Google to help 30,000 small charities improve their online fundraising
Howard Lake | 5 February 2013 | News
Google, in partnership with the Media Trust and Charity Technology Trust, is to help 30,000 of the UK’s smallest charities improve their online fundraising.
The ‘Grow Your Charity Online’ campaign will provide free training and tools for charities across the country.
Charities will benefit from an online learning hub, specialised training, and workshops.
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The initiative follows research by the Charity Technology Trust that found that 54% of charities in the UK would invest in online fundraising if money was no object. This is backed up by a survey by Lloyds Banking Group into internet skills across the UK Small Business and Charity sector which found that more than half of charities need support with web design and management.
The online hub gives some summary advice on various aspects of digital fundraising and communications, including video, social media, email, blogging, and mobile design. It highlights some of Google’s tools and services for charities, including Google Drive (for cloud computing, or sharing documents remotely), Google Analytics, Google+ pages, and Google Grants for free advertising on Google.
Grow Your Charity Online training courses
Google staff will travel across the UK during 2013 to meet with charities face-to-face. They will also host a regular series of online educational events. Google UK employees will also dedicate a percentage of their work time towards the project, by volunteering their Internet expertise at various workshops over the year.
Six events are listed at the campaign’s launch, although they are all paid-for Media Trust courses.
Also, the examples of organisations using digital tools that are held up as ‘inspirational’ are mostly large organisations like Kiva, WaterAid, and RNLI, rather than the small organisations who are being targted by the campaign.
Matt Brittin, VP of Google’s Northern & Central European operations, said: “The web is essential for charities to access new tools to share stories, help people and raise money. Britain’s charities need sustainable, practical methods with which to help themselves grow and really make a difference, and Grow Your Charity Online aims to help these organisations ultimately succeed”.
Caroline Diehl, Chief Executive and founder of communications charity Media Trust, said: “There are exciting times ahead as we look forward to engaging a talented group of Google staff as volunteers and mentors for a diverse range of charities from across the UK.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.