“From real-time sensors that monitor clean water to DNA barcoding that stops wildlife trafficking, our first round of awards provides $23 million to seven organizations changing the world,” Google’s “Director of Giving,” Jacquelline Fuller says.

Winners are: charity: water, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, DonorsChoose.org, Equal Opportunity Schools, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, GiveDirectly, and World Wildlife Fund. More on each of these here.

The company says it has supported organizations with over $100 million in grants, $1 billion in technology, and 50,000 hours of Googler volunteering this year.

The effort has led to a bunch of videos of Haitian villagers reading aloud #FirstWorldProblems tweets, which the agency is then tweeting back at the authors of the tweets.

This video pretty much sums up the effort:

Here are some of the direct response videos being tweeted at Twitter users:

Plenty more where those came from here.

Business Insider shares some interesting comments from the ad exec behind the campaign, who says, “We totally understand the irony of it. People are doing it as a joke. It leads to a desensitization around the issue.”

[via FastCoCreate]

From Youtube:

We’re excited to share the latest addition to the Next Creator family of programs: YouTube Next Cause for nonprofits.

Check out what nonprofits are doing on YouTube at youtube.com/nonprofits. And tune in around March 5 to learn more about some of the great nonprofit organizations chosen and what they’re doing to change the world!

In this video, Justine Ezarik talks about one of the projects promoted on YouTube last year, Charity Water.

One developer is seeking to change that. ROAR has announced their new mobile development platform, designed to allow organizations of various kinds to create and host their own applications for a modest fee. The program allows customers to bring their online presence – on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. – into one place, and display it on a customized interface.

Churches and nonprofits can get a customized app iOS app from ROAR for $250, or iOS and Android apps for $500, with a hosting fee of $30 for one app or $50 for both.

Is this the kind of thing you might use for your organization? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[Source: ROAR]

It appears those big banners at the top of Wikipedia, which have been ridiculed a few times, have been a success.

The ridicule was mostly over the layout, where a user could look at a page for something like “bitch” or “rapist” and see the word appear right under a big photo of co-founder Jimmy Wales or various volunteers. It became something of a meme, though some were much more light-hearted.

“Our model is working fantastically well,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Ordinary people use Wikipedia and they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continue to thrive. That maintains our independence and lets us focus solely on providing a useful public service. I am so grateful to our donors for making that possible. I promise them we will use their money carefully and well.”

The campaign has indeed been Wikimedia’s most successful ever. On top of that, it’s part of a streak that has seen donations rise every year since campaigns began in 2003. Since 2008, the number of donors has increased ten-fold, and the total dollar amount raised in the campaign has risen to over $20 million from $4.5 million.

Wikimedia’s sites attract over 470 million people each month, and is the only major site supported by donations rather than ads, the foundation says.

The money from this campaign will go to servers and other hardware, development of new site functionality, expansion of mobile services, legal defense, and support for volunteers (there aree over 100,000 of them).

The foundation’s total 2011-12 planned spending is $28.3 million.

Wikipedia itself has over 20 million articles in 282 languages. It will celebrate its 11th anniversary on January 15.

"Now in its second year, the competition is open to all non-profit campaigns, and the winner will see its creative displayed on the highly trafficked Yahoo! login page, visited by one in ten Americans each day," a representative for Yahoo tells WebProNews. "Entries will be accepted beginning October 11, going through December 3."

This year, all agencies are invited to submit entries, including those not affiliated directly with the Ad Council. This wasn’t the case before. 

"Some of the most innovative digital campaigns being developed today are done on behalf of nonprofit organizations and causes," says Mitch Spolan, VP of Yahoo’s North American field sales. "’Create for a Cause’ offers the opportunity to build exposure for the most worthy causes in ways that can uniquely be achieved through the digital canvas."

"Create for a Cause is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the pro bono commitment of the advertising industry and their talent in developing compelling digital creative," says Barbara Shimaitis, SVP of Interactive Services at the Ad Council. "We are grateful to Yahoo! for helping spearhead this contest and donating premier placement for the winning campaign."

The winning campaign will be announced January 5, 2011.

YouTube calls the features "game-changing". They are explained in this step-by-step walk-through:

"If you’re a member of the YouTube Nonprofit Program already, you’re good to go. And if you’re a 501(c)3 in the U.S. or registered charity in the U.K., you can apply to the program now at www.youtube.com/nonprofits," says Ramya at YouTube’s CitizenTube blog.

YouTube’s nonprofit program is currently available in the United States and in the United Kingdom, although they do intend to expand this. YouTube provids a nonprofit tipsheet here. Requirements for U.S. partners are as follows:

- Organizations must be U.S.-based nonprofits with IRS 501(c)(3) tax status

- May not be religious or political in nature

-  May not be focused primarily on lobbying for political or policy change

- Commercial organizations, credit-counseling services, donation middleman services, fee-based organizations, universities, and nonprofit portals are not eligible for the program

For the United Kingdom:

- Organisations must be based in the United Kingdom and registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or by the Inland Revenue

- May not be religious or political in nature

-  May not be focused primarily on lobbying for political or policy change

-  Commercial organisations, credit-counselling services, donation middleman services, fee-based organisations, universities, and non-profit portals are not eligible for the programme

While individuals still want to support their favorite cause, they may not have the time or the money to do so. There is a solution. More than 70,000 nonprofits have partnered with a new Yahoo-powered search engine called GoodSearch.com, and online shopping mall GoodShop.com to enable their supporters to generate donations just by doing something they do everyday – search the Internet or shop online. What makes the system so compelling is that it doesn’t cost the users a thing. It’s a form of philanthropy that works for everyone in this tough economy!

Consumers are helping their favorite causes by shopping at GoodShop.com where they can choose from more than 800 well known retailers including Target, Apple, Macy’s, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Petco and others. The shopping experience and the prices are exactly the same as going to the retailer directly, but by going through GoodShop, up to 37% of the purchase price is donated to the user’s favorite cause. In addition, GoodShop provides the user with coupons and deals for the stores so not only are they helping a cause, but they’re saving money while doing so!

Similarly, with the GoodSearch search engine, approximately one penny is donated to the users’ favorite charity with every search. You use it exactly as you would any other search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo so you get quality search results) and the pennies add up quickly – just 500 people searching four times a day will earn around $7300 in a year! It doesn’t cost the users a thing!

GoodSearch and GoodShop have quickly spread via word-of-mouth, the blogger community, and a number of celebrities and their foundations including Jessica Biel, Montel Williams, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Jeff Bridges, and others. This is helping to generate significant funds for the participating nonprofits. For example:

• Supporters of the ASPCA are shopping on GoodShop and searching on GoodSearch, to date raising more than $22,000 to help animals in need!
• The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has earned nearly $10,500!
• An order placed at Adobe Software earned Capri Elementary School in California $191!

Internet users have found GoodSearch and GoodShop to be a compelling idea. Lisa Codron, a teacher in Los Angeles, uses GoodSearch and GoodShop in support of Best Friends Animal Society, which runs the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused animals. “It’s amazing. I buy so much online and because of GoodShop I get dozens of discounts as well as the opportunity to support my favorite charity. There’s really no reason not to GoodShop!”

Comments

Google Extends Apps To Non-Profits

When Google first introduced the Education Edition of its Google Apps, it looked like a natural fit for non-profits. It took a while for Google to extend the service to non-profit organizations under the same no-cost terms, but they have finally done so.

Google Enterprise product director Matthew Glotzbach said on the official Google blog the program would be extended to non-profit organizations. Google disclosed the extension as it hosted an event for members of the Nonprofit Technology Network.

The Google Apps bundle of services has been available for small businesses, private groups and families, and of course enterprises for some time. Educational and now non-profit participants have access to the premium version of it at no additional cost.

Several Google products have been integrated into Google Apps, including ones for communication and productivity. It’s been suggested that Google could eventually have enough features in Apps to present a challenge to Microsoft and its Office suite.

Google has characterized its products as being targeted toward a different audience than Microsoft. But if a free Google Apps option nudges education and non-profit organizations to choose it over a low-cost Microsoft education software option, the effect will be one of a competitor grabbing market share.

Our own Jason Lee Miller reported on some of these changes when word of them first leaked out. And as he predicted, people who choose to shop through Google Checkout will “get $10 off purchases of $30 or more before shipping and tax,” according to the site. Savvy shoppers may even stumble upon better deals, because “some stores may offer additional incentives,” a disclaimer teases.

There’s also an option to spend that $30 in a more charitable way. “Google will add $10 to every user’s first donation of $30 or more” to one of eight non-profit groups. In the spirit of capitalism, though, I’ll point out that traditional purchases aren’t necessarily an indicator of greed. Who could deny a dog the happiness that 32 tennis balls would bring?

PETCO – which has been involved in some charity work – is only one of several new merchants offered. Google Checkout will also help you shop for kiddos at Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us, or for more mature individuals at Linens n Things, J&R Music, and Computer World.

“Shoppers can buy directly from these merchants’ sites and use their Google Checkout login to speed their purchase process,” the search engine company states. “On average, Google Checkout eliminates an average of 15 steps from the online checkout process, in many cases making checking out as simple as entering a single login.”

And so it’ll be that much easier to stay warm and well-fed this winter, judging from the most popular items at Google Checkout’s holiday site. The current leader is a jacket, followed by a “chocolate fountain” and a coffee and chocolate set.

A recent post from John Battelle indicated that you might see some slightly unexpected things on the bill when it’s time to pay for those indulgences, however.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.