First Google Grants Day in Brussels

Since Google Grants launched in Belgium over 18 months ago, over twenty local NGOs have signed up to take part in the program. On April 22nd, Earth Day, the Google Brussels volunteers organized the first Google Grants workshop to help Belgian Grantees optimise their accounts.

Thirty participants representing fifteen organizations turned up at the brand new Brussels office on a sunny Thursday morning. A welcome address by Simon Hampton, Director of Public Policy, kick started the day. It was followed by a workshop session on AdWords theory fundamentals where the main mechanisms required to run a Google Grants AdWords account were presented. This was followed by two parallel sessions where specialists from the Dublin and Brussels offices walked NGOs through the main steps to open an AdWords account and optimize its performance to best serve their needs. The wrap-up session offered a short overview of other free Google tools available to NGOs to promote their cause, raise money, and operate more efficiently.

The workshop was well received and the whole experience of bringing the NGOs all together was really rewarding for the Google Grants volunteers. We were especially pleased with the level of involvement and knowledge of Google products showed by some of the participants.

Google Grants workshop Brussels

A few words from some of the participants:

"Google Grants was unknown to us a few months ago. We are looking forward to an increasing exposure of our awards, grants and methodological guidance programmes dedicated to support sustainable development initiatives."
- Foundation for Future Generations

“First of all, a big thank you for this event...this well-structured event targeted to the non-profit scenario was extremely helpful as I not only learned first-hand and quickly what AdWords is about, but also learned from fellow non-profit participants how AdWords can work in our sector.”
- The Migration Policy Group

“Thanks to the Google staff, I would be able to better monitor our Google Grants campaigns.”
- WWF Belgium

“The workshop offered practical and understandable information on the Google Grants project, and other Google products that can come in handy. Without a doubt, our organisation – and by extension the battle against cancer – can benefit from it. We will try to get everything we can out of this nice opportunity!”
- Stichting tegen Kanker/Fondation contre le Cancer

"Google AdWords could be very useful for NGOs in order to reach a wider audience and have more impact. For ECRE in particular, this would mean more opportunities to inform about the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and the challenges of defending human rights."
- ECRE, European Council on Refugees and Exiles

“I am really convinced that all information we got will be extremely useful and will considerably contribute to the awareness and success of our NGO.”
- ONA, Oeuvre Nationale des Aveugles

Posted by Stéphanie Leppert, Yves Taquet & Oliver Zimmer, Belgian Google Grants Volunteers