Google Awards £500,000 To Four UK Charities

Google has announced the winners of its Global Impact Challenge – the competition that sponsors non-profit projects aspiring to change the world through technology.

Four British organisations will receive £500,000 each – SolarAid, Integrity Action, Apps for Good and the Zoological Society for London. In addition to the money, the charities will also get mentorship and support from Google volunteers.

Six additional finalists will receive £100,000 in seed funding to develop their projects further.

“The Web’s contribution to economic progress has been much celebrated, but I believe that we are only scratching the surface of its potential to solve social and political problems,” said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, one of the judges, during the awards ceremony.

Tech for good

Global Impact Challenge was launched in March. It is the annual competition run by Google Giving, the web giant’s charity arm that invests more than $50 million a year in socially beneficial technology projects.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges with 10 finalists voted in by the public. This panel included Sir Berners-Lee, Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Forster Communications Jilly Forster and director of Google Giving Jacquelline Fuller.

The first prize was handed to SolarAid – a charity that aims to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by 2020, by creating a market for high tech, low-cost solar lights. “I would like to thank everyone who voted for SolarAid and helped spread the word. It is fantastic to know that so many people can see the huge impact that one small solar light can have,” said Steve Andrews, CEO of the company.

Second prize went to Integrity Action – an organisation that helps rebuild countries ravaged by war, using a community-driven online platform. With the Global Impact Challenge funds, over the next 18 months Integrity Action hopes to train 2,000 community monitors in seven countries to help citizens fix at least half of problems with public services and infrastructure.

“The public vote and support showed that thousands of people right across the world could relate to what we do. The decision by the jury is an incredible endorsement by Google of the power technology to empower even the poorest and most disenfranchised so that their voices will be listened to,” said Fredrik Galtung, CEO of Integrity Action.

The third winner, Apps For Good, is an educational charity that teaches children between 11 and 18 years how to create HTML5 apps. It partners with formal and informal education organisations and trains educators to deliver app development courses to young people and match them with professional designers, developers and entrepreneurs who advise them via video conferencing. Apps For Good hopes to reach 20,000 students in 2013.

The Zoological Society of London won the fan favourite award for its project to equip next generation camera traps in Kenya with automated sensors, in order to stop endangered rhinos from being hunted by gangs of poachers.

As well as instantly transmitting images of intruders to park rangers, the advanced cameras can detect vehicles from vibrations and triangulate the sound of gunshots. The Society hopes it can cut poaching in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park in half, and save hundreds of animals over the next two years.

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