Tag Archives: Nonprofits

Unlocking human rights information with machine learning

Human rights defenders need information from many sources to do their work effectively. But as issues evolve and new precedents are set, finding the right information to defend a particular case can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

For example, a human rights advocate campaigning for LGBTQ rights may want to know which countries have made the most progress and what resolutions they’ve passed. To do so, they have to manually sift through thousands of pages of dense documentation covering global laws and victims’ testimonies to find what they’re looking for.

The curation and cataloging of documents makes this process much easier, but still relies on the manual work of skilled experts. To help, the non-profit organization HURIDOCS looked to machine learning. With support from Google.org Fellows and grant funding, they’ve built new tools that can automatically tag human rights documents so they are searchable — making the curation process 13 times faster.

How machine learning can make information more accessible

Typically, non-governmental organizations collect and curate large bodies of human rights information, with the goal of making these collections useful for advocates. Manually processing these documents can take several days, particularly when they’re published in unfamiliar languages or in PDF format which is difficult to search through. As a result, many NGOs face a large backlog of documents that remain to be processed, and by the time they’re added to collections new documentation often supersedes them.

Based in Geneva, HURIDOCS has been developing tools to manage and analyze collections of human rights evidence, law and research for nearly four decades. In 2016, they had an idea: What if machine learning could skim through documents, make terms extractable, and classify the content to catalog documents more quickly?

HURIDOCS took their idea to the Google AI Impact Challenge and was selected for a $1 million grant from Google.org and six months of technical support from a team of seven full-time pro bono Google.org Fellows. As one of the Fellows, I helped train AI models and make sure that the tool was useful to human rights experts, not just machine learning experts.

Google.org grantee HURIDOCS is using machine learning to make it easier for human rights defenders to find the information they need, with help from a team of Google.org Fellows.
10:25

The curation process of human rights documents gets a boost

Since then, HURIDOCS has launched ML-powered features to improve platforms they’ve built with other NGO partners, and, earlier this year, they began integrating the technology into more of its tools, including their flagship application Uwazi. As a result, updating documents now takes one week instead of two to three months, and curators have been able to catch up on multi-year document backlogs.

In June, HURIDOCS won a CogX Award for its machine learning work, and now the organization is continuing to explore what else its machine learning models can do — from creating automatic tables of contents for documents to identifying references within text. With the power of artificial intelligence, HURIDOCS hopes to solve the trickiest challenges facing human rights defenders.

How photos can curb illegal deforestation in the Amazon

As of 2020, Brazil continues to lead the world in primary forest loss with an increase of 25% year over year. In the Amazon, the clear-cut deforestation rate is at its highest in over 10 years. Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) is a Brazilian nonprofit founded in 1994 to promote solutions to this crisis and other social and environmental issues. With a focus on the defense of the environment, cultural heritage, and human rights, ISA promotes solutions for indigenous peoples and other traditional communities in Brazil.

Watch this short documentary about their impact, how they use drone footage and Google Earth to prevent deforestation, and learn more about the role of indigenous communities in protecting local forests and biodiversity.

Helping nonprofits fundraise this season of giving

In 2020, people in the U.S. donated an estimated $2.5 billion on Giving Tuesday alone. To help connect nonprofits with people who are searching for ways to give their time and resources, Google.org will donate $25 million in ads to nonprofits around the world.

These grants are incremental to the baseline $10,000 per month Ad Grant offering and will go to nonprofits focused on humanitarian response, food insecurity and economic recovery. For example, organizations like Direct Relief may use the incremental Ad Grants to attract more donors who are searching on Google for ways to help vulnerable populations, while SCORE may use the grants to connect people looking for ways to volunteer on Google with an opportunity to sign up to be a small business mentor.

Google.org awards over $1 billion in Ad Grants annually to qualifying nonprofits. Last Giving Season, many organizations that received incremental Ad Grants, like Houston Food Bank, more than doubled the donations they raised as compared to similar organizations receiving the baseline Ad Grant. After receiving incremental Ad Grants in 2020, Houston Food Bank saw a fourfold increase in total donations from their campaigns — raising $130,000 in donations in a single month.

“We've had to work with quickness and efficiency to reach out to those who need us most,” said Jessica Dominguez, Annual Giving Manager at Houston Food Bank.“The easiest way for people to donate and find their closest food location is to turn to the web. The Ad Grant gave us the opportunity to reach these people and provide them with the right information.”

In addition to these incremental grants, all eligible organizations may sign up to receive $10,000 per month in Ad Grants and apply for pro bono account support through Google’s Nonprofit Marketing Immersion.

Happy giving!

How we’re building for transgender communities

Understanding gender can be a lifelong journey for many folks. Coming out as trans or nonbinary can include a lot of changes, including the use of different pronouns or a different name, or physical changes. None of this is easy. Something as simple as seeing an old photo of yourself can be painful if it doesn’t match who you are now on your journey.

We heard directly from members of the transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive (GE) communites on this issue. To learn how we could help make reminiscing with Google Photos more inclusive, we worked with trans and gender expansive users and brought in our partners at GLAAD.

Working with GLAAD, we conducted qualitative research interviews with trans individuals and community leaders. These focus groups, along with our own transgender community at Google, played an important role in shaping how Memories in Google Photos works. We learned that control over Memories would be necessary and that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Image showing three quotes from feedback participants. Quote one says: “A lot of our lives are survival and making people who make us uncomfortable, comfortable with us.”; Quote two says: “Even the ugly things I have gratitude for. We’re always what we need to be, regardless of whether you feel ready or not. When I look at the past, it reminds me of that, the resiliency and the ability to overcome what you thought was impossible.” Quote three says: “This can give someone a sense of control, a sense of autonomy. And they’re not just being bombarded with things they don’t want to see.”

Some of the feedback we received from focus group participants.

To give you control, we made it possible to hide photos of certain people or time periods from our Memories feature. And soon you’ll be able to remove a single photo from a Memory, rename a Memory, or remove it entirely. We’re making all these controls easy to find, so you can make changes in just a few taps.

In addition to the work we are doing to make Google Photos more inclusive, we wanted to make sure we are also supporting non-profits that directly serve the transgender community. Google.org is giving cash grants to such organizations that are providing critical services and resources directly to transgender and GE communities across the globe. Some of the organizations included are the Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline and Transgender & Intersex Africa.

Google.org is proud to support the transgender and GE communities in our broader work on gender equity too. As part of the Google.org Impact Challenge Women and Girls, we recently announced financial support for both Reprograma and TransTech Social, organizations that are focused on helping members of the community reach their full economic potential and thrive.

In addition, Google.org continues to donate Search Ads and enable Googler volunteer efforts to benefit organizations like Transgender Law Center, Reprograma, and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. This enables these LGBTQ+ nonprofits to advocate for the Trans Agenda for Liberation, direct community members to pro bono legal resources, provide direct aid to transgender people in need and raise critical funds to advance transgender equality.

We hope the changes to Google Photos make it better for everyone, and that the work we’re doing with these organizations can truly impact the transgender community. There’s still more to do, but we’re committed to doing this work together.

Cómo estamos elevando la comunidades trans en nuestro productos

Comprender el género de uno mismo puede ser un proceso de toda la vida. Identificarse como trans o de género no binario puede implicar muchos cambios, incluido el uso de diferentes pronombres o un nombre distinto, o bien cambios físicos.Nada de esto es sencillo. Algo tan simple como ver una fotografía vieja de uno mismo puede ser doloroso si no coincide con quién uno es ahora.

Recibimos testimonios directos de miembros de las comunidades transgénero, no binario y género expansivo (GE). Para obtener información sobre cómo podríamos hacer que los recuerdos con Google Fotos sean más inclusivos, trabajamos con usuarios trans y de género expansivo, y nuestros socios en GLAAD.

Al trabajar con GLAAD, realizamos entrevistas de investigación cualitativa con personas trans y líderes de la comunidad. Estos grupos de enfoque, junto con nuestra comunidad transgénero en Google, desempeñaron una función importante al moldear el funcionamiento de las Memorias en Google Fotos. Aprendimos que el control de las Memorias sería necesario y que no hay una única solución.

Comentarios del grupo de enfoque.

Comentarios del grupo de enfoque.

Este trabajo nos inspiró a darte el control para ocultar fotografías de ciertas personas o períodos de nuestra función Memorias. Y pronto podrás eliminar fotografía individualmente de una Memoria, cambiar el nombre de una Memoria o eliminarla en su totalidad. Estamos dejando todos estos controles en un lugar fácil de encontrar, para que puedas hacer cambios con solo un par de toques.

Además del trabajo que estamos haciendo para que Google Fotos sea más inclusivo, queríamos asegurarnos de también estar respaldando a organizaciones sin fines de lucro que prestan servicios directos a la comunidad trans. Google.org ha entregado subvenciones en efectivo a dichas organizaciones globales que ofrecen servicios y recursos críticos directamente a las comunidades trans y GE. Algunas de las organizaciones incluidas son Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline, Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Transgender and Intersex Africa y Gendered Intelligence.

Como parte del Google.org Impact Challenge para mujeres y niñas, recientemente anunciamos respaldo financiero tanto para Reprograma como para TransTech Social, organizaciones que se enfocan en ayudar a los miembros de la comunidad transgénero a alcanzar su potencial económico pleno y progresar.

Además, Google.org continúa donando Anuncios de búsqueda y habilitando esfuerzos de voluntarios de Google para beneficiar a organizaciones como Transgender Law Center, Reprograma y Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. Esto permite que estas organizaciones sin fines de lucro de la comunidad LGBTQ+ defiendan la Agenda Trans para la Liberación, remitan a los miembros de la comunidad a recursos legales gratuitos, brinden ayuda directa a personas transgénero que lo necesiten y recauden fondos críticos para lograr avances en la igualdad transgénero.

Esperamos que los cambios en Google Fotos sean para mejorar el producto para todos y que el trabajo que estamos haciendo con estas organizaciones pueda tener un verdadero impacto en la comunidad transgénero. Aún hay más por hacer, pero estamos comprometidos a hacer este trabajo juntos.

Honoring Indigenous communities around the world

Shekoli (hello)! Today, we kick off Native American Heritage Month in the U.S. I am a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, or Onyota’a:ka, and I am thankful that I was able to grow up on my tribe’s reservation, which is on the ancestral lands of the Menominee Nation. I celebrate the resiliency of the Menominee, Oneida, and the 10 other tribal nations of Wisconsin, honor their sovereignty, and acknowledge their connection to the lands and waters of this state.

My tribe is just one of the nearly 600 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. Every year, I look forward to this month as an opportunity to learn more about the diverse tribes, nations, communities and pueblos that make up Indian Country, a term used to describe Native economies and spaces in the United States. Like many Native people alive today, I am a descendant of survivors of residential schools which were created in the 19th century, and carried on into the 20th, as part of the United States’ assimilation policy. Learning about and celebrating Indigenous culture means so much to me because I know how much was required to carry it on.

A mother and daughter sit on the grass with a crowd behind them.

Olivia with her mother at the annual Oneida Pow Wow when she was a child.

I’m proud to serve as a lead for the Google Aboriginal and Indigenous Network (GAIN), an employee resource group which supports our growing community at Google and helps make a positive impact in Native communities outside Google. What started out as a majority U.S-focused group back in 2012 (and previously named the Google American Indian Network) has now grown to include Googlers from around the world, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. This year, we partnered with teams across Google to support Native-serving organizations, celebrate Indigenous artists, and amplify the stories of people building Indigenous futures.

Supporting Native jobseekers and small businesses

Across the U.S. the compounding effects of COVID-19 continue to disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, including the Indigenous community. According to a report from the Center for American Progress, “COVID-19 will cost Indian Country an estimated $50 billion in economic activity and place the livelihoods of 1.1 million tribal business workers—both Native and non-Native—at risk.” Small businesses drive local economies and help foster a sense of belonging in the communities they serve and represent.

Last year, as part of our economic recovery efforts, Google.org provided $1.25 million in grants to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to help support Native-owned small businesses like Earth and Sky Floral Designs and Gallery. Shayai Lucero, a tribal member of the Acoma Pueblo and Laguna Pueblo, started Earth and Sky Floral Designs and Gallery used funding from NCAI’s program to keep her floral business running and to hire fellow local tribal members during the pandemic.

Portrait photo of Shayai Lucero, who wears a black and red shirt and turquoise earrings.

“I hired a graphics designer who is from Laguna Pueblo to do some graphics and revisions to my company's logo. I was able to pay him at a non-discounted price thanks to the grant. The logo revision has allowed me to market in ways I haven’t before” shares Shayai Lucero, owner of Earth and Sky Floral Designs and Gallery.

In addition to our support of Native small businesses, we are also giving $1 million to Partnership With Native Americans to help train 10,000 students at more than 50 Native-serving organizations by 2025 through the Grow with Google Indigenous Career Readiness Program. Over the next four years, we will provide digital skills curriculum and trainers to career services at Tribal Colleges and Universities and other Native-serving institutions. And because we know students are often at different starting points in their educational journeys, the program will also reach high school upperclassmen who are preparing for college and careers, as well as vocational and non-traditional students.

This work builds on our HBCU Career Readiness and HSI Career Readiness and is a part of a larger strategy to expand our Career Readiness program to Black, Latino and Indigenous communities.

Celebrating artists, past and present

Today’s interactive Doodle, illustrated by Zuni Pueblo guest artist Mallery Quetawki, honors the late We:wa, a revered cultural leader and mediator within the Zuni tribe who devoted their life to the preservation of Zuni traditions and history. The late We:wa was also a fiber artist, weaver and potter, and in this interactive Doodle you can try the art of weaving yourself, while learning about Zuni people and listening to music created by the Zuni Olla Maidens. To discover more about the late We:wa, and the process of bringing this Doodle to life, check out the Behind the Doodle film. There will also be a fun celebratory surprise when you look up the late We:wa or Native American Heritage Month on Search.

A still image of the 2021 Native American Heritage Month Google Doodle illustrating a portrait of the late We:wa weaving a fabric pattern in front of a scenic blue and brown background.

This year’s Native American Heritage Month is an interactive Doodle by guest artist Mallery Quetawki honors the late We:wa, a revered cultural leader and mediator within the Zuni tribe.

  • An image of a painting depicting one man standing to the left of the picture. There is grass on the ground with a bright blue sky and mountain range in the background.

    "A-HO" by Mirac Creepingbear from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, U.S. Department of the Interior collection on Google Arts & Culture.

  • A black and white photograph of two soldiers crouching in a forest. The figure on the left is looking down, writing in a notebook. The figure on the left is wearing headphones and speaking into an instrument.

    Corporal Henry Bahe Jr. and Private First Class George H. Kirk, Bougainville, December 1943 from Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on Google Arts & Culture.

  • A picturesque landscape with forest in the foreground, and a view of ancient cliff dwellings carved into the side of a mountain in the middle of the photo. A cloudy sky is above.

    Mesa Verde by Kacey Hadick from the CyArk collection on Google Arts & Culture.

  • Two women cook together with three women observing behind them. The woman in the foreground uses a ladle to stir soup. The other woman is preparing meat above a grill. Pottery is hanging from the wall behind them.

    Antojo en cuerpo y alma by Alejandra Cerdeño from the Centro de las Artes Indígenas y Mujeres de Humo collection on Google Arts & Culture.

In collaboration with long-standing Google Arts & Culture partners including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and Honoring Nations, among others, we’re spotlighting extraordinary stories of Indigenous art and culture. Dive into existing content from partners across the Americas – from the historic work of the Native American Code Talkers in the U.S. to the masters of the Totonac Spiritual Cuisine in Mexico – and celebrate the past and present of Indigenous cultures with a tour of the dizzying dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park and a look at contemporary Inuit ceramics.

If you’re interested in learning more about the rich culture and history of Native American communities, simply say “Hey Google, give me a fact about Native American Heritage” on any Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker, display or phone. When you do, you can explore some of the many contributions of Native Americans and hear about significant events in our shared history. There’s something new to discover every day throughout the month of November, including facts about the first Native American to earn an Academy Award nomination and how the Iroquois Confederacy influenced the U.S. constitution.

Keeping a global perspective

This year, U.S. Search Trend traffic for the term “Indigenous'' surpassed searches for “Native American” and “American Indian” for the first time, demonstrating a growing interest in Indigeneity. You can learn more about Search Trends related to Indigenous topics on our Native American Heritage Month Search Trend feature.

Earlier this year, we partnered with the National Congress of Americans (NCAI) to share Inclusive Marketing Guidelines for Indigenous people, which consist of recommendations and learnings to prevent stereotypes and promote authentic portrayals in marketing.

While November is when we celebrate Native American Heritage Month in the U.S., we are always celebrating Indigenous culture around the world. In Canada, we honored the life and efforts of Mary Two-Axe Early, a Kanien’keháka (Mohawk) woman who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act. We also continue to actively support the Indigenous Mapping Workshop, a collaborative effort across Indigenous communities to decolonize geographic resources and promote Indigenous rights and interests.

In Canada, Indigenous Peoples remain largely underrepresented in the technology workforce, so to begin to address this disparity, we have also invested in Indigenous education through a Google.org grant to ComIT, a tech-focused charity that provides IT training for Indigenous students and early career professionals facing employment barriers.

I am thankful that this month I am in Onyota’a:ka (Oneida) to celebrate with my family. I will have many bowls of o·nʌ́steˀ (Oneida White Corn) soup, one of our traditional crops that have been in the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) diet for hundreds of years. If you are looking for ways to honor Indigenous people this month, I encourage you to take a moment to explore some of the stories we’ve shared today or learn about the people that are Indigenous to the land you are on today.

A Matter of Impact: July updates from Google.org

Unlike other forms of funding, philanthropy is in a position to take risky, long-term bets on solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Government funding generally needs to show taxpayers that money is going to proven solutions, and private investors tend to operate on short timelines and have to make financial returns. That’s why some call philanthropy “society’s risk capital’; it can put impact first and be patient about the results. 

Google has a big appetite for risky bets, or, as we call them, “moonshots.” This approach has led to some of our biggest successes — from search to self-driving cars to translation. And, of course, some failures along the way. We’ve tried to take the same approach at Google.org,  looking for places where we can direct risk capital toward big problems, often by helping organizations capture the potential of new technologies like artificial intelligence.  

Through our Google.org Impact Challenges, for example, we invite social innovators of any size to give us their best ideas for transformative impact and we make sizable contributions of time and money to help them grow. Some of these bets have gone on to become the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit organizations in the world, like Give Directly, Khan Academy, and Equal Justice Initiative. And some have even failed. But through the success and failures, we’ve learned a lot:


  • There’s a place for risk and a place for sure bets: In our early days nearly everything we funded was in this category of risk capital, which made it tough to have steady, reliable impact or manage multi-year programs. We’ve shifted to a portfolio approach, carving out space for true risk capital and supporting immediate needs such as housing, food, and clean water. 

  • Bet on the team and roll with the punches:Even good ideas fail, but a strong team will roll with the punches and continue iterating to find success. By establishing shared outcome goals in partnership with amazing people, we’ve been able to achieve great results — even when the initial idea foundered.

  • Invest in what you know:For us, that expertise often involves technology, which is why so many of our best examples have technology at their core.

  • Give adequate and flexible resources:Too often projects fail because they’re under-funded or funders too constrained in their use of money to make changes when a project takes an unexpected turn. Multi-year, general operating support is generally the right move with risky bets, and we aim to be generous in our support of both time and resources. 

For a perspective from the other side, read on for how some of our Google Impact Challenge grantees were able to have outsized impact after we bet on them at ‘risky’ stages of their development. 

In case you missed it 

Speaking of Impact Challenges, we recently unveiled the 13 grantee organizations for the Google.org Impact Challenge Central and Eastern Europe. Funding recipients include a group working to create opportunities for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired, an organization running science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM) courses for children in foster care, and a team creating coding courses for LGBTQ+ people in Lithuania.

Hear from one of our grantees: TalkingPoints

Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.

Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.

Heejae Lim is the Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, an AI-powered multilingual platform that helps teachers and families stay connected via text message and an easy-to-use-mobile app. TalkingPoints received a $1.5 million Google AI Impact Challenge grant and support from Google.org Fellows in 2019 to help grow.  The support came at just the right time. Due to COVID-19, school closures and distance learning rapidly accelerated demand for TalkingPoints. They went from serving 500,000 teachers, families and students to the more than three million people they reach today.


“As an edtech nonprofit, TalkingPoints draws on research-based practices and invests in high-impact initiatives that may require a lot of resources and time. For example, maintaining high-quality, two-way translation in 100+ languages requires a significant and sustained level of investment. With support from the Google.org Impact Challenge and a team of Google.org Fellows, TalkingPoints has made strides in our ability to leverage AI technologies to support effective communication and stronger family-school partnerships among multilingual communities across the country. Just last year, we achieved 100 million messages exchanged on TalkingPoints, and the messages translated represented 99.8% of languages other than English spoken in the U.S. Now, we’re growing to help tens of millions of teachers and families successfully eliminate common barriers to supporting children's learning including language, time and more. We would not be able to achieve this level of reach and success without partners like Google.org taking the risk to invest.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Open Food Facts

Mélanie Gancel, a Google.org Fellow with Open Food Facts..

Mélanie Gancel, a Google.org Fellow with Open Food Facts.

Mélanie Gancel is a product marketing manager at Google who participated in a Google.org Fellowship with Open Food Facts, a food product database that lists ingredients, allergens, nutritional composition, and all of the information on food labels. 

“I was born and raised in Paris in an urban environment, but have always felt a deep attachment to nature and desire to protect the environment. I’m always on the lookout for ways to align my job as a Product Marketing Manager on the Search team to work that will help people make more sustainable choices. So when I heard about the Google.org Fellowship with Open Food Facts, a recent grantee from the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate, I was immediately on board. During my time with Open Food Facts, I’ve learned uncertainty around food choices is one of the main barriers to living more sustainably and that food accounts for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. We’re helping them build an app that will give consumers a simple food eco-score to understand the environmental footprint of grocery store goods and make informed choices about how purchases affect the sustainability of the world around us.”

A Matter of Impact: June updates from Google.org

This week we wrapped up Pride Month, and while events looked a little different than usual, I was happy to still take part in virtual celebrations at Google and in my community. For me, Pride represents a time to celebrate progress, and also reflect on how much work is left to be done. 

Like it has for so many marginalized groups, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a distinct impact on LGBTQ+ people. Research from The Trevor Project and BeLonG To,  both Google.org grantees, shows that LGBTQ+ youth are experiencing more isolation, anxiety and loneliness than their straight and cisgender peers. A March 2021 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation adds that LGBTQ+ adults have lost jobs and experienced mental health impacts at higher rates. And OutRight Action International found that these communities have been excluded from humanitarian interventions because of narrow definitions of family, binary gender classifications, biased staff and more.

That’s why, for Pride this year, our support was focused on inclusive recovery from COVID-19. In this month’s digest, we highlight these efforts that range from a new fund to help LGBTQ+ people in over 60 countries access basic resources to ongoing support for the Trevor Project’s use of AI to help with crisis intervention. 

Of course, work for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion doesn’t start and end with Pride month, and we will continue to support those who advocate for LGBTQ+ rights year round and across the world.

In case you missed it 

As part of our cross-company celebration of Pride Month, Google.org granted $2 million to OutRight Action International’s “Covid-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund,” to help provide resources like food, shelter and job training to those in need. To further support advocacy for LGBTQ+ human rights globally and share critical community resources, we also provided $1 million each in Ad Grants to OutRight Action and the Transgender Law Center and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. 

Hear from one of our grantees: Marsha P. Johnson Institute 

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI), an organization inspired by the famous activist, self-identified drag queen, performer and survivor. MPJI protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people by organizing, advocating and creating an intentional community to heal, develop transformative leadership and promote their collective power.

“Last year, we created a Marsha P. Johnson Institute COVID-19 Relief Fund that received strong support from Google.org in the form of a $500,000 grant. The funding helped us provide one-time direct relief payments of $500 to BLACK transgender or non-binary identified people, furthering The Institute’s mission to support those most beyond the margins. Thousands of BLACK LGBTQ+ people from across the U.S. applied for the grant program and recipients spanned 40 U.S. states and also included Columbia, Puerto Rico and Mali.We’re so proud to be able to offer our own stimulus check, if you will, to BLACK transgender people from around the country. By the end of last year, we were able to donate over $250,000 to more than 500 individuals.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: The Trevor Project

Riley Wong is a machine learning engineer at Google. They recently completed their Google.org Fellowship with The Trevor Project.

Riley Wong is a machine learning engineer at Google. They recently completed their Google.org Fellowship with The Trevor Project.

"As a mental health advocate and community organizer for queer and trans people of color, working with The Trevor Project was an excellent opportunity to apply my background in machine learning, natural language processing, and language generation to benefit a community I care deeply about. Many queer and trans youth, especially those who are Black and/or trans-feminine, face unique challenges with accessing mental healthcare and support. Especially in the face of COVID-19, a lack of safe and stable home environments can exacerbate the need for crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for our communities. Collaborating with The Trevor Project and other Google.org Fellows was an extremely rewarding experience." 


Read more about the project in this article from MIT Technology Review.

How I grew as a computer science educator

Editor's note: Shaina Glass is a computer science educator based in Houston. She shares how Google.org funding helped support an organization that has shaped her career. 

In 2018, I was one of only a handful of educators teaching computer science (CS) to students and teachers alike in my school district. I created after-school clubs, provided professional development workshops, and looked for ways to celebrate Computer Science Education Week. I was always looking for other like-minded educators who I could learn and grow with. Everyone I spoke with pointed me to the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), an organization focused on supporting computer science educators who are often the only ones in their schools and districts. 

Joining the local CSTA Chapter in Greater Houston has allowed me to share ideas and create a community with other CS educators. Local chapters like mine have always been a big part of CSTA's mission, especially in urban areas like Houston where only 49% of schools have a certified CS teacher. Local CSTA chapters have grown by more than 25% since 2019, thanks in part to Google’s support.  In 2019 Google.org committed a $1 million grant to CSTA, and today they’re investing $500,000 more to help grow membership and provide opportunities for equity-focused professional development. 

For me, CSTA has shaped my career in so many ways. Before the pandemic, I received a scholarship to attend my first CSTA conference in Phoenix, Arizona. There I learned how to build an equitable CS program in my school district and connected with a community that has sustained me while teaching throughout the pandemic. As a chapter leader, I’ve helped bring more CS educators together in Houston and created a plan to work with regional and state CS leaders to provide opportunities for more teachers to become certified CS teachers. 

CSTA teachers meet regularly, even virtually, to maintain community

CSTA teachers meet regularly, even virtually, to maintain community.

Most recently, I became a  CSTA Equity Fellow for the 2020-21 school year, joining 14 other educators to bring equity-based CS education practices into their schools and communities. One of our initiatives includes creating a podcast focused on equity in CS. As a part of my fellowship, I also serve on advisory boards for CS curricula and the development of a CSTA Coaching Toolkit that will help administrators and CS leaders evaluate and support teachers.  

If you’re a new or experienced CS or STEM educator looking for a network of education leaders that can provide support, resources, and professional growth, then consider becoming a member of CSTA. If you aren’t near a local CSTA Chapter, join to learn how to start one! Hope to see you at the upcoming virtual conference. We’re stronger together.  

A Matter of Impact: May updates from Google.org

While many countries appear to be rounding the corner on COVID-19, our global humanitarian crisis is far from over. India, Brazil, and other regions of Latin America are experiencing high levels of COVID-19 infections and deaths, propelled in part by inequities in vaccine distribution and healthcare infrastructure. In this month’s digest we share updates on our relief efforts in India and Latin America, as well as other projects happening around the world. 

Lately, friends and family have asked me how they can most effectively contribute to global COVID-19 relief. In the short run, all generosity is needed and quickly getting resources to those who are affected should be the top priority. That’s why we’ve made it easyto donate vaccines and critical supplies through vetted charities. But recovery is a long process, so at Google.org we think about crisis response in three phases: 

  1. Responding to the immediate need. In this case,  providing critical supplies — like rapid testing, protective equipment, and oxygen — to bend the COVID-19 curve. 
  2. Addressing the inevitable knock-on effects to family incomes that come from loss of life and work. Through our grantees, we’re directing support to cash assistance organizations, food relief, and other resources that help families stay afloat. 
  3. Supporting recovery and resilience. Crisis relief doesn’t stop when the headlines quiet down. When attention turns away, local organizations are often left struggling to rebuild and prepare for the next crisis. We’re focused on investing in technologies, like data monitoring about the disease spread, that will help organizations to react to this crisis and improve readiness for the next one. 

We’ve still got a ways to go, but the global outpouring of support makes me optimistic that recovery and renewal lies near ahead. 

In case you missed it 

On May 26, Google.org and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine announced the launch of the Health Equity Tracker (HET), a public facing data dashboard that displays and contextualizes health disparities facing communities of color throughout the U.S. Google.org also joined celebrations for Teacher’s Appreciation week. We continued our support for the DonorsChoose #ISeeMe campaign and matched donations up to $500,000 for projects created by teachers of color and projects from all teachers requesting culturally responsive and antiracist resources.

Hear from one of our grantees: DonorsChoose  

Kristina Joy Lyles, Head of Equity & Impact at DonorsChoose

Kristina Joy Lyles,  Head of Equity & Impact at DonorsChoose

Kristina “Steen” Joye Lyles is the Head of Equity & Impact at DonorsChoose, an organization committed to a future where students across the country, particularly students of color from low-income households, have access to the resources they need to learn.  

“This year, Teacher Appreciation Week sat at the crux of compounding crises: a heightened racial climate, the global COVID-19 pandemic, and exacerbated inequities in students’ access to continue learning amid school closures. Through teacher surveys, we learned that educators at schools in low-income communities or where a majority of students identify as Black, Latino or Indigenous were more likely to have been teaching fully remote all year, and that their students were having a  harder time finding reliable internet access. With continued support from Google.org, we rallied funding around educators on the front lines, including teachers of color, to fund their most immediate classroom needs — from classroom basics to identity-affirming resources such as books and art supplies. 

This Teacher Appreciation Week alone, Google.org’s support activated matching donations from the public to classroom projects for 1,500 teachers across 1,300 schools over the course of just three days, evidence of the necessary attention being given to address the equity gap during and beyond this pandemic.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Gabriel Doss

Gabriel Doss, a Google.org Fellow with the City of Detroit

Gabriel Doss, a Google.org Fellow with the City of Detroit

Gabriel Doss is a software engineer at Google who is participating in a Google.org Fellowship with the City of Detroit.

"As a native Detroiter, the pursuit of making my hometown a world-class city for its citizens is a mission that has been a consistent north star for me. When I heard that the Google.org Fellowship would endeavor to make affordable housing more accessible for Detroiters who need it the most, I knew that the Fellowship was something I wanted to be a part of. The most surprising thing I’ve learned is that our cohort of Google.org Fellows are working to solve a problem for Detroit that has never been approached in this way before. We consider it to be a huge responsibility and have set our expectations accordingly. We aren’t just delivering on an OKR, we’re working to deliver a product solution that will have sustainable impact." 

Hear more about the project in Gabriel’s interview with Fox 2 Detroit.