Google Brings Churches Back into Nonprofit Program
Nearly a year after Google introduced its nonprofit program that excluded churches, the company quietly modified its eligibility guidelines to allow them back in.
Google for Nonprofits offered free and discounted packages of some of the company's premium tools for charitable organizations. But guidelines excluded numerous groups, including schools, political think tanks, churches, proselytizing groups, and any group that considers religion or sexual orientation in hiring decisions. (Christianity Today reported on the change last August.)
In February, Google modified its guidelines again to include several groups previously excluded from the program, including places or institutions of worship and programs that require membership or provide benefit only to members.
While many of Google's products are free to users and supported by advertising, Google for Nonprofits gives charities breaks on several products it charges for, including Google Apps (its competitor to Microsoft Office) and free advertising in its AdWords program. It is also rolling out some services first to its nonprofit members. Last week the company said it would first offer live streaming video on YouTube to its nonprofit members.
"We're constantly evaluating our services," said Google spokesman Parag Chokshi. "Since launching Google for Nonprofits as a consolidated offering last year, we've received feedback from many organizations and believe this change will allow us to help more organizations take advantage of Google services."
Tim Postuma, web manager for the Christian Reformed Church in North America, said the change was unexpected but welcome.
"There was a lot of disappointment when they excluded places of worship," he said. "From what I saw when they put [the original decision] in place, it had a fairly big impact. I would think this reversal of that decision will have an equal but now positive impact."
Though complaints about the original exclusions may have contributed to the change, Google's motivation was likely mostly business related, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School.
"At the end of the day, these are customers. The people working for these groups are also potential customers while wearing other hats, whether as individuals or as business owners or whatever," Mayer said. "If you alienate them, they may go to rivals, and then you could lose not just the business of the church or the group, but all the other people that those groups interact with."
Mayer said the changes were a good move for Google, given the company's status. "They are in a lot of ways almost a utility, given how ubiquitous they are," he said. "For them to start differentiating between groups based on viewpoint issues, even though it's perfectly legal because they are a private entity, is problematic for them."
Some registration required
"To be considered for inclusion in the Google for Nonprofits program," the company says on its eligibility page, "an organization's 501(c)(3) status must first be publicly updated in Guidestar's online database."
To some observers, the requirement sounded like a significant obstacle. The IRS says that churches are automatically considered tax exempt and don't have to apply to the IRS for recognition of tax-exempt status. But some churches choose to do so anyway.
The process takes about a year to complete and requires an $800 filing fee, along with any fees a church might pay for professional tax services. "Most churches aren't going to go down that road just to get that benefit [of Google's services]," said church law attorney Frank Sommerville.
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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Comments
Alex Rodriquez
Data security is an issue with Google. Also, Google's support is not quite worth what you pay for it and it is free. Anyone signing up for the Google service should read carefully the agreement before signing. Google requires you to obey the law but they think the law says that a church is not permitted to discriminate based on religion, gender preference, gender bias, etc. Of course that is not true. I don't consider MBS to be a competitior of Google. MBS offers hosted Exchange in the private and more secure "cloud". Google does not offer hosted Exchange. As a user of Google Apps for Business and a former user of Exchange I am sorry I ever switched and am planning on switching back at some point. Even some Android devices have issues with Google Apps. If I could offer one word of advice to a medium sized church (or larger) that might be considering a migration to Google Apps for Business or for Non-Profits that word would be "Don't".
Morgan Feddes
Adam, that's a very good critique. Data security wasn't the focus of the article, so I didn't follow up on that area specifically, but you make an excellent point. I'll keep that in mind for the future. Thanks for the response!
Adam Shields
I would say it is questionable to quote MBS in this article. They are a direct competitor. There are reasons not to put sensitive data in the cloud, but a quote from a security expert or an expert on cloud computing would have been much better. Very few churches really need high level security on their email. I would wonder about a consultant that would say a church needs higher levels of security. The vast majority of churches have less than 3 staff and virtually no tech support. Options like this can be useful.