Philanthropy:
Google seeks public input on its Google Impact Challenge grants.
Google wants Bay Area residents to pick the groups with the best ideas for transforming local lives.
Google.org, the search giant’s philanthropic arm, is seeking public input on its Google Impact Challenge grants to “change-makers and forward-thinkers who challenge the status quo ... with big ideas for an even better Bay Area,” as it says on its website.
“We looked for strong, innovative, social-impact ideas with reach and scaleability,” said Justin Steele, Bay Area portfolio manager for Google.org.
Judges culled through 750 applications to pick 10 finalists with programs focused on education, prison reform, racial justice, legal aid, entrepreneurship and community. Now it’s time for the public to weigh in.
Starting Tuesday, people can vote on its website, https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/bayarea2015, in interactive kiosks at bus shelters, and via new “digital paper” billboards at food trucks and stores. Voting ends Oct. 20; results will be announced the next day.
The top four vote-getters will win grants of $500,000 each, while the other six will each get $250,000. Another 15 nonprofits have already been picked to receive $100,000 each. All 25 get other perks too: a year’s membership at the Impact Hub co-working space, and volunteer help from Google employees and engineers.
Soliciting votes is a way to “raise collective consciousness around the region for the issues these nonprofits are working on, some of the most important challenges we face,” Steele said.
Some finalists already have well-established programs that they will expand, while others, such as Talking Point, a multilingual texting/translation app to let
teachers and parents communicate, are just a couple of people with a really great idea, he said.
826 Valencia, for instance, already teaches expository and creative writing to about 5,100 San Francisco students at its Mission District center and in schools. But it’s now raising $4 million to turn a Tenderloin liquor store into another writing center serving 2,000 youth.
“It’s our biggest, riskiest and most visionary endeavor,” said Bita Nazarian, executive director.
It will also have a quirky component, too, similar to the group’s pirate-themed store in the Mission: King Carl’s Emporium, a store selling wares “found” by a peripatetic mascot fish on his world travels. “It’s a way to welcome kids into a whimsical, crazy way of learning,” Nazarian said.
For all the nonprofits, the recognition is huge — and since the finalists are all guaranteed at least $250,000, they all will be able to expand.
“In my book, this feels like winning the lottery,” said Toni Burke, executive director of City Year, which places AmeriCorps members in East San Jose schools as tutors, role models and mentors. “We follow kids through elementary, middle and high school,” she said. “If they can get to the 10th grade, they are four times more likely to graduate.”
With the $250,000, it will add three new schools. If it wins the second $250,00, it will launch a new Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math afterschool program.
Google.org decided to reinvest in four of last year’s winners, seeing them as poised to scale even more, Steele said. It’s giving $1 million to the Ella Baker Center, split between two projects: #BlackLivesMatter/ Mobile Justice CA app, a tech approach to ending police violence against people of color, and the Restore Oakland Center, a multiuse space with a restaurant, worker training, coop food-enterprise incubator, and other services such as healthcare and child care.
Lava Mae, which provides showers for homeless people in a converted Muni bus, is getting $500,000 for new pop-up care villages, more data tracking and expansion into the South Bay. Beyond12 is getting $250,000 to continue development of its myCoach app for college students.
Bay Area Community Resources and Instituto Familiar de la Raza are getting $500,000 for the Roadmap to Peace Project’s Career Readiness component. The project, which unifies 20 organizations, city departments and community stakeholders, seeks to help Latino/Latina youth break free of gangs and violence. It offers services such as job training, mental health counseling, subsidized jobs, educational services and tattoo removal, said Ruth Barajas-Cardon, director of workforce training.
“Rather than each staying in our own lane, we can come together to leverage resources and expertise for the best impact,” she said.