to provide technical support for our employees. Also, we think our remote workers could use Google+ as an easy way to communicate with their peers and home base while travelling.

Part of my job is seeing the future so I can help direct the Foundation toward technology that will work for them. Google is always improving its products and launching new features. I love it when I can show someone the next new thing. It makes them smile, which makes me smile too.

If you are a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit interested in using Google Apps, please apply for our Google for Nonprofits program. If accepted into the program, you can receive up to 3,000 users for free, or a 40% Business discount on more than 3,000 users.

Non US-based organizations can sign up for a free Google Apps account with 10 users, or you are welcome to purchase Google Apps for Business.

To help you setup Google Apps quickly, Google provides many deployment resources, plus a simple in-product Setup Wizard.

Posted by Chris Cheng, Google Apps Team

Share Your Story

2011-11-28T12:34:00.000-08:00

With the launch of the Google for Nonprofits program, we created a place for organizations to share stories of the powerful work they are doing to change the world. Our Make a Change website collects lots of big and small changes made by people at nonprofits. We are inspired by these organizations and want to continue to share these stories so we invite you to share your organization’s story with us via this webform. Tell us about how Google products have helped you make a change with your organization. We would love to hear more about what you’re doing and we may even feature you on our Make a Change website.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Janelle Kuhlman, Google Grants Team

Join Presidents Bush, Clinton, plus Bono and Alicia Keys this Worlds AIDS Day on YouTube

2011-11-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

(Cross-posted on the Official YouTube Blog)

Did you know there are now 6.6 million people receiving treatment for HIV, compared to just 100,000 in 2002? Still, more than a thousand babies are born every day with HIV and there are 34 million people living with the disease.

This World AIDS Day, you can join the discussion about how to help bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS. We’re partnering with ONE and (RED) to bring you a panel of experts who will talk about the progress we’ve made, where we're falling short, and what it's going to take to end this disease for good. They’ll also answer some questions from the YouTube audience. Starting today, you can submit your questions to the panel, which includes Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Bono, co-founder of ONE and (RED); Alicia Keys, co-founder of Keep a Child Alive; and other leaders in the fight against AIDS, including representatives from the Tema Clinic in Ghana, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Saddleback Church.

On December 1, World AIDS Day, these leaders will answer some of the top-voted questions live on YouTube at a special event hosted by ONE, (RED) and an impressive list of partners and influencers.

According to ONE, if we recommit to the fight against AIDS, by 2015 we could end mother-to-child transmission of HIV, provide treatment to the 15 million people who need it, and drastically reduce new infections. With the support of donors, African governments, organizations, and the private sector the beginning of the end of HIV/AIDS is within our reach.

Submit your question today and become part of the beginning of the end of AIDS. The deadline to submit is November 28.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube Team

Google Apps Highlights

2011-11-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

The last few weeks have brought a fresh new look in Gmail, more mobile access options and simpler meeting scheduling tools. Millions of organizations using Google Apps can now use Google+ on their business and university accounts, and we launched a couple Apps-related Google+ Pages ourselves.

Gmail’s new look
Back in July we previewed Gmail’s new look, and a couple weeks ago we started letting people switch to the new design with one click. The refreshed interface makes it easier to follow conversations and spot the sender with profile pictures for each message. The new look also supports dynamic screen densities, so Gmail displays properly whether you’re viewing on a large desktop monitor or a smaller mobile screen. We also added a selection of beautiful HD themes to the existing gallery. Finally, we made it easier to perform advanced email searches using a panel of powerful search options that reveals with a single click.

Gmail app for iOS devices
This month we introduced the Gmail app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, complete with mobile alerts for new mail, a responsive touch screen interface and Gmail mainstays like fast search, conversation view and address auto-complete.

Suggested meeting times in Google Calendar
We’ve heard how frustrating it can be to spend 15 minutes finding a good time for people to convene for a 30 minute meeting, so we made it easier to find a good meeting time in Google Calendar. The suggested times feature automatically reviews the availability of meeting invitees, and proposes event times that work for the whole group.

Google+ for organizations using Google Apps
Businesses, schools and organizations with Google Apps can now use Google+. Employees and students can create profiles, +1 things they like on the web, share interesting content with their circles and have live multi-person video chats with classmates, colleagues and friends. Organizations can also create their Google+ Pages—an organization’s identity on Google+ for customers, students or fans. We’re using Google+ Pages ourselves, so take a look at the Gmail and Google Enterprise pages, and circle us if you’d like to stay in the loop.

24x7 telephone support and improved mobile device management
This week, we introduced a couple other new benefits for Google Apps customers. Organizations of all sizes around the world can now call our support hotline at any time for all core service issue. Also new this week, we improved our mobile device management capabilities with an interface for administrators to view and deny mobile devices connecting to Google Apps, granular mobile policy controls, and the ability to visualize mobile usage trends across the organization.

Who’s gone Google?
Organizations large and small continue to amass around Google Apps. We’re thrilled to welcome a whole host of new customers including the Trinity Mirror Group (Britain’s largest newspaper publisher), startups such as JobFlo and UserTesting, organizations including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and colleges like the University of Michigan and UT Austin. Welcome to all!

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Team

More Google+ Resources For Your Nonprofit

2011-11-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

Now that you’ve created a Google+ Page for your organization, tested how to tailor your messaging to different audiences that you care about with Circles & Hangouts and have told everyone that you’re on Google+, we wanted to wrap up our week-long series on Google+ for nonprofits with a few additional resources:

If you’re looking for help creating your Google+ page or about Google+ in general, check out the Google+ Help Center.
If you want to pose a question about Google+ Pages, head over to Google+ Page Discuss.
If you have general, nonprofit-related questions, explore the Google for Nonprofits Help Center.
If you have support-related questions, you can ask them in the Google for Nonprofits Discussion Group.

And we’re on Google+ too! So if you haven’t already added the Google for Nonprofits Google+ page to your circles, head over and check us out. We hope this series was helpful to get your nonprofit started with Google+ and look forward to learning more about how your organization is using Google+ to further your goals. Make sure to share your Google+ best practices on our page so other nonprofits can learn from you.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team

Get The Word Out That Your Organization Is Now On Google+

2011-11-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Now that you’ve put a ton of work into your organization’s Plus Page, let people know about it! There are lots of ways to tell the world that your nonprofit is on Google+.

1. Tell everyone you’re on Google+: Tell donors, volunteers & clients in your newsletters, on your website & anywhere else that users go to learn about your organization. We’ve created some starter language for you to add to your next email, newsletter or social media update. You can customize this language for your organization:

Newsletter & Email copy: We’re now on Google+! [link to your Google+ page] We’ll be posting regularly about what we’re up to and will be trying a few Hangouts. So come check us out on Google+. And if you love us, add us to your Circles so you can get all of our Google+ updates directly in your Google+ stream. Leave a comment on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think.
Social media update: We’re now on Google+! [link to your Google+ page] Come hang out with us and hear the latest on what we’re up to. You can follow us here: [add a link to your nonprofit’s Google+ Plus Page]

2. Connect your Google+ Page to your website

Let users know they can find you on Google+ by connecting your Google+ page to your nonprofit’s website. Learn more about linking your +Page to your website.

3. Add the +1 button to your website

Help your message circulate by installing the +1 button on your website. You can easily grab a snippet of code and work with your webmaster to add it to your website. You know your page and your users best, so we recommend putting the button wherever you think it will be the most effective. Learn more about the +1 button.

By telling everyone that your nonprofit is on Google+, you can let volunteers, friends, donors, board members & more know that they can have a customized conversation with your nonprofit on Google+.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team

Engaging Your Constituents On Google+

2011-11-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Do you ever wish you could tailor your social media communications to all of the different audiences your nonprofit communicates with? For example, you probably speak to volunteers differently than how you speak to the board. As part of our week-long series to get nonprofits up and running successfully on Google+, here are a few ways for you to start sharing your Google+ page with key audiences for your organization.

1. Continue posting to keep people up-to-date

You can post content publicly so people can find it using search, or use Circles to tailor your message to more specific users. Regularly posting interesting content, engaging with your users by asking questions, and sharing photos and videos are all ways to keep people coming back for more. Learn more technical tips on how to share content with others.

2. Launch Hangouts

Nothing beats having a live, dynamic gathering around a topic that your organization works on or cares about. Hangouts let you set up one-click video conversations with volunteers, donors, and recipients -- whoever you want to have a conversation with. Just let your followers know when you’ll be hanging out and what topic you want to discuss. You can get face-to-face interaction in real time -- all over high-quality, easy-to-use video chat.
Starting a hangout from your +Page is easy, just make sure you’re looking at your +Pages stream, and click “Start a Hangout” on the right hand side of your stream. Check yourself out in the “powder room” to make sure your mic works and you look great. Then, add the circles you would to join the hangout, and click “ Hangout.” Learn more about Hangouts with +Pages.

3. Manage your circles

Different people have different interests, and Google+ allows you to easily share relevant content with the right people. For example, you could create a circle for volunteers and share information with them about upcoming events. Learn more about managing Circles on Google+.

4. Monitor the conversation

It’s important to stay updated about what is happening on your page and what the general tone is. Whether negative or positive, make sure to stay engaged with your Google+ page by responding to comments. Some comments, even if negative, may still serve as a gateway for richer dialogue about important issues. Consider how you can leverage a difficult comment to have a conversation.
Try searching for your organization’s name in Google+ to learn what people are saying publicly about your Google+ page. Also make sure to monitor other +mentions of your page by looking in your notifications stream.

Check back tomorrow for more information about how you can tell the world that your organization is now on Google+.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team

Create A Google+ Page For Your Nonprofit To Connect With People Who Care About Your Cause

2011-11-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

As part of our week-long series to help nonprofit organizations get up and running on Google+, we wanted to share some more details about how you can successfully create your Google+ page.

Your Google+ Page is the home of your organization on Google+; make it yours with photos, success stories, information about volunteering and donating, project locations and more. You can follow the steps below to get your organization up and running on Google+.

1. Create your profile

You’ll need to have a Google Account and a personal Google+ profile to create a Google+ Page. Once logged into your Google+ profile, on the right hand side of your stream, you will see “Create a Page” to begin creating your page.
When you create your page, you’ll be asked to select a category, make sure you select “Company, Institution or Organization” to indicate that you’re a nonprofit.
To get started, walk through the dialog boxes to set up the basics of your profile including a profile picture and a tagline for your organization.
Want more help? Learn more about creating your Google+ Page and editing your profile.

2. Start posting

Want to start the conversation? Make your page engaging so that users want to come back and check what new content you’ve added. You can choose which circles you share info with, so people are only seeing the updates that are the most relevant and interesting to them.
Learn more about sharing on Google+.

3. Grow your Circles

Whenever someone adds you to their Circles, you can add them right back, so spreading the word and encouraging people to add you is a key component of talking to the people who want to hear from you. To view people and pages who aren’t already in your circles but have added you, review your followers on your Google+ page.
Learn more about adding people to your circles.

4. Follow and Interact with helpful Google+ Pages

Follow the latest on Google+ and in the Google for Nonprofits community by adding our official Google+ team page and the Google for Nonprofits Google+ page to your circles.
Interact with our Google+ page by dropping by for a hangout, reading and commenting on our tips, and letting us know how you’re liking Pages by sharing a post with us.

Check back tomorrow for more tips and tricks to engage with people who care about your nonprofit on Google+.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team

Google+ Pages Now Available For All Nonprofits

2011-11-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

We’re committed to building online tools that help your nonprofit grow and thrive. One of our goals is to make it easier for you to connect with the millions of people who come to Google each day looking for organizations and causes to connect with. An important part of that connection is the lasting relationship you develop with your various constituents.

We want to make sharing online more like it is in the real world. That’s why the Google+ team introduced Google+ Pages - a new way to have customized conversations and interactions with your constituents - volunteers, donors, fans & more. Google+ is a great place for you to connect with consumers who are passionate about your cause.

With the launch of Google+ Pages, any cause, nonprofit or organization can now have a presence on Google+. We’ve compiled a few Google+ tips to help your create your Google+ profile, start posting, grow your circles, start a hangout, monitor the conversation and tell the world that your nonprofit is on Google+. A few organizations, Pencils of Promise, Save the Children and Museo del Prado, have started their own Google+ Pages. We hope their early work gives you some ideas & inspiration for your nonprofit’s Google+ page.

The Google for Nonprofits team is on Google+ too! Check out our Google for Nonprofits Google+ page and add us to your circles. We'll post community questions, host hangouts so you can meet the team & hear from experts, share tips & engage users in an ongoing conversation about nonprofits and technology.

There are also many resources to help you stay up-to-date on the latest news from Google+. We’ll post new information about Google+ for nonprofits on the Google for Nonprofits blog. Check back this week for more information about how nonprofit organizations can utilize Google+. You can also follow the Official Google blog to keep up with the latest Google+ product news and updates. If you need additional help with your Google+ page, check out the Google+ Help Center or post a question in the Google+ Page Discuss.

We look forward to connecting with you on Google+.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez Dinneen, Google.org Team

The Google For Nonprofits Program Launches New Application And Account Management Features

2011-11-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

We’re happy to announce that we recently launched a series of new features to improve the process of applying for and managing your Google for Nonprofits membership account. Members are now able to do the following:

1. Organizations can now switch the Google Account linked to their Google for Nonprofits application from a personal to an organization-wide Gmail account. Learn More

2. Branches of umbrella organizations that share Employee Identification Numbers (EIN) with their parent organizations can apply for individual membership accounts. Learn More

3. New account managers are able to request ownership of their organization's pre-existing membership account. Learn More

Please make sure to visit the Help Center links listed above to learn about these new features.

We also want to thank the members who have provided input in the Google for Nonprofits forum. We hope you enjoy the new features.

Posted by Carolyn Wendell, The Google For Nonprofits Team

Google Online Marketing Challenge NGO Impact Award Winners 2011

2011-10-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the NGO Impact Award, a new award that recognizes Google Online Marketing Challenge student teams that made an outstanding difference to their nonprofit partners via superb online marketing campaigns. The deciding factors for these winners were the effectiveness of the campaign and a 200-word report on how the advertising impacted the nonprofit. The reports were judged by an independent panel of nonprofit leaders.

Prizes for the winners include:

1st place - $15,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
2nd place - $10,000 donation to the nonprofit partner
3rd place - $5,000 donation to the nonprofit partner

Congratulations to the following winners!

1st Place
Michael Albrecht and Christian Pfeifhofer taught by Dr. Horst Treiblmaier from Vienna University of Economics and Business worked with TrashDesignManufaktur. TrashDesignManufaktur is a non-profit organization in Vienna which offers unemployed persons the opportunity to learn new skills by up-cycling electronic waste and discarded machines into high-quality design objects, such as jewelry and furniture.

2nd Place
Sebastiano Comin, Simone Dolci, Elena Merazzi, Elena Moriondom and Giuseppe Scampa taught by Dr. Nicoletta Vittadini from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore collaborated with Istituto Oikos. Istituto Oikos works in Europe and in developing countries to advocate for and promote environmental conservation.

3rd Place
The team of Erin Blatzer, Lauren Davis, Carolina Thomas, and Jeffrei Clifton taught by Professor Steven Koch from University of Houston partnered with the Houston Symphony. The Symphony is one of America's oldest performing arts organizations and performs approximately 170 concerts each year for more than 350,000 Houstonians.

If you’re interested in being involved in next year’s Google Online Marketing Challenge NGO Impact award, stay tuned to our website.

Posted by Jessica Schwartz, Google AdWords Team

Google Person Finder Launched In Turkish

2011-10-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

(Cross-posted on the Google.org Blog)

After the earthquake in Van, Turkey, Google Person Finder has launched in Turkish for people looking for their loved ones in the region. Through Google Person Finder, people can enter a new record in the list for a person they're looking for. Anyone who has information for the missing people on the list can update the data. All data entered will become publicly available, viewable and usable by anyone. And you can help search and rescue teams by updating the status of missing people. To use Google Person Finder, visit this site: http://turkey-2011.googlepersonfinder.appspot.com/.

Google Person Finder was developed after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 to help people who were trying to reach their friends and families, and to reunite them. We hope Person Finder helps people get the latest information on missing persons using one common source. After the Japanese tsunami, 600,000 persons records were entered into Google Person Finder. For more information about how it works, click here.

The Google Crisis Response Team