Everything you need to know about Google for Nonprofits

With Nonprofit organizations having to manage their operations on a limited budget, they often face situations where they have to weigh between two essentials and pick the one with a higher priority. But, there are instances where we cannot ignore or skip certain essentials - say custom fundraising software or an online workspace. The evolving technology has made people switch to digital solutions and the tech giant Google has left no stone unturned to help those in need. In this article, let’s check out everything you need to know about Google for Nonprofits.

Google For Nonprofits

Google for Nonprofits is an initiative by Google to help nonprofit organizations manage their donors and volunteers and improve their overall productivity. This initiative is an absolute package that helps nonprofits find new donors and volunteers. The nonprofits can also advertise their cause. 

Through this initiative, nonprofits get access to several tools from Google at zero cost. Here are the tools to which nonprofits get access once their application form is accepted. 

• Google Workspace for Nonprofits 
• Google Ad Grants
• YouTube Nonprofit Programme
• Google Maps Platform

Before applying for this program, please note that this is available only in 65+ countries. Confirm that your country is a part of this program and then, start filling out your application.

How To Fill The Application Form?

To gain access to the nonprofit account from Google, you have to ensure that you fulfill the below eligibility criteria. 

• The nonprofit must be verified and registered as a charitable organization in any of the countries in which this initiative exists. 
• The nonprofit must meet the criteria set by its native government to be accepted as an NPO. 
• The nonprofit must accept the guidelines set by Google under its Google for Nonprofits program.

It takes only a few minutes for you to fill out your application form. The application process is simple. It takes a maximum of 14 days for Google to review your application form. In most cases, you gain instant approval along with access to valuable tools from Google. 

If your form is rejected, you can check out the reason for rejection and reapply after fixing it. However, you cannot apply for this program if your organization falls under any of these three categories:

• Government organization or entity
• Hospital or healthcare
• School, university, or any academic institution

Note: If your hospital/healthcare or academic institution has a charitable arm, your organization is eligible. 

Google For Nonprofits Products

To make sure that you do not miss out on anything, we have explained the different products Google has made available for nonprofits. By going through this list, we can make the most out of your Google tools and maximize your productivity at zero cost. 

1. Google Workspace

Google Workspace is one of the most familiar and popular products of Google. Several organizations worldwide employ this product of Google to manage their business operations. The primary reason for organizations to use it is the secure environment and cloud hosting offered by Google.

While Google Workspace comes with a competitive price tag for typical organizations, the basic plan is 100% free of cost for nonprofits. In case, if you want to upgrade to some other plan, you can access them at a comparatively discounted price. 

Features:

• Access to unlimited email accounts with @yourdomain.com as the suffix.
• Utilize Google Drive to manage all the documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from one place.
• Each employee gets a memory space of 30GB to store their data.
• Administrator access to all the accounts of your organization.

How It Helps Nonprofits:

The main benefit of this Workspace is you need not stress over your employees storing the data in their personal email addresses. This not only ensures the security of confidential information but also makes it easy to hand over access to new employees. 

Along with this,

• Use Google Meet to connect and conduct meetings no matter where the recipients are.
• Schedule appointments with donors or volunteers with the Calendar feature.
• Share accessibility on important documents, sheets, or presentations with the donors, volunteers, and organizers.
• Get round-the-clock support from the Google team in case of any queries or concerns. 

2. Google Ad Grants

This is one of the most profitable tools that Google has offered to nonprofits under the Google for Nonprofits initiative. With Google Ads, you can advertise your nonprofit organization on the Google search engine for selected keywords. Based on this, you can improve your nonprofit’s identity and capture more donors to donate for a cause now. 

In Google Ads, you have to pay depending on the number of clicks. Each click will charge variably depending on the keywords using which the audience came across your website. We recommend hiring a digital marketing expert to gain complete knowledge of this.

Features:

• Free credit of $10,000 per month to spend on pay-per-click advertising - text ads only.
• Complete access to the Google Ads product where you can track your campaigns.

How It Helps Nonprofits:

The fundamental benefit of these Ads is it enables you to strengthen your organization’s visibility across the internet without spending a dime. This is an important perk of this Google Ad grant. As a nonprofit, this is a profitable deal for you and you can use it to the maximum to reap its benefits.

Along with this,

• Use it to bring in more visitors to your website.
• Advertise your next fundraiser online.
• Create online donation page and market that page through PPC.
• Build audience segments and target content to specific groups.
• Leverage Google Analytics to track your campaigns.

There are some prerequisites associated with your Google Ads account. You have to maintain a high click-through rate of at least 5% across your ads. The quality score should be a minimum of 3 on all your keywords. You should be very cautious while using this facility to use it for a longer period.

3. YouTube Nonprofit Programme

YouTube is the most popular video-sharing site with more than 720,000 hours of new video content per day. Google for Nonprofits lets you use this channel to reach your cause to the target audience. YouTube runs a Nonprofit Programme using which nonprofits of all sizes can gain several benefits. 

YouTube lets you connect with Google Space after reaching a certain subscriber count. Here, the subscriber count has to be more than 10K. Once the goal is attained, you can apply for this and create a year-end appeal video. 

Features:

• Access to “Link Anywhere Cards” that lets your audience redirect to external websites - here, to the donation page.
• Enable the donation button across all the videos and even with your partners’ content. 
• Pay zero transaction fees on any donation contributed via YouTube.
• Get valuable lessons on nonprofits through the YouTube Creator Academy.

How It Helps Nonprofits:

Firstly, there is no better place than YouTube for telling your story. It is an excellent place to obtain new donors, volunteers, and supporters. You can also connect with influencers who have a larger follower base to share your story with their audience and request them to donate for a cause now.

Along with this, you can:

• Use the tutorials on YouTube to create more relatable content.
• Reach out to content creators to add donation buttons to request contributions. 
• You can steer clear of the additional cost that you have to spend for transactions and use the money for a greater purpose.

4. Google Maps Platform

Google Maps is one of the most reliable mapping tools used across the globe for directions, real-time traffic information, and a 360-degree view of the streets. This Google Maps feature is part of your package under the Google for Nonprofits program. Several businesses also leverage Google Maps to share their location and availability with their customers. 

If you check their website on how they help nonprofits, you will gain access to several case studies. You can utilize this to get a better idea of how Google Maps can help your organization. 

Features:

• Show the data related to the beneficiaries and donors on Google Maps.
• Unlock $250/month of Google Maps Platform credit for using it. 
• Gain access to creation tools and the My Maps feature.

How It Helps Nonprofits:

With Google Maps, you can link the existing information available in Google with your software application. This is a great asset as it makes the process of connecting the dots easier. You can expand your work globally and make it visible to all the associated parties. 

• Link Google Maps to display your location on your website. 
• Add location-sensitive information on the map with no external access.
• Offer valuable information to the audience on your activities.

Now, that ends our edition on everything you need to know about Google for nonprofits. It is definitely an excellent platform for organizations looking to reach a wider audience and capture more donors. All you need now is custom fundraising software to move your organization’s operations to the next level. 

Why You Need Custom Fundraising Software

The main purpose of fundraising software is to streamline all the activities associated with the donors and use automation to manage all the repetitive tasks. GivingX is your to-go fundraising software to manage all your fundraisers effectively at an affordable price of a 1.45% platform fee.

With GivingX, you can create online donation page without much hassle. You can also start your crowdfunding now as the platform has all the tools to get started.

Features of GivingX fundraising software:

• Make use of the Donor Management CRM to manage all the interactions with the constituents.
• This software allows your donors to contribute through 125+ Secured Payment Gateways.
• Want to integrate third-party software? We have a solution for that. You can integrate 5000+ applications through Zapier. 
• This software permits you to communicate using the native language of your donors with the automatic language translation facility.

Need more information? Check out GivingX’s features & pricing page! Start using GivingX today to leverage maximum productivity.