Google Grants Available for Nonprofit Organizations

Every few months I come across something for marketers that I had absolutely no idea existed.  This time, it’s the Google Grants program, an AdWords program for nonprofit organizations that falls into this category.

Whether you own a nonprofit or not, it’s interesting to see what Google has to offer and what others in your industry might be using in order to advertise. Knowing how it all works could also help you make your decision one way or the other if starting a nonprofit was ever something you considered.

Understanding this program is just another way to create well-rounded knowledge about Google.

How the Google Grants Program Works

The idea is that nonprofits can advertise with Google at no cost.

If your organization qualifies for the program, you get $10,000 per month in AdWords to advertise on Google to help accomplish your goals.

Sounds great, right?

It is an excellent program, but qualifying is strict and takes some time. As expected there is an application process, but you also need to make sure you’re following all of the program details to a tee or you could lose the grant money.

Google Grants Eligibility

In most cases if you’re a nonprofit organization you’re going to be eligible without having to do any extra work. But it helps to know all of the qualifications before you spend time getting started.

Knowing the eligibility requirements, shown below, is also a good place to start if you’re still in the planning stages:

• You must have a current and valid charity status. In the U.S., this means you have a current 501(c)(3) status.
• You have to agree to the Google Grant requirements. You will be prompted to accept, which is where you can read all of the requirements. How to use the donations, how to receive them, etc.  Remember, you have to agree and follow them. If you don’t like one, tough break.
• You must have a website that is kept up-to-date and has enough information about your nonprofit for visitors to see (and those giving you the grant money).

While you have to possess the above to get involved, there are also strict organizations who cannot get involved, which might help you determine where your organization fits into the equation.

If you’re working with a hospital, medical group, government organization, school and/or academic program, or childcare centers, you are NOT eligible for the grant.

Maintaining Your Google Grant

Once you’ve got the grant, step #2 is, of course, keeping it. There are quite a few things you need to do to make sure you don’t lose the grant you worked so hard to get:

• When you go to advertise, you have to link back to the URL that you cited in your application. On that same note, your ad has to be centered around sending people to your website.
• You have to login to your AdWords account once every few weeks in order to show that you are active (otherwise Google might pause the account).
• You cannot display ads from Google AdSense.
• You can sell products, but they cannot be financial products, such as credit cards.
• You cannot ask for donations in the form of large products, and all proceeds must go to your organization.

I recommend checking out this WordStream article that includes some extra restrictions and tips. The official Google Grants webpage also has more details and eligibility information for those wanting to learn.

Have you used the Google Grants program in the past?

Image: Video Still, Google

12 Mission Main Street Grant Winners Get Trip to Google Headquarters

Twelve U.S. small businesses will be visiting Google headquarters in California. All twelve are part of a program aimed at investment in small community businesses with a plan for growth. The businesses have been awarded a share of $3 million in Mission Main Street Grants.

The grants, offered by Chase, are intended to enable them to make huge leaps in their development that would not be possible without additional funding.

Recipients include businesses like Edibles Rex, a company dedicated to providing nutritious food for children in Detroit’s charter schools. Learn more about the company in the video below:

Each of the 12 businesses received $250,000 from the Main Street Mission Grants program. The funding will allow each business to significantly grow some aspect of their operations over the next two years.

In a prepared release on the grants, Chase Business Banking CEO Scott Geller explained:

“We hope these twelve exceptional businesses take their innovative products and creative approaches to new heights through their Mission Main Street grant.”

Businesses were chosen from among 35,000 applicants from all 50 states seeking to be considered for the funding. They were then voted on by the general public and their supporters who were all able to view applicants’ profiles on the Main Street Mission Grants website.

A total 1.7 million people online participated in voting for their favorite business and each business needed at least 250 votes to qualify for the final phase of the contest where winners were selected, Chase reports.

The trip to Google headquarters is also part of the prize. There business leaders will take part in a marketing workshop designed to help them market their products and services more effectively.

The other 11 winners of the Chase Mission Main Street Grants include:

ABL Denim, Manufacturing, Los Angeles, CA

Axelo Inc., Healthcare, Austin, TX

buzzy4painrelief.com, Healthcare, Atlanta, GA

Chemo Beanies, Retailers, Covington, LA

Curious Jane, Education & Training, Brooklyn, NY

Living Design Studios, Inc, Builders & Construction, Lafayette, CO

Milagros de México, Retailer, San Francisco, CA

Overnight Success Inc., Builders & Construction, Miami, FL

Rolling in Dough Pizza, Restaurants/Bars, Greenport, NY

Shaktea Kombucha, Manufacturing, Fairfield, IA

The Robot Garage, Retailers, Birmingham, MI

Image: Mission Main Street Grants

What Makes You Stand Out When Job Hunting?

“You have to become a premium item in a generic market.” ~ Tom Hopkins

This is one of my favorite quotes from world renown motivational speaker Tom Hopkins, that has guided and motivated me over my career.

Millions of Americans are currently unemployed, which makes the job environment very competitive. But now is also the most optimistic, opportune time to change or find work since 2010.

So how do you become perceived as, and known for, being a premium item in a generic market?

Below are some significant statistics that show the importance of developing your in-person networking skills, social media footprint and using social recruitment when job hunting:

• 21% of full time employees plan to change jobs.
• 92% of employers are using social media for hiring.
• 73% of employers have successfully hired a candidate through social media.

One of the most interesting statistics is 29% of surveyed hiring managers found something positive on a profile that drove them to offer the candidate a job. So, more proof that your social media platforms are branding opportunities that are being monitored and used to qualify people and do impact being noticed and hired.

Here are a few things that can help you stand out when job hunting, that should be obvious and common sense to most job seekers but a reminder is always good.

Right Job, Right Fit, Right Culture

Your best approach and mindset going into your job search should be to go for and find the right job, right fit and right culture. Bring all your relevance and value to the process, employer and workplace.

This ensures ultimate job satisfaction and longevity and that you will be a great hire for a company.

Update Your Professional Image

Make sure you have a current, professional and appropriate headshot. Make sure your professional image conveys who you are and how you want to be perceived.

No flip flops, crinkled and tight clothes, low necklines or bad grooming.

Tell Your Career Story

Create a functional resume that tells your career story, accomplishments and achievements more personally instead of a long list vertical bullet points.

Use your first person “I” voice on your LinkedIn profile.

Be Mindful of Your Social Media Footprint and Social Recruitment

Take your social media footprint, technology savvy and social recruitment very seriously. Presenting both your hard and soft skills is very effective on social media and there are jobs that are posted only on social networks between connections that are not on job boards.

If you are not engaging  - you won’t see them.

Network in Person

Blend your online and in-person networking. Get out and meet people through chambers, meet ups, professional organizations and referrals.

Nothing replaces face-to-face time with the right people to build your likeability so that you are more memorable.

Convey Clearly What You Do

Prepare a concise, articulate branding statement, when someone asks you, “What do you do?” Be specific and focus on one or two things you want people to remember about you. This can be a  “door opener.”

In today’s competitive job environment you have to have every advantage you can in your arsenal to stand out and get noticed. So take the initiative and responsibility for your career development, direction and job search.

Get prepared, be professional and stay laser focused on moving yourself and your career in the direction you want it to go.

Hire Me Photo via Shutterstock

EU data protection law reform criticised on Data Privacy Day

January 28, 2014

The European Commission's forthcoming data protection law reforms have been heavily criticised on Data Privacy Day.

The European Union has been battling for 18 months to make changes to the continent's data laws, which have remain unchanged since 1995. Ahead of today's Data Privacy Day, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding once again called for the EU Data Protection Reform, which could see businesses lose as much as 5 percent of annual revenue - or up to $100 million (approximately £82.3 million) - in the event of a data breach.

“Two years ago, on 25 January 2012, a great debate began in Europe,” said Reding in a prepared statement. “A debate about data protection in a world of total connectivity; about privacy in a world where data flows across borders as easily as the air we breathe; about the future of the digital economy.”

“9 months ago, the debate took an unexpected turn. The first stories about PRISM were published. Since then, headlines have been dominated by stories about government surveillance. In my dialogues with citizens across the Union, the sense of shock was palpable. We have learned that the times of mass surveillance are not relegated to the past.

“Data collection by companies and surveillance by governments. These issues are connected, not separate. The surveillance revelations involve companies whose services we all use on a daily basis. Backdoors have been built, encryption has been weakened. Concerns about government surveillance drive consumers away from digital services. 

"From a citizen's perspective, the underlying issue is the same in both cases. Data should not be kept simply because storage is cheap. Data should not be processed simply because algorithms are refined. Safeguards should apply and citizens should have rights.”

The pan-Euro reform, a topic of debate at the recent International Cybersecurity Forum, has been subject to plenty of criticism in recent months, with many blaming vague terminology and various legal loopholes. A recent ICO study also revealed a lack of IT understanding around the changes.

For Reding though, she says that change is imminent.  “Discussions are mature. The text is ready. It is just a matter of political will.” 

Any changes will see the statutory 1995 Directive replaced with a single regulation, which is expected to be fully-ratified by 2015, which will be applicable to all 28 EU member states.

The law requires companies notify the appropriate authorities within 24 hours of a breach, and also demands that firms do not share European citizen data with authorities of another country, unless explicitly allowed by EU law or international treaty. From the citizen's perspective, the law - which still needs approval -- will give them easier access to service provider data, as well as the ‘right to be forgotten'.

Sam Maccherola, general manager of the EMEA/APAC at Guidance Software - which has trained more than 50,000 cyber investigators, told SCMagazineUK.com that the law may be of limited value to businesses.

“Businesses now recognise breaches and rogue employees to be inevitable. Increasing fines and notification requirements over the coming months are a stimulus to better stewardship of data - and when the inevitable happens, preparedness to detect, triage, remediate and report. But even without the demands of forthcoming European law, and the enforcement of a harmonised regime, CIOs and CEOs already know that a data breach could cost them a substantial proportion of turnover,” said Maccherola.

“As a major UK retailer I wouldn't wait for compliance to tell me to protect my customers and my brand: I'd be doing it now.”

Christian Toon, head of information risk at storage and information management solution provider Iron Mountain added that most companies are unlikely to tighten security policies and data protection guidelines, however steep the fine.

“Despite the fact that this is a huge and potentially devastating sum of money, it remains unlikely that the threat will encourage firms to tighten their security policies and overhaul their data protection guidelines,” Toon told SCMagazineUK.com.

“This is not the first time this 5 per cent penalty has been proposed; the past three years have witnessed much discussion in Brussels around the possibility of increasing fines and clamping down harder on firms that suffer a data breach. However, no concrete proposal has yet been put into effect. As a consequence, many firms are not taking sufficient steps to secure themselves against a data breach and few have shown any real commitment to building a company-wide culture of information responsibility that is led from the top.”

The EU law reform has been heavily influenced by the leaks from former CIA contractor Edward Snowden, and these latest concerns were raised on Data Privacy Day, which is also today (28th January).

Mark Sugden, CEO of Boldon James, said that this latest initiative could change perceptions around data security.

"Awareness days are a great way to raise the profile of important issues that might otherwise go unnoticed and Data Privacy Day on 28th January is no different,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

“Data Privacy Day is a great initiative to highlight and educate businesses on the importance of good data security practices, but the responsibility for educating staff will always remain firmly in the hands of the company. Technologies that empower users to take ownership of secure practices, such as data classification, will help organisations succeed where so many others have failed."

One in four UK office workers don\'t know what phishing is

January 28, 2014

The ignorance of most UK office workers about phishing, one of the most lethal forms of cyber threat, has been revealed in a new study.

The ignorance of most UK office workers about phishing, one of the most lethal forms of cyber threat, has been revealed in a new study which shows almost a quarter of people don't know what it is. Another worrying statistic is that nearly a fifth of UK companies provide no training at all to help staff understand security threats.

The survey of around 1,000 people, which was conducted by One Poll on behalf of vendor company PhishMe, shows that nearly 9 per cent of respondents thought phishing was ‘a new social media tool' while another 14 per cent simply did not know what it is.

Phishing - where cyber criminals use a spoof email to trick the recipient into clicking onto a fake link or opening a dangerous attachment - has been used in many recent successful cyber crimes, even among tech-savvy companies. Earlier this month Microsoft had a number of its blogs and Twitter accounts hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army via a phishing attack.

According to the survey, almost half the respondents estimate they receive between one and four phishing emails a day, while around 16 per cent admit to having been tricked by a phishing email - a problem compounded by the fact that just under 20 per cent of the UK organisations questioned provide no cyber security training.

Commenting on the findings, Amar Singh, chair of the UK Security Advisory Group at global cyber security user group ISACA, said they show that ‘the human' remains one of the biggest challenges in cyber resilience response.

“Phishing and spear-phishing (targeted phishing) will continue to remain a serious threat and as more people embrace smart devices, this threat and its impact is only going to increase,” Singh told SCMagazineUK.com.

“A simple message, like “think before you click” or “think before you share” could save an organisation an embarrassing data leak and, consequently, its brand reputation.”

Asked if the finding on lack of security training was surprising, PhishMe CEO Rohyt Belani told SCMagazineUK.com:

“It's not surprising to see a significant percentage of organisations not providing security awareness training. The traditional approach to security awareness has been largely ineffective, which has led those organisations to abandon the practice. However, more and more security practitioners are discovering new methods that effectively train users and focus on measurable behaviour change; the trend is most definitely reversing."

Belani explained: "Improving staff security awareness requires a new approach that delivers training in an immersive manner. Sending simulating phishing attacks that provide instant, bite-sized feedback in an engaging format when the recipient enters sensitive information, clicks on a link or opens an attachment, is an effective way to positively impact employee behaviour.

“Measuring the results of each exercise, and refining future exercises based on the results, allows you to repeat the process while also providing fresh content. Repetition reinforces good habits, and makes security part of your organisational culture.”

Singh, meanwhile, added that most companies can do a lot by simply educating their employees on security basics.

“Not many a battle will be won if you do not have your employees, your privileged employees, aware of the dangers of things like over-sharing, unnecessary tweeting and sharing passwords,” said Singh.

“Organisations need to address an employee's personal cyber space and offer help and information on how they can protect their personal cyber space. This approach would benefit both the organisation and the employee.”

Police smash financial cyber crime gang targeting UK citizens

January 28, 2014

Pan-European cyber crime fighting agency EC3 has been hailed after Polish police arrested five Bulgarians accused of electronic payment card fraud targeting mainly UK citizens.

European policy body Europol said three of the gang were caught red-handed - two carrying out illegal electronic payment card transactions at automated teller machines (ATMs) and one in the act of receiving compromised card numbers online and encoding counterfeit plastic cards. The other two suspects were arrested in different hotels in Krakow in a series of co-ordinated swoops that took place almost simultaneously on 22 January.

Europol said the financial data involved came mainly from the UK, but a spokesperson told SCMagazineUK.com they could not divulge any more about the UK card holders involved as “the investigation is still ongoing and further arrests in the case are expected as suspects were working with gang members from Eastern Europe”.

The Polish police were helped by Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security and Europol's European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) which was launched one year ago.

Europol and EC3 help co-ordinate national police forces targeting cyber criminals, on the basis that they operate globally - and Adrian Culley, a cyber threat consultant with Damballa and former detective in the Met Police Computer Crime Unit, hailed their efforts in this case.

“This service makes a real difference and has a real impact on organised crime activity,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

“One of the challenges of multi-jurisdictional investigations, and indeed a potential weakness that organised crime will seek to exploit, is the wide variety of skills, knowledge, expertise, equipment and tools to be found across each nation state's law enforcement teams. Europol provides 'best of breed' in all these areas to all EU law enforcement, making it much more likely that such complex investigations are successful.”

However Culley added: “It is cause for concern that so much of the compromised account data originated in the UK. I am sure UK law enforcement, intelligence agencies and financial regulators will be examining this case very closely.”

The Polish police seized complete equipment for producing counterfeit bank cards, including magnetic strip readers and writers, computers, phones and flash drives. They also seized dozens of forged payment cards with records of PIN numbers, ready to be used at ATMs, and a vehicle worth over 25,000 Euros.

Culley said the case “highlights the blended nature of the threat posed by organised crime against financial systems”.

“Here we have classic elements of 'white-plastic' fraud - i.e., recoding blank cards with stolen bank card details, coupled with an unsuccessful attempt to operate across multiple sovereign jurisdictions in order to evade arrest and subsequent prosecution”.

EC3 head Troels Oerting added in a statement: “This is another great example of joint efforts between member states and EC3 to protect customers and electronic payments across the European Union. Police forces in the EU are utilising Europol's unique tools to make electronic payment transactions safer. We are continuously investing more resources into this vital support platform, and we can now see the results of this teamwork.”

During the investigation, EC3 provided intelligence analysis and expertise. Europol generally offers forensic analysis tools to help police combat payment card fraud, cybercrime, counterfeiting and illicit drug production, including a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) which Europol says can extract data from 95 percent of all mobile phones and PDA devices.

After Big Investment, Has Tumblr Stopped Growing?

Has Tumblr, the social blogging site Yahoo acquired for what was reported to be $1.1 billion last year, stopped growing? The social blogging network reached 47.49 active users in May 2013, the month the sale was announced, reports Forbes. The news source is now saying the sale to Yahoo was closer to 9.9 million.

Yahoo acquired Tumblr, looking to add some “cool” to its audience since Tumblr’s users are typically younger. At the time of the sale, both companies touted Tumblr as the fastest growing media network on the Web.

Since the sale, though, growth has remained fairly flat, only once spiking close to the 50 million user mark in July, Forbes reports. The analysis is based on comScore data of both desktop and mobile users, according to Forbes.

Tumblr has disputed Forbes’ read of a plateau in user growth. In a recent email responding to the comScore data, a spokeswoman explained:

“Comscore does not fully capture mobile traffic, as it does not include in-app traffic (and that number you reference also only accounts for US). For Tumblr, 1 in 2 active users access Tumblr content through the mobile app. In addition, in the past year we’ve seen a 55% total engagement growth and on mobile this number is 251% growth.”

So are the stagnant numbers a sign that Tumblr has stopped growing? It depends on who you ask and what numbers they’re using.

For example, a GlobalWebIndex survey of 170,000 Internet users worldwide also reported by Forbes may tell a slightly different story. The number of people in the global survey who described themselves as active users of the site remained flat at 4 percent from the second through the fourth quarter of 2013. Nothing new there.

But the number of Internet users who said they had a Tumblr account jumped from 6 percent in the first quarter to 12 percent in the second quarter of 2013. That number dropped to 11 percent in the third quarter, but rose again to 13 percent to finish the year.

So comScore numbers may not tell the whole story since they obviously leave some users out. Also, other numbers suggest that, whether they are all active or not, the number of Tumblr users seems to still be growing.

Image: Tumbler

US tech giants win right to disclose government snooping

January 28, 2014

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn have won a U.S. court battle which allows them to disclose the number of requests they receive from the NSA, FBI and other government agencies.

Microsoft, Google and other leading US tech companies trying to regain their customers' trust over how much data they secretly share with the American government have won a court battle that allows them to be more transparent, but it won't be enough to reassure their UK business customers according to experts.

Monday's breakthrough ruling by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington DC has persuaded the five companies involved - Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Facebook - to drop their legal action against the Obama administration.

The ruling enables both US high-tech and phone companies to more freely disclose the number of requests they get from the NSA intelligence agency, FBI and others to hand over customer data - but they still can't reveal the names of the customers involved.

The greater transparency is also mired in restrictions - vendors can choose to reveal the number of requests only in bands of 1,000 or 250, depending on whether or not they lump together requests from different agencies, and these figures can only be released after a six-month time-lag, rising to two years for requests relating to new ‘platforms, products or services'.

The move has been welcomed as ‘a first step' by industry expert Steve Durbin, global vice president of the Information Security Forum (ISF)  - which advises business and government organisations on cyber security issues - but he insists it does not go far enough.

“Some of the fundamentals these companies are trying to address are really around trust and reputation. This has gone part way towards addressing that, because they can now at least disclose some of what they have to share with the federal authorities, so that their customers can see how much information is being passed across,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

“But we really need to go very much further than this - because simply quoting numbers isn't going to deliver full transparency, it's simply going to highlight that there is a traffic flow between the tech providers and the Department of Justice.”

Durbin added: “I think it's the right first step but we need to continue to press for increased transparency if we're going to engender more trust between customer and supplier.”

Microsoft's top lawyer and chief compliance officer, Brad Smith, tweeted a response to the ruling on behalf of the five companies involved that showed they too feel more needs to be done.

"We filed our lawsuits because we believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and types of national security requests we receive,” he said. 

“We're pleased the Department of Justice has agreed that we and other providers can disclose this information. While this is a very positive step, we'll continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed.”

Durbin agreed with Smith, however, that more must be done so that businesses can be more transparent on the level of government surveillance.

“For me, to go the full distance, to regain full trust and reputation, simply saying the number of incidents that they have to report probably doesn't go far enough.”

The US court ruling confirms: “The Government will permit the petitioners to publish the aggregate data at issue...relating to any orders pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Director of National Intelligence has declassified the aggregate data...The Government will therefore treat such disclosures as no longer prohibited.”

And an accompanying letter from US Deputy Attorney General James M Cole offers a further olive branch to the vendor companies.

“We look forward to continuing to discuss with you ways in which the government and industry can similarly find common ground on other issues raised by the surveillance debates of recent months.”

The ruling comes just days after Microsoft declared it would allow its UK and other business and government cloud services customers to move their data out of the US, and choose the region where it is held (SCMagazineUK.com, January 24).

Brad Smith said at the time: “People should have the ability to know whether their data are being subjected to the laws and access of governments in some other country and should have the ability to make an informed choice of where their data resides.”

Steve Durbin sees this as another positive step. “The tech providers, in fairness, are responding,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

“They are trying to be relatively more open in terms of saying this is what we're doing and what we're obliged to do. That's why I'm so in favour of what Microsoft did. I think that was a very proactive move on their part.”

The US court ruling comes as more revelations emerge of secret electronic surveillance by the UK's GCHQ intelligence agency and NSA. Reports this week from America's NBC News, The Guardian and New York Times claim that GCHQ has secretly tapped into and analysed social media data including YouTube videos, Facebook 'likes' and Tweets. The NSA and GCHQ have also reportedly harvested information from mobile phone apps - including Angry Birds -about the user's age, gender and location.

Be Honest - Are You Acting Fake?

Many small business owners suffer from the imposter syndrome. They feel that their customers or employees will find out “who they really are” and lose confidence in their ability to run the company. This fear holds many people back from displaying who they really are at work. This becomes a problem in the transparent world of the Internet where “being human” and authentic are highly valued by customers.

Customers buy from those who they believe, like and trust. Without being authentic as a leader and a company, this will never happen and it will become impossible to build a profitable company. Here is what to do.

1. Tell the Truth

This is more difficult than it first seems in small business. Most owners have good intentions, but sometimes are afraid to disclose to employees and customers what is really happening.

How to be authentic: Focus on the companies strengths. Always deliver good and bad news in a timely fashion. Don’t be afraid to be humble and show personal or company warts. Build a culture of openness and frequent communication.

2. Stick to the Brand

Many times, companies want to be everything to everybody. This leads to telling the customer that the company can do things that they really can’t. This leads to frustrated employees, disappointed customers and an unprofitable businesses.

How to be authentic: Determine the exact customer segment served and the pain solved. Get clear on what the company cares about. Stay focused on delivering outstanding results in this niche area.

3. Hire Employees that Want to be Part of the Company’s Culture

Too many times, owners hire a person to fit a particular job. They rush into a decision and don’t understand how that person would work in the overall company culture.

How to be authentic: Hire for attitude over skill. Think about how the new employee will complement the rest of the team. Have team members give feedback on prospective employees.

4. Be Consistent

Too many times, the company’s brand does not match it’s culture. The friendly company persona contradicts the cut throat office atmosphere. The boss is sometimes an angel and other times an ogre.

How to be authentic: Live the company brand. Be the same person inside and outside the office. Be the same in front of managers, staff and customers. Have no hidden agendas. Set an example by practicing whatever is preached.

Are you authentic and how do you demonstrate it?

This article, provided by Nextiva, is republished through a content distribution agreement. The original can be found here.

Authenticity Photo via Shutterstock