Google for Nonprofits Newsletter - September 2011

[Leslie Hernandez]

Google for Nonprofits Newsletter - September 2011

Your monthly round-up of the latest news and notes from Google for Nonprofits.

September 29, 2011

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

By the way TOP

Greetings from the Google for Nonprofits team! Fall is just around the corner. We’re not feeling the chill in the air just yet, but we have lots of hearty updates for you. Read on for the latest on Google+, additional Google for Nonprofits resources and more. Have a wonderful October & enjoy the fall colors.

What's new TOP

The Dead Sea Scrolls Have Launched Online It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the advent of the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world.  On Monday, on the eve of the new year on the Hebrew calendar, we celebrate the launch of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection online. Now, anyone around the world can view, read and interact with the five digitized Dead Sea Scrolls.   How Our Cloud Does More with Less We’ve worked hard to reduce the amount of energy our services use. To provide you with Google products for a month—not just search, but Google+, Gmail, YouTube and everything else we have to offer—our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours. You can feel confident about being efficient if you use Google Apps and other services that we offer. We’ve learned a lot in the process of reducing our environmental impact and wanted to share that knowledge. We’ve added a new section called 'The Big Picture' to our Google Green site with numbers on our annual energy use and carbon footprint.  We Asked, You Answered Thanks to the many of you who filled out our education survey about additional educational resources you’d like to see from us. Based on your feedback, we’re pleased to launch a new set of tips on the Google for Nonprofits website all about how nonprofits can get up and running on Google tools. You can also find a series of new Google Docs templates focused on Volunteer management: Volunteer Database Template, Volunteer Event Registration Template & Volunteer Management Google Sites Template. These templates will make it easy for you to launch a simple website for volunteers and intake volunteer data efficiently & securely. We’re responding directly to your input with these new resources so if you have additional thoughts or feedback, please share it in our forum here. +1 Button for Your Nonprofit Have you included the +1 button on your nonprofit’s website? If not, check out these instructions for your webmaster so you can enable fans, supporters, volunteers & donors to +1 your organization. Additionally, you can now add the +1 button to any individual page in Google Sites by choosing +1 Button from the Insert menu, or you can add it to your site’s sidebar and have it appear on every page instantly by editing your Site Layout under Manage Site. Easily Edit Your YouTube Videos Until now, when you uploaded to YouTube, your video was hosted and shared, but couldn’t really be changed. If you wanted to trim off the end, swap out the soundtrack, or add an effect, you had to edit your video using a separate program and upload again. Now you can edit your uploaded videos right on YouTube and maintain the same video IDs. Learn more here.

Tools in action TOP

International Medical Corps is a global nonprofit dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. International Medical Corps provides health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. 'We use Google Docs across the organization – at headquarters as well as in the field - to share information and provide updates in real time about projects and their progress. In Haiti, for example, we were able to share information internally about cases of cholera that we were witnessing, where they were happening, geographic spread of the disease, and our specific interventions for treating and preventing the spread of the disease. Google Docs and Google Maps enable us to share that information with other NGOs and UN agencies. While the cholera outbreak claimed many lives in Haiti, it could have been far more deadly if we and the other relief groups had not been able to identify it so quickly and mobilize a coordinated and effective response.’ Margaret Aguirre, Director of Global Communications, International Medical Corps

Expert corner TOP

This month we caught up with Chris Cheng, Manager for Google Apps, to hear the latest and greatest about how nonprofit organization can take advantage of Google Apps for Nonprofit.

Q: Why is Google Apps important for nonprofits? Google Apps can increase your productivity: Imagine you're conducting a field survey and you're carrying around a clipboard, manually writing down all the data. Once you're back in the office, you'll have to manually enter all that data into a spreadsheet, and then manually email that file out. With Google Apps, you can use a smartphone to enter the data, and that data will be immediately available to your colleagues, without having to keep sending updated spreadsheet files. This automation can save you time & energy. Google Apps is low cost: We know most nonprofits don't have large IT budgets, and acquiring today's cutting-edge technology can be expensive. We want to support the great work nonprofits engage in by providing our Google Apps productivity/collaboration suite for free up to 3,000 users. If you have more than 3,000 users, you can get a 40% discount per user per year. We also provide full and free 24x7 support whenever you have a question or problem. Q: What are some new features in Google Apps that nonprofits should know about? Priority Inbox: Gmail's Priority Inbox helps you prioritize which messages you should read by flagging some emails as most important. You can also customize your Priority Inbox settings to make sure you see all important emails. Offline Gmail, Calendar and Docs: When you don't have an internet connection, you can still read, respond to, and organize your email. You can also view and RSVP to your appointments, as well as view your documents and spreadsheets. When you're back online, any changes you've made will automatically synchronize. Forms in Google Spreadsheets: You can create a simple form to collect information via Forms in Google Spreadsheets. The form can be embedded in a website, or in an email. The form can also be a standalone website. Google Spreadsheets can create graphs and charts using the form data. Check out the new volunteer management form templates here. Q: Can you share any cool stories of organizations using Google Apps? HandsOn Bay Area is a nonprofit organization in San Francisco which creates opportunities for people to volunteer, learn and lead in their communities. They saved a lot of money by switching to Google Apps while also increasing their staff's efficiency and productivity. Using Google Apps has led to happier staff, happier clients, and happier communities. You can read the full story here. Q: Do you have any tips for an organization that's just getting started with Google Apps? We have extensive documentation on how to migrate your email to Google Apps. Our Setup Wizard in the Google Apps control panel can walk you through all of the relevant setup steps. If you ever need additional help, you can contact Google Support directly. Q: Where can nonprofits go to find resources and support for Google Apps? First, I’d recommend the Google Apps Marketplace. If you are looking for third party apps, onsite deployment and/or personalized support assistance, you can hire a Google Partner in our Marketplace. The Marketplace is a great way to expand the power of the cloud by integrating HR, payroll and accounting apps which supplement the Google Apps suite. I’d also recommend checking out Google Support. 24/7 support via email and phones is available for Google Apps for Nonprofit administrators. To receive a Google Apps for Nonprofit upgrade, you must first be accepted into the Google for Nonprofits Program. We also have a self-service Help Center, along with a discussion forum where you can get help from other Google Apps administrators. Google fully supports the great work that nonprofits do every single day, and we're excited to provide our business productivity tools to nonprofits for free.

Connect TOP

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