Samasource Announces $2 Million Google Global Impact Award for Technology-Driven Social Innovation

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Samasource today announced that it has been granted a $2 million Google Global Impact Award. This funding will be used to create technology-enabled jobs for thousands of youth and women globally, to enhance Samasource's robust technology platform, the SamaHub, and to support expansion of the organization's microwork model by licensing and scaling Samasource's proven approach to poverty alleviation.

"We are grateful to receive this investment from such a forward thinking and leading organization as Google," said Leila Janah, founder & CEO of Samasource. "Being able to benefit from Google's engineering support enables us to effectively and efficiently serve more marginalized women and youth than ever before while also delivering high quality, affordable services to our clients. With this generous support, we will dramatically change the lives of thousands of poor women and youth by providing them with what they want most: fairly-paid work."

To date, Samasource has connected more than 4,000 marginalized people in Africa, India, Haiti and the U.S. to paying work, totaling over $2 million in wages paid out. Samasource's award-winning microwork model brings free, specialized technology training and fairly-compensated digital work to poor women and youth around the world. This approach enables people to gain skills, earn a fair living wage and break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families. Almost 90% of Samasource workers move up to higher-paying work or higher education.

This award will help Samasource scale its technology platform and operations.  It funds a new initiative to license key parts of Samasource's proven model for job creation to other organizations, including large outsourcing companies and enterprise customers. As a result, they can participate in the growth of the impact sourcing field while delivering high-quality results for their customers and stakeholders.  Thanks to this project, the dynamics of the outsourced job market are poised to fundamentally change since entities with digital outsourcing needs will be able to effectively access and utilize new pools of talent, drawing from the least developed and most impoverished populations globally.  Using this approach, these historically-disadvantaged populations will have access to jobs in the digital economy and can provide business value to those with digital outsourcing needs.

"We are excited about Samasource's unique combination of technology, operations and mission to help reduce poverty around the world," said Chris Busselle, principal of Google.org. "We look forward to supporting Samasource's mission to make an even greater impact on those in need by offering them a sustainable gateway into the digital economy."

Google provided Samasource with the $2 million grant as part of its Global Impact Awards program, which provides support to organizations using technology and innovative approaches to tackle some of the world's toughest human challenges.

This grant extends Google's already strong partnership with Samasource.  Google has not only supported Samasource by providing funds to scale operations in the past, but, in addition, Google directly creates jobs for those in need by being a client of Samasource and thereby directly benefiting from the high–quality, affordable work done by Samasource teams in Africa.

About Samasource, Inc.
Founded in 2008 by CEO Leila Janah, Samasource is an award-winning 501(c) (3) nonprofit. Through operations in Haiti, India, Kenya and Uganda, Samasource trains and provides computer-based work to impoverished women and youth. These women and youth fulfill the digital needs of large global brands such as eBay, Google, and Microsoft. The organization also recently launched a domestic program, SamaUSA, which helps low-income community college students find online work and earn life-changing degrees. For more information on impact or services, visit http://samasource.org or follow Samasource on Twitter @samasource.

Contact: Pam Kline Smith, 1-800-521-6717

SOURCE Samasource