Name of Funder: Google.org
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact info: http://www.google.org/
Coverage Area: National and Global
To Apply for Grants: Click this link for current information on grant application deadlines and procedures.
Subject Area: Children and youth funding for developing technical skills, with a particular focus on education, girls and young women, and preventing child abuse and trafficking.
Total Giving: Reports donating $100 million in grants, 80,000 hours in volunteer time, and $1 Billion in products each year.
In a Nutshell:
Google.org has a number of ways it funds children and youth programming in the U.S:
Improving Computer Science Education — RISE
One core mission of Google.org is advancing the computer science skills and career possibilities for women and underserved minorities. Since 2010, Google.org reports investing more than $40 million to expand after school coding programs, provide teacher training, offer technical resources, and facilitate access to computer science education for the next generation of tech leaders.
One way Google has been addressing the STEM gender gap is by providing RISE awards—grants of $15,000 to $50,000 that focus on educating girls, minorities, and low-income students up to age 18 in computer science, helping to prepare them for workforce jobs at places like Google.
Google gave its first RISE awards in 2010, so this marks the fifth year that it has been addressing the disparity for girls and women in the tech world. The awards started in North America in 2010, then expanded to Europe in 2011, Sub-Saharan Africa in 2012, and Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America in 2013, gradually becoming more global in scope.
The RISE grants include access to a global network of computer science partners including the annual RISE Global Summit and participation in the Google+ online community. They also include twelve months of consultation to learn about technical tools and organizational development.
The full list of 2015 winners is here, and below are some highlights.
Empoder East Palo Alto, CA
While this program is located in California, it is really a global program that engages students ages 8 to 18 in California and Mexico through mentorship and rigorous in-school, after-school and summer programs. The idea for its founding came to Dr. Marissa Elena Yáñez in June 2014 while on vacation in Mexico. Since then, she founded Empoder and recruited seven engineering faculty and four undergraduate students from the Universidad de las Americas Puebla to help lead hands-on projects and activities in Coding, Robotics, Instrumentation, Water Purification, Sustainable Design, Industrial Engineering and Biomedical Engineering in East Palo Alto, CA. The program also brought 50 low-income students ages 8 to 18 from Cholula, Mexico, to attend a free, two-week summer immersion program.
GUSTO and THRUST Educational Programs Nashville, TN
Fisk University is partnering with community organizations in Nashville to bring two summer camps to girls: GUSTO (Girls Using Scientific Tools) and THRUST (To Harness, Retain, Understand and Sustain) which offer STEM mentoring and informal learning environments.
Institute for Computing Education (ICE) at Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA
This program, dubbed RISE Up 4 CS, helps African American and female students pass the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam by offering help sessions through a local college or university. This program provides educational sessions run by undergraduate students via both webinars and in-person sessions.
LA Makerspace Los Angeles, CA
This community-based nonprofit is on a mission to increase access not to STEM, but STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (note the clever insertion of ART into STEM). This young team of coders teaches kids with a program called Scratch, and makes visiting calls around the Los Angeles area “to help anyone who wants to start making their own software.”
Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) Oakland, CA
Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) is a national nonprofit with a flexible club model that brings together youth and mentors to create a youth-chosen project. The program goes on to showcase its participants’ work at ‘Maker Faires’ and helps expose young students to a range of experiences and opportunities in STEM careers.
NCWIT AspireIT Boulder, CO
This program connects female high school and college students with K-12 girls to foster their interest in computer science. Using a near-peer model, the program seeks to bolster girls confidence in their technical skills and leadership potential.
MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs Cambridge, MA
This program has reached over 3,000 underrepresented and underserved middle and high school students free of charge to help them explore and develop interest in computer science. Two of OEOP’s programs, MOSTEC and SEED Academy, provide a specialized computer science curriculum that enables students from all backgrounds to explore coding and computer design.
Peninsula Bridge Palo Alto, CA
Peninsula Bridge works with low-income students by preparing and supporting them for success in college. This year, Peninsula Bridge is adding Computer Science classes to the curriculum.
ScriptEd, Inc. New York City, USA
ScriptEd provides students in low-income communities coding skills and professional experiences that create access to careers in technology. Students get the chance to apply their new skills in paid summer internships.
Women’s Audio Mission San Francisco, USA
Women’s Audio Mission is aimed at advancing women and girls in digital media technology and the recording arts, a field in which women are critically under-represented (less than 5 percent). Its program, Girls on the Mic, incorporates Computer Science into the learning of of audio technology.
To apply for a 2016 grant, check back with the Google Education website in the fall.
Made with Code
In 2014, Google launched a $50 million initiative to encourage girls to code, Made with Code. This initiative is designed to inspire millions of girls to experience the power of writing computer code, since as it stands now only 18% of computer science graduates in the U.S. are women, and less than 1% of high school girls are interested in pursuing computer science as a college major.
Learn more about Google.org’s grants for computer science education:
Preventing Human Trafficking and Child Abuse
Google.org is also invested in identifying and eradicating child sexual abuse imagery online. Through support of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CybertTipLine and the Internet Watch Foundation, Google.org aims to support a system to end the sexual abuse of children and reports giving more than $21 million toward this effort since 2010.
Learn more about Google.org’s Child Protection Grants.
Google Impact Challenge Grants — Bay Area
Children and youth are the focus of many of the grantees in Google’s Impact Challenge in the Bay Area of California. Through a competitive process, Google.org invites nonprofits to share their most innovative ideas for making our communities an even better place to live. A panel of advisors reviews the challenge applications and the public votes for the winners. The top four nonprofits with the most votes receive a $500,000 grant and support from Google volunteers and partners. In total, $5 million is granted to 25 organizations in the Bay Area.
Latest Tweets from Google.org:
Application and eligibility:
Google.org is now accepting proposals for its disabilities impact challenge. To submit a proposal and for more information, click here.
