The web-search giant, Google, unveiled today a new program designed to help charities and other nonprofit groups. Google Earth Outreach enables any organization to quickly and easily get the resources it needs to create compelling stories to raise awareness, recruit volunteers and encourage donations.

The announcement was made at Google’s New York City office by Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President for Global Communications & Public Affairs, and John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps.

“Our goal with Google Earth Outreach is to help public service organizations worldwide leverage our mapping technology to further their goals by providing tailored technical guidance and grants,” said John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps. “Now any organization can quickly and easily annotate Google Earth with pictures, video and information to tell visual, compelling stories of the work they do to over 200 million Google Earth users.”

Organisations already using Google Earth in this way include the Jane Goodall Institute, the United Nations Foundation, Earthwatch and the Global Heritage Fund.

For example Google Earth was the application used by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Google also announced organizations can apply online for Google Earth Pro grants (a $400 value); grantees will receive additional technical support from Google.

Participating organizations may be highlighted in the Google Earth Outreach Showcase, an online gallery of the most compelling new layers, and a subset of those will be featured in the Global Awareness folder in Google Earth on a rotating basis. More details about Google Earth Outreach are available at earth.google.com/outreach.