Google Offers Big Money To Aussie Charities And NFPs

Next year, Google will be holding Australia’s third Google Impact Challenge with a minimum funding commitment of $5M. They will be inviting charities and nonprofits to propose technology-driven solutions to challenges facing our society. The submissions will be judged by Google along with prominent Australians. The public will also be asked to vote on their favourite projects.

Past beneficiaries of the Impact Challenge include

• George Institute for Global Health, which is creating an SMS-based support service to help people with chronic diseases lead healthier lives
• Centre for Eye Research Australia, with an eyesight self-assessment system for Australians in remote areas
• Great Barrier Reef Foundation is protecting coral reef ecosystems though a low-cost, autonomous robot designed to monitor, map, manage and preserve coral reef ecosystems
• The Nature Conservancy Australia is deploying mobile technology to protect global fish stocks.

This will be the third time Google has run the Google.org Impact Challenge in Australia – the first country outside of America to do so.

Google Australia managing director Jason Pellegrino said “Normally we only do an Impact Challenge once, but we have been impressed by the calibre of the ideas and the teams that came forward. The ideas in Australia are not only the best innovators all across Australia, but on par with any of the best innovation ideas we’ve seen globally”.