USA: Google for non profits launched

The Internet search company Google has opened a new portal for nonprofit groups that explains how to adopt various Google features and software for charitable work.

The Google ?suite? of applications includes an e-mail program, mapping software, blog software, tools to analyze Internet traffic, and a grants search engine, among other items. These applications are free for nonprofit groups, and the new site offers tips on how to use the applications for philanthropy.

For instance, the site suggests that an environmental group could use the maps feature to take donors on a ?virtual tour? of land it is trying to conserve. Or a group could use the calender feature to help send reminders to donors about upcoming events.

For non-technical people, each application?s page on the site comes with a video tutorial to explain how it works. The pages also include instructions on how to set up accounts, as well as provides links to outside groups that have incorporated a Google application into their daily work.

Google supports a number of philanthropic programs through its Google.org site, but the new portal is not part of that venture. Instead, it extends services for Google.com, the for-profit company, to the nonprofit world.
The project had been in the works for months, says Bob Boorstin, Google?s director of policy communications in Washington, and it was put together by Google employees who came together on their own to work on it.

?Many of us have heard from our friends in the [charity] community that, while they knew our tools could be helpful to them, sometimes they weren?t sure exactly where to start,? he says. He believes the portal will help answer such questions.

Google announced the new site at the Nonprofit Technology Network conference in New Orleans.

More info:
www.philanthropy.com