Author Archives: Gloria Smith

Case Study: Youth-oriented nonprofit overcomes limited budget by using Google Tools


Just because you don’t have a big budget doesn’t mean you can’t have a big impact. Robin Bossert found that to be true when he started Navigators USA, a nonprofit that provides scouting experiences for children and their parents to help them spend more time outdoors. With over 100 independent chapters in the US and a shoestring budget, Navigators USA uses Google for Nonprofits tools to maintain and grow their organization.

As an organization that works with youth, Navigators USA needed to have a way to maintain privacy and security while still being able to share information quickly and efficiently with parents. They use Google Groups and Sites to control access when sharing information. Juggling so many chapters across the country can be a challenge. To keep an open dialogue and get timely feedback from chapter leaders, they use Google Forms to send out questionnaires and use Google Drive to share trip ideas with other chapters. Handling logistics like shipping uniforms across the country is managed through Google Sheets and enables them to track their inventory and make sure their chapters have the supplies they need. By not having to worry about their technology budget or capabilities, Navigators USA can focus on building a movement and get more children outside.


Watch Robin and other members discuss how they used Google tools to help manage and grow Navigators USA here.

Posted by Paige Birnbaum, Google for Nonprofits

Google for Education Presents: Google RISE Awards!

Google for Education just opened applications for the Google RISE Awards, a $10-25k USD grant given to nonprofit organizations globally that give girls and underrepresented students access to computer science through extracurricular outreach programs. In 2015, 37 organizations from 17 countries received RISE Awards for projects ranging from programming clubs in Johannesburg to workshops on CS and music production in San Francisco.
Learning about CS promotes valuable problem solving skills that students can apply to any field of study. Unfortunately, many students have a negative perception of what CS is and who it’s for. By partnering with nonprofits that are providing students with access and exposure to CS, we hope to change this perception and encourage more students to pursue CS. We’ve been inspired by the creativity and passion we’ve seen from our past RISE awardees, and this year we’re excited to expand the reach of the RISE awards by opening two rounds of funding applications for nonprofit organizations.


The RISE Awards are now accepting applications through February 19, and more information on the application process is listed on our website. Visit g.co/csedu to learn more about Google’s other CS resources, including our CS teacher professional development awards, Computer Science for High School (CS4HS), which is also currently accepting applications for the 2016 year.

Posted by Nicky Rigg,  Google RISE Awards Program Manager

Top 10 ways to use Google Apps for Nonprofits



At your nonprofit, you are responsible for recruiting, communicating with staff, developing a marketing strategy, managing IT operations, fundraising, planning events, and more! Google Apps, which is free for nonprofits to access, is a great way for your nonprofit to streamline your work and operate efficiently. With that in mind, we wanted to share with you the Top 10 ways to use Google Apps for Nonprofits! This guide will cover ten essential tips on ways you can use Google Apps, along with interactive demos and articles to teach you how to use them. Let's go over one of these tips together!

A passionate team supporting your organization is critical to your nonprofit. You can quickly recruit, interview, and onboard prospective employees or volunteers using Google Apps. After interested candidates or volunteers submit their information through Forms, you can conduct interviews with your top choices from anywhere in the world with Hangouts. Using Sites, you can then then streamline the onboarding process with a website containing checklists, important information, and onboarding tasks.

Enroll in Google for Nonprofits to qualify for free access to the Google Apps suite today and use this helpful guide to learn more tips to support your organization.

Google for Nonprofits Launches in South Korea


Annyounghaseyo from South Korea! Today, we’re excited to announce that we are expanding Google for Nonprofits in South Korea. In partnership with TechSoup, Google for Nonprofits is now available and servicing nonprofit organizations in South Korea.


Nonprofits can now apply to join the South Korea program, which provides access to a suite of free products and tools, including:
  • Google Ad Grants: Free AdWords advertising to promote your website on Google through keyword targeting.
  • Google Apps for Nonprofit: Free version of the Google Apps business productivity suite, including Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more.
  • YouTube Nonprofit Program: Premium branding capabilities on YouTube channels, and increased uploading capacity.
We’re excited to partner with organizations in South Korea and look forward to seeing the positive impact nonprofits will make with these tools.

Google for Nonprofits Launches in 5 more countries!

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Greetings from South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Bulgaria, and Croatia! In partnership with TechSoup, we are excited to announce that Google for Nonprofits is now available in these countries, servicing thousands of nonprofit organizations in the region.


Nonprofits can now apply to join the program (South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Bulgaria, and Croatia), which provides access to a suite of free products and tools, including:
  • Google Ad Grants: Free AdWords advertising to promote your website on Google through keyword targeting.
  • Google Apps for Nonprofit: Free version of the Google Apps business productivity suite, including Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more.
  • YouTube Nonprofit Program: Premium branding capabilities on YouTube channels, and increased uploading capacity.

Many nonprofits throughout these regions are already taking advantage of these programs to recruit new volunteers, fundraise and raise awareness about their work. In South Africa, Hedley Lewis, Finance & Fundraising Executive Director at Smile Foundation spoke about how Google Ad Grants delivered a 25% increase in traffic to their website:
“Google Ad Grants has been an asset to our organisation as we have experienced a substantial increase in referrals to our website. Our online donations has been boosted generously and [corporations] have now been exposed to our brand and want to partner in our fundraising campaigns... Google has become our silent fundraiser.”

At Google, we’re inspired and humbled by such stories showing the amazing ways nonprofits make positive changes to our world using our tools. If you work for a nonprofit in South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Bulgaria, and Croatia, apply today to see how Google can also help your organization grow.

Google for Nonprofits Launches in Turkey

Greetings from Turkey!  Today, we’re excited to announce that we are expanding Google for Nonprofits in Turkey. In partnership with TechSoup, Google for Nonprofits is now available and servicing nonprofit organizations in Turkey.


Nonprofits can now apply to join the Turkey program, which provides access to a suite of free products and tools, including:
  • Google Ad Grants: Free AdWords advertising to promote your website on Google through keyword targeting.
  • Google Apps for Nonprofit: Free version of the Google Apps business productivity suite, including Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more.
  • YouTube Nonprofit Program: Premium branding capabilities on YouTube channels, and increased uploading capacity.

We're looking forward to partnering with organizations in Turkey starting with today's launch!

#NoHacked: How to avoid being the target of hackers

If you publish anything online, one of your top priorities should be security. Getting hacked can negatively affect your online reputation and result in loss of critical and private data. Over the past year Google has noticed a 180% increase in the number of sites getting hacked. While we are working hard to combat this hacked trend, there are steps you can take to protect your content on the web.



Today, we’ll be continuing our #NoHacked campaign. We’ll be focusing on how to protect your site from hacking and give you better insight into how some of these hacking campaigns work. You can follow along with #NoHacked on Twitter and Google+. We’ll also be wrapping up with a Google Hangout focused on security where you can ask our security experts questions.

We’re kicking off the campaign with some basic tips on how to keep your site safe on the web.

1. Strengthen your account security

Creating a password that’s difficult to guess or crack is essential to protecting your site. For example, your password might contain a mixture of letters, numbers, symbols, or be a passphrase. Password length is important. The longer your password, the harder it will be to guess. There are many resources on the web that can test how strong your password is. Testing a similar password to yours (never enter your actual password on other sites) can give you an idea of how strong your password is.

Also, it’s important to avoid reusing passwords across services. Attackers often try known username and password combinations obtained from leaked password lists or hacked services to compromise as many accounts as possible.

You should also turn on 2-Factor Authentication for accounts that offer this service. This can greatly increase your account’s security and protect you from a variety of account attacks. We’ll be talking more about the benefits of 2-Factor Authentication in two weeks.

2. Keep your site’s software updated

One of the most common ways for a hacker to compromise your site is through insecure software on your site. Be sure to periodically check your site for any outdated software, especially updates that patch security holes. If you use a web server like Apache, nginx or commercial web server software, make sure you keep your web server software patched. If you use a Content Management System (CMS) or any plug-ins or add-ons on your site, make sure to keep these tools updated with new releases. Also, sign up to the security announcement lists for your web server software and your CMS if you use one. Consider completely removing any add-ons or software that you don't need on your website -- aside from creating possible risks, they also might slow down the performance of your site.

3. Research how your hosting provider handles security issues

Your hosting provider’s policy for security and cleaning up hacked sites is in an important factor to consider when choosing a hosting provider. If you use a hosting provider, contact them to see if they offer on-demand support to clean up site-specific problems. You can also check online reviews to see if they have a track record of helping users with compromised sites clean up their hacked content.
If you control your own server or use Virtual Private Server (VPS) services, make sure that you’re prepared to handle any security issues that might arise. Server administration is very complex, and one of the core tasks of a server administrator is making sure your web server and content management software is patched and up to date. If you don't have a compelling reason to do your own server administration, you might find it well worth your while to see if your hosting provider offers a managed services option.

4. Use Google tools to stay informed of potential hacked content on your site

It’s important to have tools that can help you proactively monitor your site.The sooner you can find out about a compromise, the sooner you can work on fixing your site.

We recommend you sign up for Search Console if you haven’t already. Search Console is Google’s way of communicating with you about issues on your site including if we have detected hacked content. You can also set up Google Alerts on your site to notify you if there are any suspicious results for your site. For example, if you run a site selling pet accessories called www.example.com, you can set up an alert for [site:example.com cheap software] to alert you if any hacked content about cheap software suddenly starts appearing on your site. You can set up multiple alerts for your site for different spammy terms. If you’re unsure what spammy terms to use, you can use Google to search for common spammy terms.

We hope these tips will keep your site safe on the web. Be sure to follow our social campaigns and share any tips or tricks you might have about staying safe on the web with the #NoHacked hashtag.

If you have any additional questions, you can post in the Webmaster Help Forums where a community of webmasters can help answer your questions. You can also join our Hangout on Air about Security on August 26.

Posted by: Eric Kuan, Webmaster Relations Specialist and Yuan Niu, Webspam Analyst

Google for Nonprofits Launches in 10 Asian Countries


Greetings from  Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam!  Today, we’re excited to announce that we are continuing to expand Google for Nonprofits in Asia. In partnership with TechSoup, Google for Nonprofits is now available in these countries, servicing thousands of nonprofit organizations in the region.

Nonprofits can now apply to join the program (Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam), which provides access to a suite of free products and tools, including:
  • Google Ad Grants: Free AdWords advertising to promote your website on Google through keyword targeting.
  • Google Apps for Nonprofit: Free version of the Google Apps business productivity suite, including Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and more.
  • YouTube Nonprofit Program: Premium branding capabilities on YouTube channels, and increased uploading capacity.
Many nonprofits throughout the region are already taking advantage of these programs to recruit new volunteers, fundraise and raise awareness about their work.

CanSupport was founded in 1996 with the vision of a caring and supportive society where cancer patients and their families live with dignity, hope and comfort. The organization provides home care for cancer patients in Delhi, counseling services and training in palliative care.

"Google Apps enables us to work on the go, while being rest assured about our data security”", said Sindhu George, Head of Resource Mobilisation at CanSupport.

Using the momentum that has been established by organizations such as CanSupport, we can’t wait to continue partnering with organizations in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam starting with today’s launch.

Pursuing transformative technology with the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities

When Laura Palmaro was 10 years old, she woke one morning to find that the central vision in her left eye had all but disappeared. She was not ill and had no genetic issues—it was completely out of the blue. When she was 14, the same rare condition struck her right eye, and she began her freshman year of high school legally blind. Suddenly she was forced to depend on other people to read everything aloud, from school assignments to menus. The toughest part, according to Laura, was losing her sense of independence—and not knowing when or how she would get it back.

Laura has since adopted technological solutions to her vision challenges, using a combination of screen-readers and magnification software to read, work and more. Now a program manager at Google, she is following her passion, helping Chrome and Chrome OS teams make their products more accessible. “Technology has truly transformed my life,” she says. “Assistive technology can tear down boundaries, and empower people to find their independence and fulfill their dreams.”

We agree with Laura about the power of technology to change lives. And in order to support more people like her—people who see obstacles as opportunities—we’re launching the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities. We’re putting $20 million in Google.org grants behind nonprofits using emerging technologies to increase independence for people living with disabilities, and today we’re issuing an open call to identify new areas of opportunity atg.co/ImpactChallengeDisability.

We’re kicking things off with support for two remarkable organizations. Each of these organizations is using technology to dramatically reduce the cost of and access to prosthetic limbs and auditory therapy, respectively—which could be transformative for hundreds of millions of people.

  • The Enable community connects people who want prosthetics with volunteers who use 3D printers to design, print, assemble, and fit them, for free. This dramatically cuts costs, increases speed of distribution, and meets unmet needs. We’ll support the Enable Community Foundation's efforts with a $600,000 grant to advance the design, distribution and delivery of open-source 3D-printed upper-limb prosthetics.
  • Diagnosing auditory challenges can be a struggle in low income communities—the equipment is expensive, bulky and unrealistic, particularly in the developing world. With our support, and a $500,000 grant, World Wide Hearing will develop, prototype and test an extremely low cost tool kit for hearing loss using smartphone technology that’s widely available—and affordable—in the developing world.

The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities will seek out nonprofits and help them find new solutions to some serious “what ifs” for the disabled community. We will choose the best of these ideas and help them to scale by investing in their vision, by rallying our people and by mobilizing our resources in support of their missions.



But of course, we realize there’s always room to improve our products as well. We have a team committed to monitoring the accessibility of Google tools; and we provide engineering teams with training to incorporate accessibility principles into products and services. That doesn’t just mean improving existing Google tools, it means developing new ones as well. For example, Liftware is a stabilizing utensil designed to help people with hand tremors eat more easily, and self-driving cars could one day transform mobility for everyone.

Historically, people living with disabilities have relied on technologies that were often bulky, expensive, and limited to assisting with one or two specific tasks. But that’s beginning to change. Thanks to groups like Enable and World Wide Hearing, and with tools like Liftware, we’re starting to see the potential for technologies that can profoundly and affordably impact millions. But we’ll all get there sooner if we make it a team effort—which is why we’re launching Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities today. Together, we can create a better world, faster.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org