Until recently, Google offered discounts on many of its paid services to nonprofit organizations, including churches. This past spring, with little fanfare, the company changed its policy. It created a new suite of applications, known as Google for Nonprofits, that includes significant discounts and advantages for a range of Google products such as grants for advertising on AdWords, free licenses for Google Earth Pro and the option to raise funds through a “donate” button at Google Checkout.
Google also added a remarkable list of restrictions for eligible charitable groups and institutions. Among those not able to apply for the program are websites where people donate cars to charity; child care centers, unless the “entire” purpose is to serve a disadvantaged community; hospitals; websites “that result in a poor experience for the viewer”; and — most troublesome — “places or institutions of worship (e.g., churches, ministries, temples, synagogues).”
This last restriction caught religious groups by surprise…
This caught us by surprise this summer. We were one of the beta sites for Google Apps back when it was being rolled out. The suite has become a critical part of how we organize the congregation (particularly the calendar tools).
But after waiting to see what was going to happen, it appears that we’re going to be “grandfathered” into the non-profits program.
Which is good for us, but it does raise the concern that the terms of the agreement we had between ourselves and Google can change whenever they want to change them. I’ve been paying more attention to alternatives lately.
Perhaps we Christians, of whatever denomiation, need to let go of the “free rides” offered by non-church entities and get on with being self supporting and self sustaining…or is that God supported and God sustained? I think the Apostle Paul would approve…and, my goodness, maybe even Jesus would approve? Frances S Scott