We focus our work on the areas where we can have the largest impact.

Youth Business International supports underserved entrepreneurs to start, grow and sustain their businesses – enabling them to create jobs, build communities and transform lives.

As part of our COVID-19 response, we provided a £4 million grant to Youth Business International to provide critical support to underserved small businesses in 31 countries across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

GiveDirectly empowers marginalised communities and those affected by disasters like COVID-19 through direct cash transfers, which give people the flexibility to provide for their true needs, in contrast to in-kind donations. Since 2012, Google.org has provided over £8 million to GiveDirectly to support people in need and to research the impact of GiveDirectly’s innovative approach. .

Decades of experimental evidence show that cash transfers have positive long-term impacts and that they can stimulate local economies.

The Google IT Support Professional Certificate is a first-of-its-kind online programme designed to prepare people for roles in IT support. With no previous experience required, beginning learners can become qualified for an entry-level IT support role in just 8 to 12 months.

To support Grow with Google’s mission to remove barriers to digital skills, Google.org funds need-based scholarships through leading nonprofits focused on underrepresented communities, including Year Up, Merit America, Per Scholas, Goodwill, the United Service Organization, and Upwardly Global.

Floods are the most deadly of all natural disasters. Flood forecasting and early warning systems can help individuals and authorities better prepare for impending floods to keep people safe. Google’s Flood Forecasting Initiative uses AI and advanced mapping capabilities to better predict the path of a flood which generates detailed alerts in Google’s online SOS and Public Alerts products.

Alerts save lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, many of the most vulnerable in India do not have access to devices or to internet connectivity to receive them. Google.org is supporting nonprofits, including SEEDS, to build local capacity for flood preparedness, early warning and response- to ensure the benefits of powerful and accurate alerts can reach well beyond smartphones.

To help communities turn these insights into action, Google.org started a £3.2 million fund in collaboration with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. Grants from the fund will support nonprofits and academic institutions in Europe and Latin America that are leading data-driven climate action efforts. One example is Iniciativa Climática de México (ICM), a Mexico-based nonprofit organisation that catalyses international climate policy at the national and city levels to reduce emissions and promote low-carbon growth in Mexico.

Helping health workers prescribe the right antibiotics for bacterial infections is critical for individuals and for the global management of antibiotic resistance. Antibiograms help guide these decisions, but in low-resource areas, medical staff often lack the skills needed to interpret them.

Google AI Impact Challenge grantee La Fondation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) is an international association of doctors and health care workers that provides relief to victims of disasters, like COVID-19 and Ebola. Their smartphone app uses image recognition to rapidly analyse images of antimicrobial samples, enabling health workers to provide appropriate patient treatment with limited resources. Google.org supported this work with £1 million in funding and a team of Google.org Fellows.

Since 2010, Khan Academy has grown into a robust online library of thousands of videos, articles and interactive exercises spanning many topics. Over ten million people use the platform worldwide every year in dozens of languages.

As Khan Academy has grown, so has Google.org’s support, which to date includes £9.6 million in funding, in addition to volunteer hours and other resources. Google.org has helped Khan Academy invest in the development of its intelligent software, deep data analytics and intuitive user interfaces that make their educational resources even more useful to students and teachers around the world.

Pratham Book’s StoryWeaver is a free online platform that connects readers, authors, illustrators and translators to create free stories for children around the world. Since 2013, Google.org has supported Pratham Books with more than £3.2 million in funding, thousands of Google volunteer hours and access to technical tools like the Google Translate API, which has enabled Pratham Books to dramatically increase the number of quality stories available through StoryWeaver.

We’re supporting online safety and media literacy for young learners and training for educators to provide everyone with equal access to these foundational skills. As part of our £8 million commitment, we have supported Newswise, a programme from the Guardian Foundation which provides media literacy lesson plans and workshops for teachers in the UK with the goal of creating a generation of young people who are news literate.