Google Apps For Nonprofits AGAIN Open to Churches/Ministries

As many of you probably know, in March 2011, Google decided to no longer allow Churches/Ministry/Places of Worship access into their FREE Google For Nonprofits program (see article in Christianity Today). The result was churches/ministries would be required to pay $60/yr per user just like any other business. Yes, a number of Churches applying to the program were NOT happy and the fear was that churches already accepted and using Google For Nonprofits could be dropped from the free program without warning. Google never did give a reason why they decided to exclude Churches from the free program. Obviously, they can do whatever they want and given their history of not recognizing Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas this seemed like yet another jab at Christianity. So whatev's…

Then last week my buddy Derek Berg posted on twitter and his blog that he received an email from Google stating they were again changing their stance. He's the short and sweet "borrowed" from his blog:

"Organizations under the following categories may now be eligible for the Google for Nonprofits Program:

• Places or institutions of worship
• Programs requiring membership and/or providing benefit solely to members
• Websites with a primary focus on selling goods, products or services
• Car, boat, and real estate donation websites
• Consumer credit counseling

I went and checked Google's eligibility requirements and indeed it no longer excludes nor even mentions places or institutions of worship. They do have an FAQ that mentions a recent change in the eligibility guidelines, but doesn't list the changes. Link to the changes made

So, if you've been previously denied access to the Google For Nonprofits program because you're a church or ministry … go apply again :-)

And in case anyone is wondering … at GCC we have both Microsoft Exchange2010 and Google Apps, but have done very little with GApps thus far.

[edit 2/9/12] A Church IT peer just tweeted that their church has just been approved under the new eligibility change

[edit 2/20/12] Found a link where Google lists the eligibility changes https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/googlefornonprofits-discuss/8Gz64ixASWc

Comments

[Ron]

Do you know if they offer this in Canada? When I try to apply for it, it has a checkbox that we have to be non-profit in the US.

[Scott Behrends]

Yup, we've been approved, but now I've worked with email and phone support on migrating our current Google Apps for Business to Non-Profit. It's not looking good. They both just point me to the Non-Profit Google Group to get more answers. Our issue is to migrate over, we first have to apply for Google Apps (Free), they then upgrade our account to Non-Profit then we proceed. The catch? To apply for free, you can only have 10 accounts. Well, we already have 46 in Google Apps for Business. That means, delete 36 users/email/calendar/docs/everything, wait for x number of days to be approved for non-profit on that account, then restore everything. Kind of bummed about this process and since we've just paid for another year of business (which I'm assuming will be not be refunded anyway) I'm waiting to proceed. If anyone has any info that would help, let me know please :)

[Scott Behrends]

Ron, I don't believe any non-US non-profit can participate.

[Jeff]

Head up!!! Our tech guy here at our church did some more research through his connections at Google and learned that among the changes is a non-discriminatory hiring process: this would include not discriminating against other religious beliefs or homosexual lifestyle for your church's employees.

Can anyone confirm or deny this change in the policy?

[Ip Trunks]

Our issue is to migrate over we first have to apply for Google Apps Free they then upgrade our account to Non-Profit then we proceed. The catch? To apply for free, you can only have 10 accounts. Well we already have 46 in Google Apps for Business.