Google is offering charities and not-for-profit organisations the chance to use Google Earth without paying the earth.

Google Earth Outreach will offer charities an easy way to add Google Earth layers - effectively a personalised version of the application. It includes online training in adding layers, video tutorials and case studies of how other organisations have used layers. There are also moderated forums. Google Earth is a free download but the pro version is $400.

It means charities that choose to use Google Earth to illustrate their websites will be able to do so more cheaply. There have been 200 million downloads of the application.

Back in April Google teamed up with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to map ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

You can apply for a $400 grant for extra technical support.

Three layers are already available: Global Heritage Fund, which shows heritage sites the GHF is working to preserve; Earthwatch Expeditions, which shows more than 100 volunteer environmental projects; and Fair Trade Certified, which shows 70 Fair Trade co-ops across Latin America.

Only organisations that are "public benefit, US-based non profit with current 501(c)(3) status" need apply.®

More comments…

Related stories

Free our data - open mapping comes of age (22 November 2007)
Google opens Maps for editing (22 November 2007)
Microsoft demos mind-bending photo app (12 June 2007)
Google Maps aids terrorists, NY lawmaker warns (11 June 2007)
Amnesty's spy in the sky for Darfur (7 June 2007)
Google Earth unearths crashed Darfur gunrunning plane (30 May 2007)
Google cedes Chilean village to Argentina (30 April 2007)
Darfur genocide mapped from space (11 April 2007)