Google for Nonprofits Newsletter - August 2012

[Leslie Hernandez]

Google for Nonprofits Newsletter August 2012

September 4, 2012

In this issue By the way What's new Tools in action Expert corner Connect

By the way TOP

Fall is just around the corner! As the school year fast approaches, stay tuned to our blog, website and Google+ page for tutorials and tips around online fundraising in preparation for end of year giving. As always, visit our Google for Nonprofits tutorials section to find getting started guides and access tutorials to help get your nonprofit up and running with Google tools. Read on for more about Google Elections, Google Voice Search and more. Have a wonderful September.

What's new TOP

Google offers elections coverage online In conjunction with our on-the-ground efforts, Google is making a number of online tools available to help voters get organized and informed as Election Day approaches. The Google Politics & Elections site,  Live elections hub, and online voter guide enable voters to register and see the latest Google News, YouTube videos, search and video trends and Google+ content about the elections in one place. Voice Search arrives in 13 new languages With the addition of 13 new languages, Android users can now search by voice on their mobile phones in 42 languages. Now 100 million new speakers can use this application using languages like Basque, Bulgarian, Icelandic, Serbian, Swedish, and Slovak. Numerous native speaker volunteers and engineers worked to accurately detect dialects and predict how all other words in the language should be pronounced. You can find information on how to use this feature on your Android device here. Conquer back to school blues with Google tools August is both an end to the lush freedom of summer and the beginning of another year of student life. To make the transition smooth, one of our interns researched how students can make the most of Google products. From a Chrome extension that guards against procrastination to the Google Docs research tool to help generate citations, there are a multitude of ways that students - and organizations that help them - can improve their study skills. Get more information here. Giving you a better Google Google works everyday to create a more seamless, beautiful user experience to give you a better, easier-to-use Google. Over the past year, we’ve made changes to over 50 products. Now we’re making a few more changes by turning off Google Talk Chatback and moving hosted content on Google Video to YouTube. For more information on our most recent changes, read this blog post. Building the search engine of the future, one baby step at a time Google announced some of the latest steps we’re taking to make search even more intelligent for users. Knowledge Graph, which helps you discover information quickly and easily, is now available in every English speaking country in the world. For interested users, getting Gmail inbox results in your search query is available for a limited trial. Lastly, search recognition is now available on iPad and iPhone. For more information on these updates, check out this blog post.

Tools in action TOP

Tools in Action: BeLonG To Youth Services BeLonG To Youth Services, the national organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender young people in Ireland, launched a video clip entitled Stand Up! Don't Stand for Homophobic Bullying in March 2011 on YouTube. On August 14th, it became the most viewed online video created by an Irish nonprofit after hitting 1,000,000 views. Stand Up! is an annual anti-bullying awareness week and encourages all young people to stand together to support their lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender friends. YouTube allowed BeLonG To to reach a huge audience both domestically and internationally. When we consider that the population of Ireland is 4.5 million, the fact that YouTube enabled this video to get 1 million views is remarkable. The campaign has been singled out for praise by the European Council's Commissioner for Human Rights, and it featured in the first UN global resource produced to tackle homophobic bullying by UNESCO. To date, this video has been translated into 12 different languages.

Expert corner TOP

This month, we talked with Adam Kowalski, Associate Product Manager for Google for Nonprofits.

Q. Why is Google for Nonprofits important for nonprofits? A. Nonprofits change the world, and Google’s committed to helping you use technology to further your cause. Whether you’re a power user or just starting out, our tutorials and resources at google.com/nonprofits provide an overview of which Google products are particularly useful to nonprofits, and step-by-step instructions for how to use them effectively. We’re pleased to provide in-kind product donations to any nonprofit meeting our eligibility criteria, as these donated products can be incredibly beneficial to a variety of nonprofits. You’re probably aware of some of these benefits, but be sure to check out how else your nonprofit can benefit from this program. Nonprofits seeking to spread their message and connect with donors can receive up to $10,000 of free advertising credits per month and premium YouTube channel features.  Many nonprofits have multiple locations, and sometimes this makes collaboration difficult.  Google Apps is a cloud-based suite of office productivity tools (email, calendar, word processing, videoconferencing, and more), which makes collaboration quite seamless. It’s free (up to 3,000 users) for nonprofits. Our professional geospatial software is also available at no cost, and can be useful for nonprofits involved in conservation and other environmental concerns. Finally, I’m a huge fan of our Google for Nonprofits (or G4NP) community. This is a valuable resource for both G4NP-specific questions and also information about the overall space of nonprofits and technology. Through the G4NP Support Forum, the Community section of our website, and our Google+ page, it’s easy to connect with other nonprofits, ask questions and learn from experts.  To learn more, go to google.com/nonprofits. Q. Can you share any cool stories of nonprofit organizations using G4NP products? A. There are so many nonprofits doing cool work with G4NP products, it’s hard to pick just one story! But one great example is WITNESS, an international nonprofit that uses video and storytelling to expose human rights violations to the world. Not only is it super impactful work, WITNESS has also done an awesome job at meshing freely available and several donated G4NP products to further its mission. For example, it uses a Google Apps donation to maintain productivity and collaborate across borders. Its branded YouTube channel has received millions of views, and it uses donated advertising space to bring attention to campaigns. WITNESS also leverages freely available Google services to measure and communicate its impact, such as Google Maps, Google+ Hangouts, and Google Analytics. You can read more about WITNESS and other great stories on our case studies page. Q. What are some new features in G4NP that nonprofits should know about? A. We’ve just launched two awesome features! First, our new website contains a wealth of new content and tutorials on how Google products can be useful to nonprofits. We now have a number of great examples of nonprofits that have used our products successfully and creatively. Be sure to check those out if you haven’t already. Second, G4NP members can now have more than one user designated to administer their G4NP account. It’s always a good idea to have multiple administrators of your account in case you’re travelling or on vacation. Please encourage a colleague to request access to your organization’s G4NP account. And, please be sure to stay tuned for more new features coming soon! Q. Where can nonprofits go to find resources and support for G4NP? A. There are lots of ways to get resources and support! For general information about our program and Google products, the best first step is checking out the content we provide at google.com/nonprofits—it’s tailored just for you. Specific in-depth resources for each product (e.g. YouTube) can be found at each product’s website. If you’re stuck or want to bounce ideas off our community (or share best practices with your peers), you can also participate in our User Forum. For specific questions relating to your organization’s G4NP account, please don’t post personal information in the User Forum—instead, kindly contact our team via the help center.

Connect TOP

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