Google for Non profits extended to charities in England and Wales

The Google for Nonprofits programme, which offers charities free and discounted access to online collaboration tools, advice, and free Google advertising, has now been extended to charities registered in England and Wales. Previously it was available only to eligible nonprofits in the USA since it was established in 2011.

Charities such as RNLI, BeatBullying, Little Princess Trust, and WaterAid have already been trialling the newly available services. Indeed, Little Princess Trust says that access to the tools has saved them "thousands of pounds". Their volunteers, who are spread around the country now all have access to email through Gmail, and can stay in touch with planning and activities via Google Calendar.

Benefits

Charities approved for the Google for Nonprofits programme in the UK will receive at no charge access to:

• up to $10,000 a month in advertising credit on Google AdWords
   
• the online communication and collaboration suite Google Apps, which includes Gmail, Google Talk, Hangouts and Drive. (For-profit businesses have to pay for these tools).
   
• premium features within YouTube and Google Earth Outreach
   
• online advice resources such as educational videos, examples of how other UK charities are using Google’s tools, and a support forum for any technical issues.
   
• community discussions on the Google for Nonprofits forum on Google+ 

Sound familiar?

UK charities have benefited from free Google services for the past few years, including Google Grants (the maximum $10,000 a month free advertising), YouTube for Nonprofits, and Google Earth Pro.

Charities and nonprofits in other countries benefit from some of these opportunities too. Indeed, Google says that it has so far given away over $1 billion in free and discounted products to nonprofits around the world.

However, Google for Nonprofits is the full suite of free tools and services, and English and Welsh charities are the first in the world to have access to them outside the USA.

So charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland can continue to benefit from some of these tools. It looks likely that they will in turn get access to the full Google for Nonprofits programme. Writing on the Google for Nonprofits blog Xiaonan Zhao, Product Manager, Google for Nonprofits, announced the launch of the programme in the UK, "starting in England and Wales".

Other Google support in the UK

Google's other support for charities in the UK includes the Global Impact Challenge in which the company awarded over £2.5 million together with mentoring and hardware to ten UK charities.

Dan Cobley, Managing Director, Google UK said: "Through Google for Nonprofits, we want to support the incredible work of charitable organisations in the UK by eliminating some of the technical challenges and costs that they face. We hope our technology will help them to reach more donors, improve operations and raise awareness so they can focus on changing the world for the better."

Charities registered with Charity Commission of England and Wales can apply today for Google for Nonprofits.

- See more at: http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2013/07/17/google-nonprofits-programme-extended-charities-england-and-wales#sthash.8xPQlBRw.dpuf