Tag Archives: google.org

Media literacy training for Southeast Asian communities

Forty million people in Southeast Asia started using the internet for the first time in 2020. Yet the level of media literacy in the region remains relatively low. Often, people in Southeast Asia lack the skills to interpret the information they encounter online — and efforts to change this have historically been fragmented and under-resourced.

As we mark 10 years since UNESCO’s first Global Media and Information Literacy Week, we want to ensure more Southeast Asians — especially first-time users — can navigate the internet with confidence. Today, we announced a $1.5 million grant from Google.org to help the ASEAN Foundation expand media literacy education in the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The goal is to equip more than 1,000 trainers with new skills and materials, enabling them to provide training for more than 100,000 people — from young people to older internet users — over the next two years.

In addition to the Google.org grant, Google employees plan to volunteer their time and technical expertise to the ASEAN Foundation and its beneficiaries.

We know strengthening media literacy has to be a collective effort, and at today’s ASEAN Digital Literacy Forum — the first event of its kind in the region — we joined 200 representatives from governments, academia, and nonprofit organizations to discuss the most effective ways to address online misinformation.

We’re doing a lot with technology itself, from raising up authoritative websites in Google Search to creating better tools for fact-checkers. But the most sustainable way forward involves the public, private and nonprofit sectors working together to give people the knowledge they need.

Alt text: An excerpt from Google’s media literacy comic book, with a young woman in glasses reading advice on a laptop about spotting misinformation using the mnemonic SHEEP: source, history, evidence, promotion, pictures.

As part of the ASEAN Digital Literacy Forum, we launched a comic book to illustrate how misinformation can spread, and what to do to prevent it.

It’s also critical that we understand the local environment and tailor solutions to the specific challenges communities are facing — a principle that’s guided Google’s partnerships across Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, we partnered with MAFINDO to develop a web drama series that educated viewers about debunking misinformation in a family setting, before running hands-on workshops for 5,000 people. And in the Philippines, we helped the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication create teaching tools and training for almost 300 senior high school teachers. That included videos showing ”a day in the life” of a local journalist and news report-style videos to contextualize news literacy — efforts that ultimately reached close to 40,000 students. At today’s Forum, together with the ASEAN Foundation, we launched a comic book to illustrate how misinformation can spread, and what to do to prevent it.

Misinformation is multifaceted and the challenges it creates are constantly evolving. Whether it’s updating Google and YouTube product policies, elevating the work of fact-checkers, or supporting organizations like ASEAN Foundation, we’re going to keep doing everything we can to help advance media literacy in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Inspiring 1.4 million students to learn computer science

For many of the challenges our world faces — like access to healthcare and climate change — technology will be part of the solution. For those solutions to affect change, the technologists behind them should be reflective of everyone. However, in the U.S. today 26% of computing professionals are women, 8% are Hispanic and 9% are Black.

Access to education is at the root of this inequity. Girls, historically underrepresented groups and students from small and rural towns are less likely to have the opportunity to build interest and confidence in computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills. To help make sure every student has the chance to build confidence and interest in computer science, 4-H, an organization working to give all youth equal access to opportunity, with Google.org support, created the Computer Science Pathway. This program teaches technical subjects — like data analytics and robotics — and equips students with essential life skills — like problem-solving and leadership.

In 2019, 4-H and Google.org set a goal that with Google.org’s support, 4-H would introduce one million students to computer science within three years. Members of our own Code with Google team assisted the National 4-H Council and local 4-H chapter leaders to pilot, train and iterate for several months to help establish the foundations of the Computer Science Pathway program. Fast forward to now, just two years later, and 4-H has already reached over 1.4 million students. Of those 1.4 million, 47% are from historically underrepresented groups in computer science, 65% live in rural areas and 56% of teen leaders for the program are girls.

These numbers represent real kids finding their voice, discovering a brighter future and realizing their dreams.

  • Aubree from Utah is using her newfound voice to encourage educators to offer computer science in their schools. “I am only the beginning of a long list of students,” says Aubree. “My greatest hope is that I will never be the end.”
  • Jeffery from South Carolina says the program inspired him to reach for a brighter future. “I want to become a Computer Engineer and create innovation that improves our daily lives.”
  • Aja from Illinois was looking for a place to belong as a student with learning difficulties. Now, she has her very own organization, See Me in STEM, to empower minority youth to get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “4-H inspired me to be the change I wanted to see.”
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Throughout this journey, the 4-H team brought together nonprofits, businesses, community leaders and schools to create an inclusive and impactful computer science program for all ages across 50 states. For others looking to create computer science programs, here are a few things 4-H learned to help each and every student achieve their potential.

  1. Teach life skills, create career pathways, and provide ongoing mentorship to make computer science skills relevant.
  2. Develop equitable, accessible and inclusive content. Weave in teachings to relevant topics or existing student interests, partner with community organizations and invest in a technology lending infrastructure.
  3. Invest in your staff and volunteers. Provide regular training sessions, build a strong community culture and hire full-time employees with experience in computer science and proven approaches to engage youth.

As a 4-H alum myself, I’m proud to celebrate this incredible milestone and achievement toward equitable education and opportunities. We believe that the Computer Science Pathway, and the 4-H team’s thoughtful evaluation and collected learnings, will help make the future brighter — not just for the students who participate, but for their communities and the world as a whole. As we face global challenges, we’ll need the best and brightest out there solving them.

Continuing to support small businesses

Google’s work to address broad societal issues, such as climate change and digital skilling, focuses on creating solutions that are scalable and replicable by others. We believe solutions to global issues are most effective when the private sector, governments, nonprofits and academia come together to reinforce each other’s efforts. At Google, we focus on where we can best contribute to help make those efforts successful.

One example of this is the approach we have taken with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a network of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). At the beginning of the pandemic, we announced the creation of the Grow with Google Small Business Fund and committed $130 million in loans and grants. Our shared goal with OFN is to help CDFIs and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States access funding they need to grow. The more than 30 million small businesses in the U.S. are the backbone of the economy and employ nearly half of the private workforce. Importantly, CDFIs focus on SMBs often overlooked by traditional lenders, serving people of color, those with low income, SMBs in rural areas and women. We subsequently increased our commitment and allocated an additional $50 million to support SMBs in the Black community. We were motivated by our conviction that economic growth is sustainable only if it is truly inclusive.

Today, I spoke at OFN’s annual conference and was proud to share that Google has, to date, placed more than 90% of our $180 million commitment. In addition, I announced a new $5 million Google.org grant to OFN to help CDFIs use technologies that support their small business lending, allowing them to scale and innovate as they work to meet the needs of the communities they serve.

We are excited about the work that we have led with OFN to help small businesses in overlooked communities, but we recognize that we are just one piece of a much larger puzzle. As is true with a lot of our work, our greatest impact lies in motivating others to join us, and we are proud that several other companies have made commitments to OFN and the CDFI ecosystem over the past year. We look forward to working alongside even more companies in the future and are hopeful that others will see this momentum and be inspired by it as we are.

Restor helps anyone be a part of ecological restoration

In the face of a rapidly warming planet, protecting and restoring the world’s ecosystems is critical for safeguarding the biodiversity we all depend on and for helping us adapt to a changing climate. In addition, restoring ecosystems around the world has the potential to draw down about 30% of accumulated global carbon emissions and is key to limiting the worst effects of climate change. But where do we start and how?

How Google technology helps unlock ecological insights

As part of their work to better understand the relationship between ecological systems and climate change, professor Thomas Crowther and scientists at ETH Zurich’s Crowther Lab analyzed 78,000 images of tree cover and applied machine learning (ML) models to predict where trees could naturally grow. The findings revealed a thrilling opportunity: outside of urban and agricultural areas, there are approximately 0.9 billion hectares of degraded lands worldwide that could potentially support an additional trillion trees. The discovery catapulted restoration into the headlines, and Crowther Lab saw a need to support new and existing restoration projects by bringing together practitioners and scientists to form a global network — and to make the movement accessible to the public.

The result is Restor, which launches this week. Founded by Crowther Lab and powered by Google Earth Engine and Google Cloud, Restor allows anyone to analyze the restoration potential of any place on Earth. When you outline a given area on the Restor map, it will show you data on local biodiversity, current and potential soil carbon, and other variables like land cover, soil PH and annual rainfall. With this information, anyone can better understand their local environment and become a restoration practitioner. The platform connects practitioners, facilitates the exchange of information, and makes projects visible to potential funders and the public.

Designers, animators and creative technologists from Google Creative Lab helped design and develop the platform. Additional support, in the form of a $1 million grant from Google.org, is helping the Restor team test new ways to monitor ecosystem restoration progress by collecting data on indicators such as tree size and density, soil moisture, and vegetation structure from various restoration projects currently underway. Insights from this data will help Restor’s machine learning models deliver more accurate ecological insights, monitor project development, enable early intervention in at-risk areas, and help restoration organizations learn from one another.

Working together to expand the global restoration movement

Restor is making essential scientific data and high-resolution satellite imagery openly accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet connection. As the effort to invest in and support ecosystem restoration grows, we want to make sure that everyone can effectively measure progress. To do that, there needs to be sector-wide standards for tracking restoration metrics, such as the quantity of vegetation and soil carbon, native species abundance and survival rate. To support standardization, Google.org is granting $500,000 to Climate Focus to support the Global Restoration Observatory, which will bring together leading data providers, think tanks and restoration experts to do just that.

To protect and reverse the degradation of billions of hectares of ecosystems, we all need to get involved. Through our support for organizations like Restor and Climate Focus, we hope to empower a global restoration movement and make it possible for groups and individuals everywhere to heal our planet.

A Matter of Impact: September updates from Google.org

Jacquelline’s Corner

The pandemic laid bare existing inequalities across gender, race, class and country lines. And at the same time, other disasters — like hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes — continue to affect people globally and strain already tight resources. To have the greatest impact, we rely on strong relationships with nonprofit organizations around the world that are working on disaster preparedness, relief and recovery — like the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and GiveDirectly, that you’ll hear more about below. We learn about their needs and search for where our philanthropic capital — coupled with technology, data and an eye toward equity — can help make the biggest difference.

But we’re also asking ourselves this: what if cities and organizations could predict disasters and be better prepared with resources before they even happen? With a changing climate, we know there’s more to do in advance of crises to mitigate loss of lives and livelihoods. That’s why we’re betting more and more on the role that technologies like AI and machine learning can play in generating the data we need to be better informed and prepared ahead of disasters.

Last year, our grantees provided 6.9 million people around the world with crisis relief support and resources for long term recovery. An additional 2.8 million people were better prepared with resources and supplies, and nearly three-quarters of our grantees are developing tools to improve the availability of information during a crisis. Together, we can ensure that those who are most vulnerable during a crisis are more protected — before, during and after it hits.

In case you missed it 

Kent Walker, Google SVP for Global Affairs, recently announced a $1.5M grant to The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affair’s (UN OCHA) Centre for Humanitarian Data. The grant will go toward supporting their “Anticipatory Action” work that focuses on developing forecasting models to anticipate humanitarian crises and trigger earlier, smarter action before conditions worsen.

Hear from one of our grantees: Center for Disaster Philanthropy

Regine A. Webster is the founding executive director and vice president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), an organization that seeks to strengthen the ability of communities to withstand disasters and recover equitably when they occur. Since 2010, CDP has provided donors with timely and effective strategies to increase their disaster giving impact, and they work to amp up philanthropy’s game when it comes to disaster and humanitarian assistance giving.

A woman with a short bob haircut smiling at the camera.

Regine A. Webster, founding executive director and vice president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP).

“In 2020 alone, with support from Google.org and other donors, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) awarded $29.9 million to 173 organizations. These grants helped communities in 50 countries, including the entire United States and its territories, respond to COVID-19, hurricanes, typhoons, wildfires, flooding, earthquake, complex humanitarian emergencies and other disasters. The partnership we have with Google.org allows CDP to implement what we know to be effective disaster grantmaking around the globe. Perhaps more importantly though, philanthropic funding from Google.org and Googlers gives our expert team the freedom to test the way that race and power play themselves out in the disaster recovery context as we award grants to historically marginalized populations. We can test our assumptions on how to direct dollars to lift up Black, Indigenous and other communities of color and the organizations that serve them even in the face of disaster adversity, and how to work with disaster-serving organizations worldwide. We seek to inform the future of disaster philanthropy.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: GiveDirectly

Growing up in a family of community advocates, I developed both a strong sense of social justice and an interest in using my skills for the community. This made me excited to work with GiveDirectly for my Google.org Fellowship. GiveDirectly gives no-strings-attached cash to its recipients, empowering people to improve their lives.

A man standing in front of greenery, smiling at the camera.

Janak Ramakrishnan, is a software engineer and Google.org Fellow .

“The fellowship focused on expanding GiveDirectly’s work into a new sector: Americans affected by hurricanes. With climate change, hurricanes are becoming deadlier and more frequent. In their aftermath, aid organizations struggle to get help to affected areas; cash aid can be a great option in those cases. We worked with GiveDirectly to use Google’s expertise in big data and mapping, like Google Earth Engine, on this problem. Our project helped GiveDirectly quickly identify the most affected people right after a disaster hits, when every hour counts.”

Expanding access to computer science education with Code.org

It’s one thing to hear from your teacher that computer science is a valuable skill to learn. It’s another to hear from professionals using and interacting with computer science concepts every day to help students envision their career paths.

Last month, 35 classrooms and over 1,000 students signed up to hear from Taylor Roper, a Program Manager on Google’s Responsible AI team.

“One thing that drew me to this team at Google is that it’s oriented toward helping people,” Taylor shared with the students. She then reflected on her path to Google: “In high school, I took a web design course and loved it. I loved constructing the page and seeing it happen in real time. Being able to solve a problem and see the result, solve another problem and see the result — that was really satisfying to me.”

These virtual chats and field trips are part of Code.org’s new CS Journeys program to help students use their computer science (CS) knowledge and skills beyond the classroom, and discover CS in unexpected places. Students hear directly from professionals who use computer science in unique and creative ways, like modeling the universe, building robots, or — in Taylor’s case — helping to build responsible artificial intelligence tools for products used by millions of people.

“I remember being in elementary school and people would talk to my class about their careers, but they never looked like me or my family,” Taylor said when reflecting on her participation in the event. “To be a representation of possibilities for a Black child feels like a full-circle moment. I hope I was able to show a child from my community that there is a place for them in tech. Programs like CS Journeys are so important and needed.”

In addition to these sessions, CS Journeys also provides teachers with a collection of resources for students of all ages to help them imagine a journey pursuing CS — from young K-5 students to older teens who are starting to think about college and beyond.

CS Journeys graphic with a purple and blue background, and an image of Taylor Roper, showing the title ”My Journey developing responsible artificial intelligence.”

Google.org is proud to continue supporting these efforts with a $1.5 million grant to expand the CS Journeys program, provide professional development workshops, enhance curriculums focused on cultural and gender responsiveness, and launch programs for engaging Black and Latino/Hispanic students studying CS.

Our values at Google closely align with Code.org’s mission to expand access to computer science, and help more young women and students from underrepresented groups participate. Our tight partnership has supported teachers, inspired students, and brought quality computer science into the classroom.

“Google has been a steadfast supporter of Code.org over the years," said Hadi Partovi, Founder and CEO of Code.org, "increasing our ability to reach classrooms on our platforms and engage with students through campaigns and programs. We are grateful for their continued support and excited about the additional impact we can make."

Code.org’s projects over the next two years will support access, diversity, and inclusion in CS classrooms, and focus on engaging students and parents from historically marginalized groups. Because regardless of the passions they ultimately pursue, every student deserves the chance to explore, advance, and succeed in computer science — a foundational subject that impacts all industries and touches so many aspects of our everyday lives.

To check out more CS Journeys events, including an upcoming conversation with Google's Pre-College Programs Lead Kyle Ali, visit Code.org/CSJourneys.

Abriendo caminos: New pathways for Latino-owned businesses

Ver abajo versión en español

At the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which I have the honor to lead as president and CEO, helping Latino-owned businesses succeed is at the center of our mission. Our responsibility to the more than 4.7 million Latino-owned businesses and our growing network of 260 local chambers and business associations nationwide is to pursue and advocate for inclusive economic growth and development that build shared prosperity.

We represent the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S., and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. The number of Latino business owners has grown by 34% over the last 10 years compared to just 1% for all other businesses, according to a recent study by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, and much of this growth has been driven by Latinas. These new businesses are invigorating, highlight our potential and are what motivates me everyday.

In 2020, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, our chambers became emergency rooms for small businesses. We quickly mobilized and awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants directly to Latino owners and our local chambers to provide assistance. These funds were a lifeline for Latino businesses to keep the lights on, make payroll, rent and meet other critical needs.

We also provided technical assistance, established online resource hubs in English and in Spanish and graduated more than 200 Latino-owned small businesses through our accelerator program.

Last year was also our most active year in Washington, D.C. We raised $850 billion to provide assistance for our Latino small business members. We advocated for access to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for both Latino-owned businesses and 501(c) (6) Chambers of Commerce.

As we take a moment to reflect on our progress to date, we have our eyes on the future. There is no denying that the world has dramatically changed, and we need to adapt and thrive, not just to survive. And technology is driving change forward faster than ever before.

We got a glimpse of the transformational power of technology through our partnership with Google last year. We collaborated to provide extra funding and Grow with Google curriculum support to 40 of our chambers across the country. Together, we trained 10,000 Latino small businesses and the initial results and impact we've seen is truly remarkable.

Google and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce share a deep commitment to economic opportunity, development and advocacy for Latinos. This is why today, we are sharing that Google will be making a $5 million investment in Latino-owned businesses and community organizations.  Together we are also unveiling a new Latino-owned attribute that will be available across Google Search, Maps and Shopping. All this is part of Google's $15 million investment in economic equity for Latinos.


Building more resilient Latino businesses


Today, we are deepening our partnership with Google with an additional investment that will allow us to create Grow with Google digital resource centers and train an additional 10,000 Latino business owners on how to use digital tools to grow their business. This work is critical to setting up Latino business owners for success for the long haul. These new skills, training and resources will help them be competitive in today's digital economy and allow us to help aspiring entrepreneurs to think digital-first. 

Google.org is also providing funding to support the Latino Community Foundation's Entrepreneurship Fund, an initiative that strengthens Latino-led small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs across California. It will directly invest in 150+ micro-entrepreneurs to support the tireless work of street vendors, cleaning services, landscapers, childcare providers and other micro-entrepreneurs. For Latino-owned businesses, running a business is often a family affair, and the Entrepreneurship Fund will increase and improve the online presence for Latino-owned small restaurants through the creation of websites and social media accounts designed and managed by youth participating in tech skills building programs.

This is in addition to Google's ongoing support of nonprofits through $3 million in donated ads to Latino organizations. This includes the Hispanic Access Foundation, which uses Google.org's support to advertise internships for Latino college students, fundraise for DACA fee scholarships, and more — all in service of enabling more Latinos in the U.S. to achieve economic success.


Identify and buy from Latino-owned businesses

Today, we are partnering with Google to unveil a Latino-owned attribute that will be available on Search, Maps and Shopping, in the coming weeks, so businesses can easily identify as Latino-owned on Google. This update builds on the Black-owned, Veteran-owned and Women-owned business attributes, and is another way people can support diverse businesses across Google’s products and platforms.


The Latino-owned attribute on Google Maps and Google Shopping.

For more than 20 years, Google has been at the forefront of democratizing access for all —  it's one of its core values. Underrepresented groups have been beneficiaries of that mission, which is still alive today. This is why we deeply believe Google's open platforms, digital training, tools and resources are critical to advancing economic equity for the Latino community.  

Today's investments and product updates will provide our members, chambers and our communities a much needed boost. We are glad to help spotlight Latino-owned businesses in a new light, showcase our resilient spirit and invoke action. We are energized by our momentum and are eager to get back to business. I believe our future is bright - and today thanks to Google, it's a little brighter.


Abriendo caminos: Nuevos caminos para las empresas de propietarios latinos

Google y la Cámara de Comercio Hispana de los Estados Unidos (United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce) se asocian para ofrecer un atributo de propietarios latinos en Búsqueda (Search), Maps, y Shopping, además de nuevo apoyo financiero y capacitación en habilidades para propietarios de empresas latinas y organizaciones sin fines de lucro. 

En la Cámara de Comercio Hispana de los Estados Unidos, donde tengo el honor de dirigir como presidente y director ejecutivo, ayudar a las empresas latinas a tener éxito está al centro de nuestra misión. Nuestra responsabilidad con las más de 4.7 millones de empresas de propietarios latinos y nuestra creciente red de 260 cámaras locales y asociaciones comerciales en todo el país es buscar y abogar por el crecimiento y el desarrollo económico que construya la prosperidad compartida.

Representamos al grupo de emprendedores de más rápido crecimiento en los Estados Unidos y no nos tomamos esa responsabilidad a la ligera. El número de propietarios de negocios latinos ha crecido en un 34% en los últimos 10 años en comparación con solo el 1% de todos los demás negocios, según un estudio reciente de Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, y gran parte de este crecimiento ha sido impulsado por latinas. Estos nuevos negocios son estimulantes, resaltan nuestro potencial y son lo que me motiva todos los días.

En 2020, con la llegada de la pandemia COVID-19, nuestras cámaras se convirtieron en salas de emergencia para pequeñas empresas. Rápidamente nos movilizamos y otorgamos cientos de miles de dólares en subvenciones directamente a pequeñas empresas de propietarios latinos y nuestras cámaras locales para brindar asistencia. Estos fondos fueron un salvavidas para las empresas latinas para mantener las luces encendidas, pagar nóminas, renta y satisfacer otras necesidades críticas.

También brindamos asistencia técnica, establecimos centros de recursos en línea en inglés y en español y graduamos a más de 200 pequeñas empresas latinas a través de nuestro programa acelerador de pequeñas empresas. 

El año pasado también fue nuestro año más activo en Washington, D.C. Recaudamos $850 mil millones de dólares para brindar asistencia a nuestros miembros latinos de pequeñas empresas. Abogamos por el acceso al Programa de Protección de Cheques de Pago (PPP) tanto para las empresas propiedad de latinos como para las Cámaras de Comercio 501 (c) (6).

Mientras nos tomamos un momento para reflexionar sobre nuestro progreso hasta la fecha, tenemos la mirada puesta en el futuro. No se puede negar que el mundo ha cambiado drásticamente y que necesitamos adaptarnos y prosperar, no solo para sobrevivir. Y la tecnología está impulsando el cambio más rápido que nunca.

Pudimos vislumbrar el poder transformador de la tecnología a través de nuestra asociación con Google el año pasado. Colaboramos para proporcionar financiación adicional y curriculum de Grow with Google a 40 de nuestras cámaras en todo el país. Juntos, capacitamos a 10,000 pequeñas empresas latinas y los resultados iniciales y el impacto que hemos visto son realmente notables.

Google y la Cámara de Comercio Hispana de los Estados Unidos comparten un profundo compromiso con las oportunidades económicas, desarrollo y abogacía para latinos. Es por eso que hoy compartimos que Google realizará una inversión de $5 millones de dólares en la comunidad empresarial de propietarios latinos y organizaciones comunitarias. Juntos estamos presentando un nuevo atributo de propietarios latinos que estará disponible en la Búsqueda de Google, Maps y Shopping. Todo esto es parte de la inversión de $15 millones de dólares de Google en equidad económica para latinos.


Construyendo negocios latinos más resilientes


Hoy, estamos profundizando nuestra asociación con Google con una inversión adicional que nos permitirá crear centros de recursos digitales Grow with Google y capacitar a 10,000 propietarios de negocios latinos adicionales sobre cómo usar herramientas digitales para hacer crecer su negocio. Este trabajo es fundamental para que los empresarios latinos tengan éxito a largo plazo. Estas nuevas habilidades, capacitación y recursos los ayudarán a ser competitivos en la economía digital actual y nos permitirán ayudar a los aspirantes emprendedores a pensar primero en lo digital. 

Google.org también está proporcionando fondos para apoyar el Fondo de Emprendimiento (Entrepreneurship Fund) del Latino Community Foundation, una iniciativa que fortalece a las pequeñas empresas y microempresarios liderados por latinos en todo California. Invertirá directamente en más de 150 microempresarios para apoyar el trabajo incansable de los vendedores ambulantes, servicios de limpieza, jardineros, proveedores de cuidado infantil y otros microempresarios. Para las empresas de propietarios  latinos, administrar una empresa es a menudo un asunto familiar, y el Fondo de Emprendimiento aumentará y mejorará la presencia en línea de los pequeños restaurantes de propietarios latinos a través de la creación de sitios web y cuentas de redes sociales diseñadas y administradas por jóvenes que participan en programas que forman sus habilidades tecnológicas.

Esto, en adición al apoyo continuo de Google a las organizaciones sin fines de lucro a través de $3 millones de dólares en anuncios donados a organizaciones latinas. Esto incluye la Hispanic Access Foundation

https://hispanicaccess.org/

, que utiliza el apoyo de Google.org para anunciar prácticas para estudiantes universitarios latinos, recaudar fondos para becas que cubren los costos  de DACA y más — todo al servicio de permitir que más latinos en los Estados Unidos logren el éxito económico.


Identificar y comprar en empresas de propiedad de latinos


Hoy, nos asociamos con Google para anunciar un atributo de propietarios latinos que estará disponible en la Búsqueda, Maps y Shopping en las próximas semanas, para que las empresas puedan identificarse fácilmente como propietarios latinos en Google. Esta actualización se basa en los atributos de negocios Black-owned, Veteran-owned y Women-owned; y es otra manera la gente puede apoyar a diversas empresas a través de productos y plataformas de Google.

El atributo de propietarios latinos en Google Maps y Google Shopping.

Durante más de 20 años, Google ha estado a la vanguardia de la democratización del acceso para todos —  es uno de sus valores fundamentales. Los grupos subrepresentados se han beneficiado de esa misión, la cual continúa vigente hoy. Es por eso que creemos profundamente que las plataformas abiertas, la capacitación digital, las herramientas y los recursos de Google son fundamentales para promover la equidad económica para la comunidad latina.  

Las inversiones de hoy y las actualizaciones de productos proporcionarán a nuestros miembros, cámaras y comunidades un impulso muy necesario. Nos complace ayudar a destacar las empresas de propietarios latinos bajo una nueva luz, mostrar nuestro espíritu resistente e invocar la acción. Nuestro impulso nos llena de energía y estamos ansiosos por volver al trabajo. Creo que nuestro futuro es brillante, y hoy, gracias a Google, es un poco más brillante.

How life’s twists helped Lisa Mensah find her passion

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of interviews between expert panelists for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. 


Lisa Mensah works to make sure business owners who “don’t get a fair shake” can get the capital they need to grow. She’s the president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network(OFN), which provides capital, advocacy, and capacity building to community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Driven by a mission to serve rural, urban and Native communities underserved by mainstream finance, CDFIs lend to small businesses and community developers who build thriving communities. 


Lisa brings her experience working at the crux of finance and advocacy to the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. As one of our expert panelists, she helps us decide what organizations will receive funding from Google.org to help women and girls reach their full economic potential. I recently sat down with her to learn more about her path to OFN and why supporting women-led businesses is crucial. 


What got you started on your path? 

I’m from a bi-racial, bi-cultural family, and lived in Ghana as a young kid. I always thought I would do something in international relations. 


While I was getting my master’s degree, I was most interested in helping refugees and women in developing countries. But I felt I was missing out on powerful conversations — often led by men — on how nations develop. These conversations were frequently about money. So, my path pointed me to the financial industry, where I could be involved in strategic decision-making that would ultimately affect issues surrounding women. 


I began my career in commercial banking at Citibank. From there I moved to the Ford Foundation where I used my banking knowledge to help the Foundation build its program in microfinance and development finance. That’s where I fell in love with CDFIs, and I’ve worked with them ever since. Life’s twists pointed me to my true north, which is a combination of finance and advocating for change for people in poverty. 


What sparked your interest in inclusion for women in finance?

From an early time, I was interested in the economy at the grassroots. That’s usually the economy that women inhabit. I wanted to understand: Who is really feeding everyone? Who is keeping kids healthy? Who is providing income to families? Women across the world, often in informal employment, were leading this.

Poverty in the U.S. is a phenomenon that is quite gendered, often women-led households are lower income. By getting involved in development finance, I was able to see who controls the money and found that women-led enterprises and activities were being left out. 


How have CDFIs been transformative for female-led businesses?

Female and minority entrepreneurs have a harder time accessing affordable bank financing than their male counterparts. This is where CDFIs shine: where others see risk, we see opportunity. CDFIs take time to understand our clients and tailor products for them. This played out again and again during the pandemic when CDFIs provided great relief to women-owned small businesses.

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Why did you get involved with the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls?

The Google.org Impact Challenge will surface leaders that are flying under the radar in their countries and areas of work. We'll resource them to operate at a new level, like a venture capitalist finding the next big company. There aren’t enough philanthropic dollars for all the ideas that are out there in the world, but Google.org’s intention is to find efforts that are benefitting women and girls and support them at scale. That’s powerful, and I’m really pleased to be a part of it. 


Pretend you have a megaphone to reach every little girl around the world. What’s your message for them?

Your dreams are yours and they are real. They’re in you for a reason. You’ve got your contribution to make to this world — don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. And even if your path changes, like mine did, you’ll find your way. Along your journey, look for your cheerleaders and helpers — find the people who believe in you and will support you in your dreams and ambitions.

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A Matter of Impact: August updates from Google.org

Jacquelline’s Corner

It’s back to school season again, and the pandemic continues to affect teachers, families and students — especially those already lacking educational resources. Despite the challenges and unknowns, nonprofits working in education continue to push forward and innovate to support learning. It’s clear that the ability to pivot is a common strength necessary for these times, and as funders and supporters we must ensure organizations have the space to adapt priorities and meet learners where they are. 

Over the course of the pandemic, through our Distance Learning Fund, we’ve supported organizations — like INCO and TalkingPoints which you’ll read more about below — that pivoted to provide training and support to teachers learning how to educate remotely, delivered high-quality digital learning opportunities for students, and also created the resources needed to keep learning happening in an equitable way.

In the face of ongoing and overlapping challenges — the pandemic, climate change, racial injustices — I’m continually inspired by the new approaches that our grantees like these, and others, take to help the world’s young learners as they enter another year of education. 


In case you missed it 

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the crisis in Afghanistan. To help, Google and Googlers are providing more than $4M in support to organizations on the front lines aiding those who are particularly impacted — women, refugees and journalists. 


Hear from one of our grantees: INCO

Hei-Yue Pang is the APAC Lead at INCO, a global organization working to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy through forward-looking education and support to entrepreneurs.

With millions of children across the world kept out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, INCO launched the INCO Education Accelerator in April 2020 — with the support of a $2.5M grant from Google.org and our Distance Learning Fund. The accelerator supports education nonprofits across Europe and Asia and creates equitable access to education for children, especially those from under-resourced families. With technical assistance from distance learning experts and Google volunteers, the nonprofits multiplied their impact and collectively provided uninterrupted access to education for over 360,000 students — nearly 28 times more students than before their accelerator program. 

Photo of woman in black clothes and a necklace sitting against a bright yellow back drop.

Hei-Yue Pang is the APAC Lead at INCO. 

“Implementing this intensive program across 9 different countries reinforced our belief that the benefits of distance learning extend beyond a stop-gap solution during the pandemic. When it comes to uncovering distance learning opportunities, understanding the needs of students, families and educators is crucial. For example, one of our partners in Indonesia learned through research that parent engagement was key to successfully onboarding learners in remote areas. They tweaked their e-learning platform features to be more parent-oriented, which resulted in higher learner engagement rates. Ultimately, not only did we provide an emergency response program, but we also empowered grantees to become more resilient for the future of education.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: TalkingPoints

Fiona Yeung is UX Designer at Google who is participating in a Google.org Fellowship with TalkingPoints, an AI-powered multilingual platform that helps teachers and families stay connected via text message and an easy-to-use-mobile app.

Woman with long hair smiling in front of a gallery wall.

Fiona Yeung, a Google UX Designer and Google.org Fellow. 


"As a first-generation Canadian with Asian parents, I grew up speaking Chinese at home and English in school. And although I’ve become somewhat of a language fanatic — learning Japanese and French in addition to Cantonese, Mandarin and English — I strongly empathize with families who regularly face challenges due to language and cultural barriers. That’s why I found TalkingPoints’ mission to connect teachers and families across languages and socioeconomic divides so compelling.

Working with TalkingPoints full time reminded me that giving back even a relatively small time can create enormous impact when your team is driving toward a shared mission that is empowering and rewarding. Last spring, at the height of the pandemic, the volume of communication on TalkingPoints multiplied by 20 — ballooning to more than 100M messages exchanged, approximately half of which were in languages other than English."

A Matter of Impact: July updates from Google.org

Unlike other forms of funding, philanthropy is in a position to take risky, long-term bets on solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Government funding generally needs to show taxpayers that money is going to proven solutions, and private investors tend to operate on short timelines and have to make financial returns. That’s why some call philanthropy “society’s risk capital’; it can put impact first and be patient about the results. 

Google has a big appetite for risky bets, or, as we call them, “moonshots.” This approach has led to some of our biggest successes — from search to self-driving cars to translation. And, of course, some failures along the way. We’ve tried to take the same approach at Google.org,  looking for places where we can direct risk capital toward big problems, often by helping organizations capture the potential of new technologies like artificial intelligence.  

Through our Google.org Impact Challenges, for example, we invite social innovators of any size to give us their best ideas for transformative impact and we make sizable contributions of time and money to help them grow. Some of these bets have gone on to become the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit organizations in the world, like Give Directly, Khan Academy, and Equal Justice Initiative. And some have even failed. But through the success and failures, we’ve learned a lot:


  • There’s a place for risk and a place for sure bets: In our early days nearly everything we funded was in this category of risk capital, which made it tough to have steady, reliable impact or manage multi-year programs. We’ve shifted to a portfolio approach, carving out space for true risk capital and supporting immediate needs such as housing, food, and clean water. 

  • Bet on the team and roll with the punches:Even good ideas fail, but a strong team will roll with the punches and continue iterating to find success. By establishing shared outcome goals in partnership with amazing people, we’ve been able to achieve great results — even when the initial idea foundered.

  • Invest in what you know:For us, that expertise often involves technology, which is why so many of our best examples have technology at their core.

  • Give adequate and flexible resources:Too often projects fail because they’re under-funded or funders too constrained in their use of money to make changes when a project takes an unexpected turn. Multi-year, general operating support is generally the right move with risky bets, and we aim to be generous in our support of both time and resources. 

For a perspective from the other side, read on for how some of our Google Impact Challenge grantees were able to have outsized impact after we bet on them at ‘risky’ stages of their development. 

In case you missed it 

Speaking of Impact Challenges, we recently unveiled the 13 grantee organizations for the Google.org Impact Challenge Central and Eastern Europe. Funding recipients include a group working to create opportunities for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired, an organization running science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM) courses for children in foster care, and a team creating coding courses for LGBTQ+ people in Lithuania.

Hear from one of our grantees: TalkingPoints

Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.

Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.

Heejae Lim is the Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, an AI-powered multilingual platform that helps teachers and families stay connected via text message and an easy-to-use-mobile app. TalkingPoints received a $1.5 million Google AI Impact Challenge grant and support from Google.org Fellows in 2019 to help grow.  The support came at just the right time. Due to COVID-19, school closures and distance learning rapidly accelerated demand for TalkingPoints. They went from serving 500,000 teachers, families and students to the more than three million people they reach today.


“As an edtech nonprofit, TalkingPoints draws on research-based practices and invests in high-impact initiatives that may require a lot of resources and time. For example, maintaining high-quality, two-way translation in 100+ languages requires a significant and sustained level of investment. With support from the Google.org Impact Challenge and a team of Google.org Fellows, TalkingPoints has made strides in our ability to leverage AI technologies to support effective communication and stronger family-school partnerships among multilingual communities across the country. Just last year, we achieved 100 million messages exchanged on TalkingPoints, and the messages translated represented 99.8% of languages other than English spoken in the U.S. Now, we’re growing to help tens of millions of teachers and families successfully eliminate common barriers to supporting children's learning including language, time and more. We would not be able to achieve this level of reach and success without partners like Google.org taking the risk to invest.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Open Food Facts

Mélanie Gancel, a Google.org Fellow with Open Food Facts..

Mélanie Gancel, a Google.org Fellow with Open Food Facts.

Mélanie Gancel is a product marketing manager at Google who participated in a Google.org Fellowship with Open Food Facts, a food product database that lists ingredients, allergens, nutritional composition, and all of the information on food labels. 

“I was born and raised in Paris in an urban environment, but have always felt a deep attachment to nature and desire to protect the environment. I’m always on the lookout for ways to align my job as a Product Marketing Manager on the Search team to work that will help people make more sustainable choices. So when I heard about the Google.org Fellowship with Open Food Facts, a recent grantee from the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate, I was immediately on board. During my time with Open Food Facts, I’ve learned uncertainty around food choices is one of the main barriers to living more sustainably and that food accounts for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. We’re helping them build an app that will give consumers a simple food eco-score to understand the environmental footprint of grocery store goods and make informed choices about how purchases affect the sustainability of the world around us.”