We always have our ear to the ground on tech grants for nonprofits because we believe they are the highest leverage social impact dollars that can be spent. It helps that our Chief Whaler George, who also runs PowerPoetry.org, is constantly hunting for tech grants to support the massive poetry platform.
The Pledge 1% program, founded in 2014, has enlisted over 1,000 companies launching different give back initiatives. This movement enlists companies to pledge 1% of equity, profit, product, and/or employee time to their communities. Salesforce, Atlassian, Rally, and Tides helped lead this initiative, which now includes thousands of companies.
Here is a list of some classic funders as well as some new national tech company grants to keep an eye on. When it is time to start applying for a grant, here is our guide on writing tech grant applications.
Google.org
Website: Google.org
About: Generally Google.org has a over $1 billion in funds they plan to give out over the next 5 years. Tech grants for nonprofits are announced on a rolling basis listed on their Google Impact Challenge page.
Open Grant: AI Impact Challenge
Website: ai.google/social-good/impact-challenge
Deadline: Jan 22nd, 2019
Total funds to be given: $25M
Google for Nonprofits
Website: Google.com/nonprofits
About: Google, now Alphabet, is so massive that they have entirely different tech grant programs than the Google.org work. The Google for Nonprofit program is an umbrella that gives access to: Google Ad Grants, YouTube features, Google Apps Suite (free gmail and drive!), a donation tool, and Google Earth and Maps API access to show impact. They are also launching Google Cloud, Data Solutions for Change which includes in-kind cloud grants and advisors from the Google team. Our very own, PowerPoetry.org has done some incredible work with this program.
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Box.org
Website: Box.org
coachingcorps.box.org
About: In addition to free/reduced prices for the cloud and content management platform, Box.org may be rolling out direct tech grants for nonprofits in 2019. Box.org is a part of the Pledge 1% movement and continues to evolve how the are giving back time, talent, and treasure to social impact. They also offer Coaching Corps that help nonprofits get started on their content strategy with Box. Each session is 1 hour long.
Podcast interview with Bryan Breckenridge, Executive Director of Box.org.
Twilio.org
Website: Twilio.org
About: Twilio offers free and discounted access for nonprofits to it’s powerful SMS and messaging platform. They are a proud member of the Pledge 1% for companies, redirecting 1% of their profit to social impact. They also run an annual impact fund for funding direct ideas in the community using SMS. More about this on our podcast with Twilio.org.
Annual Tech Grant for Nonprofits: Twilio.org Impact Fund
Deadline: July-September, 2019
Total funds to be given: Granted up to $150k in 2018. Twilio.org stated that up to $1M was available.
Mozilla Foundation
Website: Foundation.Mozilla.org
About: The Mozilla Foundation, born from the Mozilla Firefox Browser, focuses on connectivity and open internet initiatives for advocacy and on-the-ground work. They have annual tech grants for regionally targeted work that open up for applications. More on the foundation with our podcast with the Mozilla Foundation.
Salesforce.org
Website: Salesforce.org/Philanthropic-Programs
About: Salesforce.org, born from mega CRM Salesforce.com, has been an absolute pioneer in designing the ways a company can give back. Salesforce.org is probably best known for the 10 free seats for nonprofits, but they also have a volunteer program for database design that could save your nonprofit tens of thousands in cost. Their direct grants revolve around workforce development and education in corporate locations. You can find them at Salesforce.org/grantseekers.
Lyft Social Impact
Website: Lyft.com
About: Lyft, a massive ride sharing and transportation company is also one of the largest buyers of carbon credits, which offset carbon created by it’s rides. Beyond this, Lyft offers relief rides to voters, people in disasters, veterans and women in domestic violence crisis. As they grow their CSR efforts, Lyft is also growing their round-up program which allows customers to round up the change to a fund to be directed to nonprofits. More about their programs on our interview with Lisa Boyd, Senior Manager of Social Impact at Lyft.
TechSoup
Website: TechSoup.org
About: TechSoup is a global nonprofit focused on giving hardware, software and tech training at free or greatly discounted prices. They are also the largest global validator of nonprofits, so if you are applying to the Google for Nonprofit program you will be going through the TechSoup system. TechSoup houses the product give back work for many top companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, AWS, Cisco, and Dell, to name a few.
Full disclosure, we love these folks and have done many training courses for TechSoup — and our West Coast office is based in their offices.
Honorable Mentions
- The best list of nonprofit foundations and how much they give.
- Browse our list of companies that have great software discounts for nonprofits
- Knight Foundation: This isn’t a normal foundation and they have an open funding approach to tech grants that we love. Here are some open grants for 2019.
- Amazon.com: They offer affiliate link shopping and browser addition that sends a percent of purchases to nonprofits that register at https://org.amazon.com/
- Facebook.com for nonprofits: Their fundraising options on the platform are offered for free without any transaction cost taken out. In 2018, they raised over $1 billion for nonprofits through giving pages and individual fundraisers.
Know of any awesome tech grants for nonprofits that we missed? Share them with us and tweet @WholeWhale.