Google Inc. launched an initiative Tuesday to help charities and other non-profit groups use maps and satellite images to raise awareness, recruit volunteers and encourage donations.

'There's nothing like the power of information to make people understand the urgency of action.'—Kathy Bushkin Calvin, UN Foundation

The Google Earth Outreach program represents a formalization of ad-hoc partnerships with organizations using the free software to publicize their works.

Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, listens via video teleconference as Google Earth & Maps Director John Hanke speaks from Google Earth's offices in New York Tuesday during the rollout of Google Earth Outreach. Goodall has partnered with Google Earth Outreach to help get the program started.
(Associated Press / Kathy Willens)

Already, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has been using Google Earth to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. When users scan over Darfur, they see icons of flames representing destroyed villages and of tents for refugee camps. Clicking on one opens a window with details and links on how to help.

The UN Environmental Program, meanwhile, has used the software to show areas of environmental destruction. The Jane Goodall Institute shows locations of its research on chimpanzees and African deforestation. A Brazilian Indian tribe is working on ways to help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold.

"There's nothing like the power of information to make people understand the urgency of action," said Kathy Bushkin Calvin, the executive vice-president for the UN Foundation, which promotes public-private partnerships to address the world's problems.

Edward Wilson, the chief executive officer of Earthwatch Institute, said the maps help people understand that "what they are reading is not happening some place out of sight, out of mind. Those places become places you can visit, you can actually see."

By turning these individual efforts into a formal program, the California-based search company hopes to make its tools more widely available to non-profits around the world. The resources will be available on an open website, so technically individuals and corporations can tap into the program as well.

However, one component of the initiative — grants to receive a free copy of Google Earth's $400 US professional-version software — will be limited initially to certain U.S. non-profits certified by the Internal Revenue Service. Many of the features, though, are available worldwide in the free version of Google Earth, available as a download for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Raising awareness through information

Non-profits are "trying to tell a story and trying to move people emotionally," said Rebecca Moore, the manager of Google Earth Outreach.

"They are trying to inspire action, advocate on behalf of a cause and drive people to, for example, make donations, sign a petition or lobby your congressional representative," she said.

"They have somewhat unique needs. Therefore we have focused on helping them understand how to do these things."

Many government agencies, hobbyists and other users of Google Earth already overlay maps with photos, video, text and links pinned onto specific locations. "KML" files containing such overlays are distributed through websites, e-mail or the software itself, for example. Once a user clicks on the file, icons representing those elements appear on the map.

Google will be providing online guides, video tutorials and case studies aimed at showing non-profit representatives how they, too, can use Google Earth's overlays.

Although Google also runs a mapping website, users will need the free Google Earth software to view the materials. Google says it has 200 million Google Earth users worldwide.