Royal Oak, MI - Michigan Compassion is pleased to announce it has received a $240,000 Google Grant from Google Corporation. The grant is an in-kind, AdWords advertising allowance and other premium Google products and support that will continue for the life of the organization. Michigan Compassion will use the grant to promote its medical cannabis awareness initiatives. The 2013 initiative is based on the organization’s philosophy: “We must increase awareness to increase acceptance.”
Michigan Compassion has been operating its billboard awareness project on digital billboards throughout the Detroit, Michigan area since December, 2012. According to Heidi Parikh, Executive Director of Michigan Compassion, “The grant will serve as an important component of the organization’s greater media strategy which includes the billboards, AdWords, educational guides and public meetings.”
“What makes this grant award unique is that Google AdWords, being a key-word driven service, prohibits the promotion of cannabis which is the primary theme of the organization’s mission,” said James Campbell, Board Secretary of Michigan Compassion. The award letter from Google acknowledges that this “is the first Medical Marijuana Non-profit to receive an AdWords Grant from Google Grants.”
“We were very surprised to receive a personalized letter from Google, let alone its acknowledgement of Michigan Compassion as a medical marijuana non-profit and their support of this organization’s mission,” Campbell said. Michigan Compassion also announced that it relocated its business office to Royal Oak, Michigan effective May 1, 2013. This move is the result of an in-kind contribution by NUMBERS Professional Accounting Services, a Royal Oak based CPA firm.
“The need to partner with professionals was a key goal at these early stages of our organization’s life. We face complex reporting and compliance requirements, especially in the framework of this organization’s controversial mission. NUMBERS can handle those duties in-house,” said Parikh. “Michigan Compassion is committed to full compliance with Michigan and Federal Law.”
Michigan Compassion is a 501(c)(3) exempt organization. Their mission is to increase awareness and understanding through education, information and advocacy of all the medical benefits and healing properties of Cannabis. They are the first medical marijuana public charity in Michigan and only 1 of 4 in the United States to have received federal exemption. The 2013 Awareness project includes the media strategy, high profile educational symposiums, as well as its weekly public meetings which it has consistently held since 2009.
Visit Michigan Compassion’s website at: www.mycompassion.org or view their Charity Report on Guidestar: www.guidestar.org/organizations/45-2800939/drccc.aspx.
For more information on Ann Arbor-based Google Grants visit their website at www.google.com/grants.
Source: The Compassion Chronicles
