In November 2017 Google added a “Donate” button to make it easier for people to give money to their favourite organisations during the holidays. Yesterday we noticed the feature when searching on how to donate help the victims in Palu, Indonesia following the earthquake and tsunami tragedy.
If you haven’t seen this feature yet or wish to donate to a worthy cause such as the relief effort in Palu in Indonesia, then please read this blog post that will help you find out how to donate and spread awareness of what is happening in Palu.
If you only have a couple of minutes, then see the how-to video or read the step by step instructions on how to donate below along with more information about the harrowing situation in Palu.
The Palu Earthquake and Tsunami
Indonesia experiences earthquakes on almost a daily basis due it being situated between a number of active volcanoes (also known as the “ring of fire”). With us having an office in Bali, we do experience tremours quite often and so are often on alert for Earthquakes and also potential tsunamis.
The scale of the earthquake and tsunami which hit Palu on Friday 28th September 2018 however, took both us, locals and scientists across the world by surprise. Officials call what happened a worst case scenario. Not only was the earthquake a big one of 7.5 magnitude, but it also had its epicenter only 10 km (6 miles) below the surface. Palu being at the end row of a narrow 10km-long bay, as shown to the right, was left helpless once the tsunami came. Three waves hit the coastal city within three minutes.
As of 2nd October, BBC reports that more than 1,400 people have died, but the final figure could be much higher. All normal services in the town have broken down and there’s little running water, power, food or drinking water.
As the victims still urgently need help, we decided to make a donation through Google yesterday and we hope readers like yourself can also help by donating also. Here is how you can donate:
The Google Donation Button
In the holiday season of 2017, Google made it easier to support nonprofit organisations by adding a donate button directly in search. When you now search for any recent fundraising project, you will find the Google “donate” button in your search results.
After adding a donation, Google will distribute the funds to organisations it deems best placed to help. This makes it easier for people all over the world to help the ones in need, without the information overload of search and the language barrier getting in the way. It has never been easier for you to help others.
Below you find a tutorial on how to donate through the Google Donate Button:
Step 1: Search on Google for the cause you want to donate to – e.g. “Palu Earthquake Donations”
Step 2: Scroll down and find the donate button
Step 3: Choose the amount you want to donate
Step 4: Sign in or continue as guest (dependent if you are already signed in via Chrome)
Step 5: Add your payment details
If you notice, when searching that the donate button doesn’t appear, it might be because of the search term you chose. As an example, when we tried searching for “Donate Earthquake Sulawesi” the donate button did not show up, but when we searched for “Palu Earthquake Donation” it did. In other words, Google’s needs to get smarter on the semantic matching for the donate button to be 100% effective.
We hope you have found this blog post helpful and raises more awareness help increase donations to this cause.
Thank you.
Images used: BBC and Sky News
