Google Launches Google for Nonprofits

I’m in Washington, DC for the Nonprofit Technology Conference hosted by NTEN.   After facilitating a panel at the Innogive Conference on integrating mobile into multi-channel nonprofit campaigns,  I headed to a special event hosted by Google to celebrate the launch of Google for Nonprofits.
If you work for a nonprofit, the program provides your organization with several new benefits. Instead of applying to each Google product individually, you can sign up through a one-stop shop application process. If approved, you can access their suite of product offerings designed for nonprofits.   Details are here.

The event featured a panel discussion of use cases by nonprofits, followed by product demos.   Each panel allotted ample time for Q/A from the audience which consisted of nonprofit techies and bloggers.

Google has also developed other online resources such as educational videos, case studies and better ways for you to connect with other nonprofits.

There were many products demos and discussed, but I really liked the demo of cool things you could do with your smartphone.     As I work more and more internationally, translation from different languages has become critical.   The Google Translate gadget is something that I often use for web content that can translate phrases between over 50 languages, but I had never seen it used on a smart phone in the way it was demonstrated.

The demo showed how to turn your smart phone into an interpreter with experimental software that
lets the handsets translate conversations in real time.   Also demonstrated is how you can use the voice recorder to send dictate and send an email for you.   The demo also showed a new 3D map feature and how you can take a photo and have it return google search results.  (Here’s why folks were laughing in the background)
What prompted a lot of questions was the Adwords grants or more specifically best practices on setting up a campaign to get results.    A representative from the Humane Society asked one of the panelists how they can results if they’re competing with large corporations that do not have restrictions on bidding on Adwords.     The advice:  micro-targeting works best.


The question reminded of a screencast I created back in 2007 for NTEN and Salesforce Foundation that covered Google Adwords campaigns).   I think there is a lot of opportunity for nonprofits to share their practices around creating campaigns.
More about the launch from Rohit Bhargava and Mashable
All in all, a packed day before the official start of the 2011 NTC.   I start off early in the morning (6:30 am) to cover the Day of Service, along with Mark Horvath and Shawn Admed.   I’ll be shadowing them to learn pearls of wisdom about how to capture video stories.
(Full Disclosure: Google is a  Zoetica client.)