Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Since we started Google Checkout for Non-Profits in late 2007, we have been excited by the enthusiastic response we've received from the non-profit community. Over the past year, we've made donation processing simpler and more convenient for thousands of non-profits, benefiting causes such as Myanmar (Burma) cyclone relief, China earthquake relief, Earth Day, and many more. And throughout 2008, we provided all of the donation processing for free, ensuring that 100 percent of contributions went toward supporting those causes.We will be extending free donation processing for another year, until 2010. However, in an effort to bring more consistency to the eligibility guidelines for Google's non-profit offerings, only those non-profits who are also members of our Google Grants program will be eligible for free donation processing. All other non-profits will transition to Checkout's standard fee structure on March 1, 2009.
If your organization is already a Google Grants recipient using Checkout for donation processing, please make sure to link your Grants account with Checkout by February 15 to continue receiving free donation processing without interruption. If you are not yet a Google Grants recipient and you meet the guidelines for the program, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you apply for Google Grants by March 1, 2009 and you're accepted, we will retroactively credit you for any Checkout fees incurred while your application was pending. For anyone who falls outside of our guidelines or who decides not to apply for a Google Grant, we realize this news may come as a disappointment, and hope that you'll still find Checkout's ease of use and competitive rates compelling reasons to keep using our product.
For those of you who do become Google Grants recipients, we think you'll find both tools to be effective in helping you increase your online fundraising, and even better when used in concert. Watch this video to learn more about how Grants and Checkout work together for non-profits.
