Tomorrow, Google will announce the 10 finalists for its Bay Area Impact Challenge, its latest effort to give back to communities in Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area. For the next 10 days, anyone can visit the website to vote for their favorite nonprofit among the group.
According to the Bay Area Impact Challenge site, finalists were selected based on four criteria: community impact, innovation, scalability, and feasibility. Here’s the list of nonprofits that you’ll be able to vote on starting tomorrow:
Beyond 12 – “By integrating personalized coaching with intelligent technology, Beyond 12 bridges the gap between K-12 and higher education to ensure that all students succeed in college.”
Hack the Hood – “Hack the Hood provides technical training in high in-demand multimedia and tech skills to youth who will then apply their learning through real-world consulting projects with locally-owned businesses and non-profits.”
Bring Me A Book – “By providing libraries of high quality children’s books and read aloud workshops to underserved communities, Bring Me A Book inspires reading aloud to children, the most important factor in determining a child’s future success in reading.”
Health Trust – “The vision of The Health Trust is to make Silicon Valley the healthiest region in America— for everyone. Our work includes direct services, grant making and policy advocacy. It organized under three initiatives: Healthy Eating, Healthy Aging and Healthy Living. Our work also includes Destination Home, a public-private partnership galvanizing our community to end chronic homelessness in Santa Clara County.”
BUILD – “Every year in the United States, half a million young people drop out of high school. Most of these young people drop out because they’re bored. Knowing this, BUILD addresses the crisis with a four-year, hands-on entrepreneurship training and college preparation program that makes school engaging and relevant—and consequently motivates students to succeed.”
Mission Asset Fund – “When hardworking families can’t get car loans or own homes, they turn to payday lenders and check cashers to make ends meet. High cost fringe financial services trap people in a cycle of debt, preventing hardworking families from realizing their true economic potential. The solution can be found in the hidden strengths of communities across the country. People come together to lend and borrow money with each other. We connect this practice with the financial system so that borrowers can build credit and a brighter future.”
Center for Employment Opportunities – “EO offers comprehensive employment services exclusively for people with criminal records. CEO’s model is based on a highly structured program of life skill education, short-term paid transitional employment, full-time job placement and post-placement services. ”
Pogo Park – “In one of the Bay Area’s toughest inner-city neighborhoods, Richmond’s Iron Triangle, we are building great parks and playgrounds. By transforming broken city parks into safe and magical play spaces, we are improving the health and well-being of thousands of at-risk children.”
Community Music Center – “Community Music Center was founded in 1921 with the mission of making music accessible to all people, regardless of their financial means.”
SubArt – “SubArt will reinvent the experience of subway riders by transforming BART and MUNI metro stations into public art galleries.”
On June 3, the company will announce the top four nonprofits, who will each receive a $500,000 grant, support from Google, and access to a co-working space. In addition, 21 other nonprofits will receive smaller grants.
The Bay Area Impact Challenge follows Google’s recent efforts to improve its image in the region. Back in March, the company committed $600,000 to approximately 700 Bay Area projects on Donors Choose, a platform where teachers can list projects that they need funding for in their classrooms. Before that, Google promised $6.8 million to the city of San Francisco to let youth between the ages of 5 and 17 ride MUNI for free for two years. All told, the company has given nearly $60 million to nonprofits in the Bay Area over the last three years.
You can see the advisors Google brought in the evaluate submissions to the challenge below:
