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Google to award $5 million to Canada’s most innovative non-profits

Google Impact

Google ImpactGoogle is looking for Canada’s most innovative not-for-profits.

The search engine giant yesterday announced it will divvy up $5-million and disperse it between the ten most innovative Canadian non-profit organizations through means of a competition called the Google.org Impact Challenge. Ten finalists will be chosen to pitch an idea on March 6th to a panel of judges in Toronto.

“We want to make a better world, faster. That’s what this Challenge is designed to do,” said Sam Sebastian, Managing Director, Google Canada. “We have huge expectations for what Canada can deliver through the Google.org Impact Challenge. Not only is Canada home to some of the world’s smartest and most talented tech innovators, but we also have a deep commitment to humanitarian causes both as a nation and as individuals.”

Google.org, which is Google’s philanthropic arm, has already dispersed grants in France, Japan, India, Australia, the U.K., Germany, and the United States, all of which have gone to the most innovating groups who have shown an interest in making the world a better place through the means of technology. Google.org donates $100 million dollars a year in grants to groups across the world, as well as a billion dollars in products.

“We have huge expectations of what Canada can deliver through this impact challenge,” says Sebastian. “We’re as ambitious as we’ve ever been in this country, but you pair that with an openness and a humanitarianism that I just don’t think you can find anywhere else around the world, and… amazing things can happen.”

Non-profit groups that wish to participate must submit their ideas by no later than November 26th, 2016. Ideas will then be narrowed down and the public will then be eligible to vote for which projects they believe are the best and could be the most impactful in February.

Five groups will receive $750,000 grants, four of those groups will be selected by a panel of 8 judges, while the fifth will be voted on during the month of March. The remaining 5 groups will receive grants for $250,000.
The eight judges are:
• Mélanie Joly Minister of Canadian Heritage
• Dr. Samantha Nutt bestselling author and Founder of War Child Canada/War Child USA
• Hani Al Moulia member of Prime Minister’s Youth Council
• Joseph Boyden Award-winning Author and Professor
• PK Subban NHL Defenceman, Philanthropist
• Jacquelline Fuller Director of Google.org
• Don Harrison Vice President, Corporate Development at Google

“We created the Google.org Impact Challenge because we truly believe that technology has the power to transform lives,” explained Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google.org. “We have seen firsthand the incredible impact that innovative technology can have in addressing complex and difficult social issues, and we are excited to see how Canadian non-profits will respond to the challenge.”

Google.org has already supported educational opportunity, crisis response due to natural disasters and epidemics, racial justice, and has helped aid in the fight against the Zika virus which has recently started making its way up to Canada.

If you wish to submit your proposal for the Canadian Google.org Impact Challenge, you can do so by clicking here before the deadline of November 26th.

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  1. Canada because of its resource extraction economy has many towns whose citizens have moved away. The archives of these towns makes up a priceless portion of the history of Canada. Even where they have had the benefit of Archivists they are oftthanken in remote areas no accessible to former residents. We have developed a digital mirror image of the Flin Flon archive and placed it on line so it is accessible to all. We also restore and identify the original documents and pictures and keep them as high quality scans. We could use googles help, Not only money for additional workers to do scanning but also face recognition and research.
    I don’t know how to apply formally and trust this message if not an application will trigger a response as to how to apply

  2. Doug,
    This is a third party news report on the Google grants – I don’t think you’ll have much luck with anyone official from Google answering you on this platform, but the link to the Google Grant webpage is included in the article above – here is the link for you https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/canada2017
    Good luck, sounds like a great project!

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