Author Archives: Jacquelline Fuller

Supporting refugees and displaced people on World Refugee Day

More than 79 million were displaced at the end of last year as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations—29 million of which were refugees. 

Since 2015, we’ve given more than $30 million in Google.org grants to help provide emergency support and access to vital information and educational resources to more than one million refugees. Today, on World Refugee Day, we’re renewing our commitment to work together with nonprofits and find more long-term solutions. We’re supporting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with $550,000 Google.org and YouTube grants to provide refugees with necessary materials to endure the pandemic, digital skills training series and updates to Google Search in affected countries so people have access to reliable information at all times. 

The global pandemic knows no borders and is affecting everyone—including refugees. Already, YouTube has donated $250,000 to UNHCR to help provide life-saving support, including water, medical care and hygiene materials to refugees and the communities who host them in affected countries.

Equipping refugees with digital skills for future opportunities

Refugees and internally displaced people around the world are facing job losses due to the pandemic’s restrictions. According to UNHCR, 47 percent of the refugee population in 2019 was between the ages 18 and 59 , and the unemployment rate in this demographic is expected to rise.

We’re announcing a $300,000 Google.org grant to help UNHCR further prepare refugees for the changing nature of work. The organization will host online training to help refugees and host community members in the MENA region including Algeria and Morocco learn digital skills throughout a course of a year.

Surfacing reliable information to refugees on Google Search

Often refugees struggle to access timely, trusted and accurate information on the web. Using Google Trends and UNHCR’s internal insights, we’ve identified the most common refugee related questions. Then we helped UNHCR navigate our developer platform to provide refugees with authoritative answers clearly displayed on Google Search to questions like “What happens during the Refugee Status Determination interview?” and “How to qualify for cash assistance?”

Google-EN.gif

 The new feature presents structured answers to refugee-related questions on Search.

AR Demo.gif

An example of a search query in Arabic with authoritative answers from UNHCR.

These results are already available in Arabic, English, Turkish and Farsi, to help refugees who are staying in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. These countries represent the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.   

The number of people forcibly displaced remains at a record high, and the effects of the crisis will go on for years. Nonprofits working alongside these affected communities need our help, and we’ll continue to support them through immediate relief and long-term recovery. 

For World Refugee Day 2020, we celebrate the refugees fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic, alongside their hosts and the aid workers supporting them.

Source: Search


Supporting refugees and displaced people on World Refugee Day

More than 79 million were displaced at the end of last year as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations—29 million of which were refugees. 

Since 2015, we’ve given more than $30 million in Google.org grants to help provide emergency support and access to vital information and educational resources to more than one million refugees. Today, on World Refugee Day, we’re renewing our commitment to work together with nonprofits and find more long-term solutions. We’re supporting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with $550,000 Google.org and YouTube grants to provide refugees with necessary materials to endure the pandemic, digital skills training series and updates to Google Search in affected countries so people have access to reliable information at all times. 

The global pandemic knows no borders and is affecting everyone—including refugees. Already, YouTube has donated $250,000 to UNHCR to help provide life-saving support, including water, medical care and hygiene materials to refugees and the communities who host them in affected countries.

Equipping refugees with digital skills for future opportunities

Refugees and internally displaced people around the world are facing job losses due to the pandemic’s restrictions. According to UNHCR, 47 percent of the refugee population in 2019 was between the ages 18 and 59 , and the unemployment rate in this demographic is expected to rise.

We’re announcing a $300,000 Google.org grant to help UNHCR further prepare refugees for the changing nature of work. The organization will host online training to help refugees and host community members in the MENA region including Algeria and Morocco learn digital skills throughout a course of a year.

Surfacing reliable information to refugees on Google Search

Often refugees struggle to access timely, trusted and accurate information on the web. Using Google Trends and UNHCR’s internal insights, we’ve identified the most common refugee related questions. Then we helped UNHCR navigate our developer platform to provide refugees with authoritative answers clearly displayed on Google Search to questions like “What happens during the Refugee Status Determination interview?” and “How to qualify for cash assistance?”

Google-EN.gif

 The new feature presents structured answers to refugee-related questions on Search.

AR Demo.gif

An example of a search query in Arabic with authoritative answers from UNHCR.

These results are already available in Arabic, English, Turkish and Farsi, to help refugees who are staying in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. These countries represent the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.   

The number of people forcibly displaced remains at a record high, and the effects of the crisis will go on for years. Nonprofits working alongside these affected communities need our help, and we’ll continue to support them through immediate relief and long-term recovery. 

For World Refugee Day 2020, we celebrate the refugees fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic, alongside their hosts and the aid workers supporting them.

Source: Search


Supporting refugees and displaced people on World Refugee Day

More than 79 million were displaced at the end of last year as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations—29 million of which were refugees. 

Since 2015, we’ve given more than $30 million in Google.org grants to help provide emergency support and access to vital information and educational resources to more than one million refugees. Today, on World Refugee Day, we’re renewing our commitment to work together with nonprofits and find more long-term solutions. We’re supporting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with $550,000 Google.org and YouTube grants to provide refugees with necessary materials to endure the pandemic, digital skills training series and updates to Google Search in affected countries so people have access to reliable information at all times. 

The global pandemic knows no borders and is affecting everyone—including refugees. Already, YouTube has donated $250,000 to UNHCR to help provide life-saving support, including water, medical care and hygiene materials to refugees and the communities who host them in affected countries.

Equipping refugees with digital skills for future opportunities

Refugees and internally displaced people around the world are facing job losses due to the pandemic’s restrictions. According to UNHCR, 47 percent of the refugee population in 2019 was between the ages 18 and 59 , and the unemployment rate in this demographic is expected to rise.

We’re announcing a $300,000 Google.org grant to help UNHCR further prepare refugees for the changing nature of work. The organization will host online training to help refugees and host community members in the MENA region including Algeria and Morocco learn digital skills throughout a course of a year.

Surfacing reliable information to refugees on Google Search

Often refugees struggle to access timely, trusted and accurate information on the web. Using Google Trends and UNHCR’s internal insights, we’ve identified the most common refugee related questions. Then we helped UNHCR navigate our developer platform to provide refugees with authoritative answers clearly displayed on Google Search to questions like “What happens during the Refugee Status Determination interview?” and “How to qualify for cash assistance?”

Google-EN.gif

 The new feature presents structured answers to refugee-related questions on Search.

AR Demo.gif

An example of a search query in Arabic with authoritative answers from UNHCR.

These results are already available in Arabic, English, Turkish and Farsi, to help refugees who are staying in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. These countries represent the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.   

The number of people forcibly displaced remains at a record high, and the effects of the crisis will go on for years. Nonprofits working alongside these affected communities need our help, and we’ll continue to support them through immediate relief and long-term recovery. 

For World Refugee Day 2020, we celebrate the refugees fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic, alongside their hosts and the aid workers supporting them.

Google.org’s $100 million contribution to COVID-19 relief

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Google.org committed $50 million in grants focused on the areas where our resources and people can have the most impact: health and science, economic relief and recovery, and distance learning. Today we’re committing another $50 million, bringing our total contribution up to $100 million. Additionally, Google.org Fellows will give a total of 50,000 hours to COVID-19-specific projects. Read on about where our initial commitment has gone so far and how we’re thinking about allocating the next $50 million.

Google.org COVID-19 relief

Health and Science 

With over 3 million COVID-19 cases and 250,000 deaths worldwide, one of our top priorities has been supporting frontline workers who are battling the virus, as well as data science and disease tracking. Moving forward, we’ll continue to provide funding, Google.org Fellows, and volunteers to projects that use data analytics and AI to improve understanding of COVID-19 and its impact. 

Health

We've committed up to $10.5 million through public-matching campaigns  (which combines Google.org funding and Googler donation) to organizations including the World Health Organization to support preparedness, containment, response and recovery for those affected and for frontline workers around the world

AI and data to understand the impact of the virus

Data on the spread of COVID-19 is critical to understanding how it impacts public health and the economy. With Google.org Fellowships and grants to Boston Children's Hospital's HealthMap consortium and Médecins Sans Frontières in France, we're supporting the application of AI to develop new tools and models that monitor the spread of COVID-19 and provide real-time information to policy makers and healthcare systems. 

Economic Relief and Recovery 

Millions have been laid off worldwide as businesses close their doors, and, according to the OECD, these closures are likely to hit small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) hardest. We've been providing grants to nonprofits supporting SMBs, local communities and hard-hit individuals and will continue to prioritize our efforts in these three ways. 

SMBs in underrepresented communities and led by women

We've given more than $15 million in cash grants to nonprofits benefiting underrepresented business-owners. Today we’re giving a $5 million grant to Common Future to provide capital and technical assistance to 2,000 women and minority small business entrepreneurs in the U.S. We’re also making a $5 million grant to Youth Business International to launch a Rapid Response and Recovery Program that will provide critical support services including crisis helplines to more than 200,000 underserved SMBs in 32 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Local community efforts 

We’re committing more than $10 million in immediate crisis relief grants to nonprofits in communities where we have offices around the globe. Local organizations know how to best address food security, care for vulnerable homeless populations, support victims of domestic violence or increase access to mental health care within their communities. We’ve made over $1 million in grants so far to organizations including the Silicon Valley Strong Fund, Kirkland Small Businesses Relief Fund, and Cambridge Mayoral Disaster Relief Fund in the U.S.. Across EMEA, we’re providing more than $4 million in grants to local organizations such as Feeding Britain and FareShare in the UK, A Lust for Life in Ireland, CEAR and Red Acoge in Spain, and the Egyptian Food Bank in Egypt.

Direct cash assistance

Nearly 70 percent of U.S. self-employed workers have seen a decline in their earnings as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Research shows that giving cash directly is one of the most effective ways to aid people in times of crisis. A month ago we kicked off an effort to support GiveDirectly’s cash assistance campaign in the Bay Area. Since then, we’ve expanded efforts to support GiveDirectly in 12 other locations across the U.S. which has resulted in  donations of more than $8 million (this includes Google.org seed funding as well as Googler and public donations). We've also given $1 million to the Family Independence Initiative and provided grants to support nonprofits providing cash assistance to support vulnerable families in India through GiveIndia, part of $10 million we’ll be giving to direct cash efforts. 

Distance learning 

At the peak of school closures due to COVID-19, more than 1.5 billion students around the world could no longer physically attend school. Our $10 million distance learning fund helped schools, teachers and parents continue teaching through this disruption. As part of that fund, we made an initial grant of $1 million to Khan Academy, who will reach over 18 million affected learners every month.

We also made a $2.7 million grant to INCO so that nonprofits in Europe and Asia can digitize  learning materials and adapt to the new distance learning environment. On Monday, we announced the final component of the $10 million distance learning fund: a $2 million grant to DonorsChoose for their Keep Kids Learning effort. It helps teachers from high-poverty U.S. public schools purchase materials for remote teaching and student care packages containing food, books and school supplies. 

Making it easier for Googlers to give back

There are thousands of Googlers eager to give money, or their own skills to organizations they’re passionate about. At the start of COVID-19, we launched an internal site to help Googlers find COVID-specific giving and volunteering opportunities in their communities. We’re matching skilled volunteers to select nonprofits and civic organizations including 31 Google.org Fellows who are providing three to six months of full time pro bono support to four COVID-19 specific Fellowship projects. We also increased Google’s annual gift match from $7,500 to $10,000.

This is one of many commitments at Google to help during this crisis, keep people safe and ensure they have access to the information they need. We’ll be sharing more as we build on these commitments globally, and continue to deploy resources to help the most affected and underserved communities recover and thrive.

Let’s build the way to a better Bay

Back in 2015, the Hidden Genius Project received a $500,000 Google.org grant to provide training and mentorship to young black men in the Bay Area. The grant went toward expanding their computer science bootcamp, and to break down the barriers that prevent many young black men from getting into the tech industry. Hidden Genius Project was a winner of our second Bay Area Impact Challenge, and they're now serving 1,500 students a year, up from 300 when they applied to the Challenge. Today, we’re kicking off our third and largest Challenge so we can support other Bay Area nonprofits as they work to improve our local communities.


In total, we’ll donate $10 million in grants to 35 nonprofits dedicated to making the Bay Area a place where everyone can thrive. From now until November 8, organizations across the Bay Area are invited to submit their proposals. The  boldest, brightest and most impactful ideas will be selected as finalists. Once the finalists are announced, we’ll come together as a community for a public vote on the People’s Choice Award. The winner will receive a $1 million grant from Google.org. And our panel of judges will select four other top submissions to each receive $1 million in funding.
bay area impact challenge judges-01.jpg

For over 20 years, we’ve partnered closely with nonprofits, supporting those who are on the frontlines of addressing the Bay Area’s most pressing needs. Since 2014, we’ve given $250 million in grants to nonprofits and we recently made a $1 billion commitment to help address the shortage of affordable housing options in the Bay Area.  


There are so many nonprofits making an impact across the Bay Area—tell us about your work, and submit your proposal by November 8.  

Making it work: Google and Walmart fund innovators in workforce development

The student with big dreams, some education, and no experience. The accomplished service professional looking to break into a new field. The 30-year career veteran who wants to work for another 20 years. Research has shown that up to one-third of Americans may need to develop new skills to work in different types of jobs by 2030. A fast-changing economy means we need new ways of building new skills and translating existing skills to different types of meaningful work. This goes not only for how we get new jobs, but how we get promoted, change fields, and work into our later years.


To get this transition right, businesses, nonprofits, governments, and communities will have to work together to build a system that benefits both workers and employers. That’s why Walmart and Google—among the world’s leading retail and technology companies, respectively—are coming together to fuel the research and tools needed to build such a system.


Each of our companies has launched major initiatives to help Americans advance in their careers. Walmart has made a significant investment in its associates and through philanthropy to help transform learning and advancement in the retail sector. And through Grow with Google, Google has made a major commitment to helping people access skills and opportunity in the new economy. Through these initiatives, we are joining forces with leading social innovators to fuel the pursuit of a more equitable and efficient labor market.

Today, as part of our commitment toward jobs and opportunity, Walmart and Google are making a $5 million grant investment to three organizations testing solutions in reskilling the American workforce and matching skills to roles.


The Drucker Institute will be partnering with the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to integrate the city’s educational and workforce resources so that every resident has access to skill-building throughout their careers—this “City of Lifelong Learning” will serve as a national model. Opportunity @ Work will help underserved groups connect to jobs and advancement opportunities by building a hiring channel that focuses on skills and competency instead of pedigree. And the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy will be expanding its Inclusive Innovation Challenge, a global future of work prize that promotes entrepreneurs harnessing technology to create more broadly shared economic opportunity and prosperity.


No one organization can do this alone, and that’s why collaboration between companies and expert groups is so important. As companies like ours help enable social innovators to try new things and see what works, we hope to see more philanthropic collaboration, along with effort from policy makers to scale proven programs. And we encourage other companies to join in similar efforts, through investing in training and education for their own workforce or in the broader workforce ecosystem to help build strong businesses and a healthy, thriving society.

This is a time of enormous change for our economy and we need to better prepare American workers—from students to seniors—to find work and advance their careers. Only a system that is both ambitious and resilient can meet the demands of millions of workers eager to expand their skills and advance. We’re excited to see what these grantees, and other innovators across industries, do to help. 

Helping 4-H equip students with skills they’ll need for the future

The world is changing rapidly, creating new opportunities and careers we can’t yet predict. But even with a lot of unknowns, skills like collaboration, problem solving and technical know-how can be the tools students need to adapt and thrive, no matter what the future holds.

Today, at the Illinois State Fair, where hundreds of 4-H youth are exhibiting projects, we announced our support of 4-H with a $1.5 million Google.org grant to provide students around the country the opportunity to grow future skills through computer science programming like CS First and virtual field trips via Expeditions. 4-H is the United States’ largest youth development organization, with more than 6 million students participating. By supporting this work, we’re excited to see how more kids across the country use technology to achieve their goals and improve their communities.

  • Google-ISF-2017-0738.jpg
    4-H CEO Jennifer Sirangelo and Illinois state fair goers exploring CS First, our video-based coding activities for 4th-8th graders. 4-H club educators will receive training to help apply these coding skills to everyday problems and challenges.
  • Google-ISF-2017-0078.jpg
    Illinois 4-Her on a virtual reality Expedition to Minnesota to see how students coded an ear tag for farmers to keep track of their wandering cattle
  • Illinois Governor at ISF
    Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner at the Illinois State Fair

While there are thousands of 4-H’ers at any state fair this summer, you can find hundreds of 4-H alums within Google—and I had the opportunity to chat with one. Julie Eddleman grew up in Indianapolis, spent 10 years in 4-H, and is now a Senior Director at Google working with some of our largest corporate partners. I talked with Julie about her experience in 4-H and how the skills she learned there continue to help her at Google.  

Jacquelline Fuller: How were you personally involved in 4-H and what did that look like?

1502054885642-d25bfec5-af83-415b-9cdb-f4db29b5e65f_.jpg
Julie at the Illinois State Fair Demonstration competition in 1981 showing judges how to build a terrarium

Julie Eddleman: I started going to 4-H meetings as early as two years old, tagging along with my older sisters. Through 10 years of hands-on projects, we learned anything you can imagine, from rocketry to water conservation. I was a very curious child and couldn’t choose just one subject! When I think back to why I stayed in 4-H so long, I think it was because of the variety of the education styles—there was reading, workshops, hands-on projects, team events and, of course, the competitions filled with ribbons and trophies.

JF: Can you tell us what skills you developed during your time in 4-H and how they’re still helping you in this chapter of your life?

JE: Where do I even start? I think I’d have to point to the skills I didn’t even realize I was learning like leadership, public speaking and problem-solving. When I’m talking to students visiting Google’s campus, my team at work, or even just my kids at home, I always talk about about developing these skills, and remember 4-H as being the first place I practiced them. 4-H even taught me how to write a check, pay our 4-H Club’s bills and balance a checkbook at the age of 11!

JF: Let’s talk more about the technical skills you learned; you mentioned rocketry and computer classes. Why do you think these are important skills for students?

JE: Coding and basic technology skills are a must for the next generation. I have five children, ages 11-31, and they all use technology every day—from video games to social media to coding puzzles. The combination of understanding tech, and working with diverse people has helped me find different ways to approach or solve a problem. These skills are critically important in any career, from agriculture to computer programming to fashion design.

Looking ahead

It’s hard to imagine that there are 6 million students around the U.S. with stories similar to Julie. And regardless of where they come from, 97 percent (across urban, suburban, rural, small city communities) think computer science can be used in many kinds of jobs—from agricultural science to fashion to engineers. We’re excited to support 4-H to help make sure that students across the country have more opportunities to build their technical skills, confidence and leadership.

Source: Education


Helping 4-H equip students with skills they’ll need for the future

The world is changing rapidly, creating new opportunities and careers we can’t yet predict. But even with a lot of unknowns, skills like collaboration, problem solving and technical know-how can be the tools students need to adapt and thrive, no matter what the future holds.

Today, at the Illinois State Fair, where hundreds of 4-H youth are exhibiting projects, we announced our support of 4-H with a $1.5 million Google.org grant to provide students around the country the opportunity to grow future skills through computer science programming like CS First and virtual field trips via Expeditions. 4-H is the United States’ largest youth development organization, with more than 6 million students participating. By supporting this work, we’re excited to see how more kids across the country use technology to achieve their goals and improve their communities.

Google-ISF-2017-0738.jpg
4-H CEO Jennifer Sirangelo and Illinois state fair goers exploring CS First, our video-based coding activities for 4th-8th graders. 4-H club educators will receive training to help apply these coding skills to everyday problems and challenges.
Google-ISF-2017-0078.jpg
Illinois 4-Her on a virtual reality Expedition to Minnesota to see how students coded an ear tag for farmers to keep track of their wandering cattle
Illinois Governor at ISF
Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner at the Illinois State Fair

While there are thousands of 4-H’ers at any state fair this summer, you can find hundreds of 4-H alums within Google—and I had the opportunity to chat with one. Julie Eddleman grew up in Indianapolis, spent 10 years in 4-H, and is now a Senior Director at Google working with some of our largest corporate partners. I talked with Julie about her experience in 4-H and how the skills she learned there continue to help her at Google.  

Jacquelline Fuller: How were you personally involved in 4-H and what did that look like?

1502054885642-d25bfec5-af83-415b-9cdb-f4db29b5e65f_.jpg
Julie at the Illinois State Fair Demonstration competition in 1981 showing judges how to build a terrarium

Julie Eddleman: I started going to 4-H meetings as early as two years old, tagging along with my older sisters. Through 10 years of hands-on projects, we learned anything you can imagine, from rocketry to water conservation. I was a very curious child and couldn’t choose just one subject! When I think back to why I stayed in 4-H so long, I think it was because of the variety of the education styles—there was reading, workshops, hands-on projects, team events and, of course, the competitions filled with ribbons and trophies.

JF: Can you tell us what skills you developed during your time in 4-H and how they’re still helping you in this chapter of your life?

JE: Where do I even start? I think I’d have to point to the skills I didn’t even realize I was learning like leadership, public speaking and problem-solving. When I’m talking to students visiting Google’s campus, my team at work, or even just my kids at home, I always talk about about developing these skills, and remember 4-H as being the first place I practiced them. 4-H even taught me how to write a check, pay our 4-H Club’s bills and balance a checkbook at the age of 11!

JF: Let’s talk more about the technical skills you learned; you mentioned rocketry and computer classes. Why do you think these are important skills for students?

JE: Coding and basic technology skills are a must for the next generation. I have five children, ages 11-31, and they all use technology every day—from video games to social media to coding puzzles. The combination of understanding tech, and working with diverse people has helped me find different ways to approach or solve a problem. These skills are critically important in any career, from agriculture to computer programming to fashion design.

Looking ahead

It’s hard to imagine that there are 6 million students around the U.S. with stories similar to Julie. And regardless of where they come from, 97 percent (across urban, suburban, rural, small city communities) think computer science can be used in many kinds of jobs—from agricultural science to fashion to engineers. We’re excited to support 4-H to help make sure that students across the country have more opportunities to build their technical skills, confidence and leadership.

Source: Education


Making the future work for everyone

Over the last five years, Google.org has supported nonprofits around the globe that provide underserved people with the skills and connections they need to secure new opportunities and jobs. We’ve invested in organizations building economic opportunity within their communities: from Oakland Digital, which equips low-income students with skills in graphic design and web development, to Czechitas in the Czech Republic, which offers digital skills and data science trainings for women and connects them to employers. These organizations have achieved great results, but it will take much more to ensure that work can be a pathway to prosperity for everyone. We also recognize that the way we work is changing, and we want to make sure that as many people as possible can make the most of the new jobs, industries and opportunities that are emerging—some of which we couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago.

That’s why today, we’re announcing a $50 million initiative to help people prepare for the changing nature of work. This two-year commitment will fund nonprofits focused on this issue, with our first grantees in the U.S. and Europe; we have plans to expand to other regions soon. These organizations will also be able to draw on Googlers’ volunteer time for technical advice. Combined with our $50 million effort to help close the global education gap, Google.org has now committed $100 million to supporting education and economic opportunity—our largest giving initiative to date.
Google.org 50M work initiative

There are three main ways where we think our grants can help:

  • Better connect job seekers with jobs. Our grants will support organizations who are driving innovative approaches to connecting job seekers and employers. This includes Code for America, which has created new technologies that help job seekers more easily use government services for help in finding jobs, and Bayes Impact in France, which uses machine learning to deliver custom recommendations and tips to job seekers so they can improve their job search strategy and land the job they want. (We’re also seeing where our own products can help: a new feature in Google Search uses machine learning to make sense of all the job postings on the web for easy-to-understand search results; Hire, meanwhile, makes it easier for employers to find and attract new talent.)

  • Help ensure training is as effective and as wide-reaching as possible. Millions are spent each year on work skills and technical training programs, but there isn’t much visibility into how these programs compare, or if the skills being taught truly match what will be needed in the future. So some of our funding will go into research to better understand which trainings will be most effective in getting the most people the jobs of the future. Our grantee Social Finance is looking at which youth training programs most effectively use contributions from trainees, governments and future employers to give people the best chance of success.  

  • Improving job quality for low-wage workers. Service jobs are the fastest growing category of jobs in the U.S., Europe and many other developed economies, and likely will continue to be. But as more people go into these jobs, they’re finding it hard to get the kind of support that has historically been typical for workers in big corporations. Our grantee, the National Domestic Workers Alliance has a service called Alia that pools money among domestic workers through a small monthly fee. It allows a worker who gets injured to collect money to survive financially while taking some days off to heal. Alia will use the grant money to expand the program while Googler volunteers will help find ways to help market and translate the service.

We hope that this funding and commitment from Google.org will contribute to a larger effort across companies, government, and civil society to help create a more inclusive economy for everyone.