Google Maps Directions for Guide Dogs

KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide or seeing eye dogs. To help promote the charity and help raise some of the mobility issues faced by the visually impaired KNGF have created KNGF Maps.

The map is a pretty impressive iteration of Google Maps driving directions. The map includes the usual driving, public transit and walking directions but also includes some novel seeing eye dog directions.

If the user selects the seeing eye dog directions they are presented with a blanked out map. When the user asks for directions a seeing eye dog walks the route and lights up the way on the map.

The map serves as a useful metaphor for the invaluable help provided by seeing eye dogs to the visually impaired. The map also includes the usual text based steps of the walking directions and can therefore also be read by screen readers.

Fill the Kettle with Google Maps

The Canadian Salvation Army Christmas Fill the Kettle Campaign is a fundraising effort that occurs each year during the Christmas season. Kettles are found in nearly 2000 locations across Canada and are an opportunity for the public to donate whatever funds they can to support the work of The Salvation Army.

This year the Salvation Army have again created a Google Map showing the location of the nearly 2000 Kettle locations across Canada. Using the map you can find the nearest kettle to your location. And, if there isn't a kettle nearby, you can always donate online.

The Drinking Water Charity Google Map

Charity:Water is a non-profit organisation working towards bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The organisation has produced a Google Map to show where water projects have been completed. The map shows all 2,651 completed Charity: Water projects to date.

Rather than use the Google Maps Styling option the map uses a semi-transparent overlay to provide a unique look to the map. This could be an option worth considering for map developers as the usage limits for free styled Google Maps is set to be 2,500, which is significantly lower than the 25,000 for the usage limits for non-styled Google Maps.

The Charity:Water map also uses well designed custom built information windows.

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Snowtober to Movember

Forget about Snowtober tomorrow is all about Movember, when men around the world put aside their razors and start growing moustaches in order to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health.

If you want to get involved in this year's fund-raising event then you can find out what is going on around you on the Movember Google Map. The map shows all the Movember events taking place around the world and the locations of the top fund-raisers.

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Not the Da Vinci Code

This Google Map from Spain's Opus Dei shows some of the social initiatives undertaken by the organisation around the world.



You can filter the initiatives shown on the map by category. The social initiatives are divided into four categories, 'youth', 'health', 'education' and 'social promotion'.



If you click on a map marker you can read details about the initiative shown. Many of the markers include videos about work being done by Opus Dei at that location. Each information window also contains a link to read further details on Spain's Opus Dei website.



Opus Dei - Iniciativas Sociales



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Oxfam's Food Price Pressure Points Map

This new Google Map, created by Oxfam, shows how poor communities across the world are being hurt by high and volatile food prices. The map displays countries that are highly vulnerable to price spikes, have seen price spikes contribute to violence or unrest, or have suffered extreme weather events that have contributed to price hikes.

If you click on any of marked food pressure points you can read about the cause of the problem at that location and the impact that it is having on people's lives.

The map is available in English, Spanish and French and can be embedded in any website.

Oxfam's Food Price Pressure Points Map

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Offer Shelter with Google Maps

Sparkrelief: Housing

Sparkrelief: Housing is a Google Maps based system for offering and finding shelter in times of emergency.

Due to the recent tornadoes in America and the earthquakes in Japan images of displaced people seem to be never far from our television screens. Sparkrelief have created this Google Map so that people can offer spare rooms in their houses to those who have lost their homes because of natural disasters.

It is possible to search the map by relief efforts. For example, at the moment you can search the map by the 'Alberta wildfire', the Mississippi flood, the Alabama tornadoes, the Texas wildfire and the Japanese earthquakes.

It is also possible to search the map for available shelter by location and the number of people needing shelter. If you wish to offer your rooms in your house as shelter you can do so by completing a short form.

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Monitoring Water Aid with Google Maps

Flow

Water for People is a charity helping people in developing countries through the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs.

Water for People are using remote technology to display real-time reports about whether their water and sanitation projects are working or failing. The map allows field workers, volunteers and others to record data from tens of thousands of water points around the world.

Flow uses categorised markers to show which projects are currently functioning, broken or functioning with problems. The links in the map side-panel allow users to quickly zoom to Water for People's different projects around the world.

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Food Security and Aid on Google Maps

Food Security Aid Map

InterAction, with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has used the Google Maps API to create this Food Security Aid Map. The map provides detailed project-level information on food security and agriculture work being done by non-government organizations.

The map highlights the work of NGO's trying "to help increase food supplies and to improve nutrition in vulnerable populations by increasing production, improving food distribution and market systems, and enhancing the ability of the poor to purchase and use food."

It is possible to search the map by sector, country and organisation. If you click on the returned map markers from a search it is possible to view the details of individual projects.

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Raising Money for Children's Hospitals

Warm & Fuzzy Federation

With this Google Map from the Rosetta and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals you can help honor the Year of the Rabbit by posting a 'Warm & Fuzzie' message. When 100,000 'Warm & Fuzzies' are posted Rosetta will donate $10,000 to a local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

To post a message you just need to give the map permission to detect your location and enter some kind words. Your message will then be added to the map with a very quote bunny marker.

Rosetta have used the Styled Map feature to create a a distinctive map. Reward them for their efforts by posting a warming message on the map.

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Volunteering with Google Maps

Cancer Research UK

Cancer UK are using Google Maps to provide a store locator and to promote volunteering opportunities and upcoming events.

The Cancer UK Google Map shows the location of the organisation's shops as well as the location of volunteering opportunities and local events. It is possible to search the map by address and filter the results by category of 'shop', 'volunteering' or 'events'.

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Help to Cure Diabetes with Google Maps

Zip The Cure

16 year old Monica Oxenreiter has so far raised $57,000 to help fund research to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. Her ingenious idea to raise money involves selling zip codes on a Google Map for $100.

The map designed by John Coryat, allows anyone to click on their location to see if their zip code has been bought yet. Of course if someone has already given in your zip code you can choose another zip code area. The zip code areas where someone has already donated are shaded green. Zip codes still available are shaded yellow.

Once you have donated your generous support will be shown on the map. Whenever someone searches for your zip code area they will be shown that you have already donated.

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Support World AIDS Day with Google Maps

Turn Red

Today is World AIDS Day and (RED) have created a Google Map that will turn redder as people Tweet #turnred.

(RED) works with companies around the world to make (RED) products, donating up to 50% of the profits from their sales to invest in HIV and AIDS programmes in Africa. If you Tweet #turnred today you can help turn your location a little redder on the (RED) Turn Red Google Map.

The more activity there is at a location the deeper the colour of red is shown at that location on the map.

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The Sally Army on Google Maps

Fill the Kettle

The Canadian Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign is a fundraising effort that occurs each year during the Christmas season. Kettles are found in nearly 2000 locations across Canada and are an opportunity for the public to donate whatever funds they can to support the work of The Salvation Army.

This year the Salvation Army have created a Google Map showing the location of the nearly 2000 Kettle locations across Canada. Using the map you can find the nearest kettle to your location. And, if there isn't a kettle nearby, you can always donate online.

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More Fusion Tables Spatial Queries

UK Charities Map

The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK has produced a nice Google Map of UK Charities using Fusion Tables. The map displays the location of 150,000 charities in England and Wales.

One of the most amazing features of Fusion Tables with Google Maps is that it can cope with so many markers. However there are times that you wouldn't want to overwhelm the map user with so many map markers. I therefore thought that this would be a good map to tweak to use the new spatial queries with Fusion Tables.

UK Charities Map Tweaked
Using the same Fusion Table data created for The Telegraph's map I have created this map that uses a spatial query to only show the closest 10 charities to the current map centre.

I think the map is a good example of how you can create a powerful store locator with Google Maps and Fusion Tables. As always feel free to view, copy and adapt the code as you want.

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Helping Schools with Google Maps

Fuel Your School

In California Chevron recently ran a Fuel Your School promotion. For every 8-gallon or more fill-up at a local Chevron station Chevron donated $1 to help support public education. The promotion was designed to help provide local public schools with supplies that teachers need for their classroom projects.

Chevron have now created a Google Map to highlight how and where Chevron donations are helping to fund classroom projects.

Using the map you can select to view the results for any city from a drop-down menu. Markers are then placed on the map to highlight the schools in the city that have been helped. If you click on a map marker you can read about how the school has benefited from Chevron's programme.

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Fund Raising for Diabetes with Google Maps

Zip The Cure

Zip The Cure have created an imaginative fund-raising campaign using Google Maps. The idea behind the campaign is to raise $100 in every zip code to fund research to help find a cure for juvenile diabetes.

To claim a zip-code first go to the Zip the Cure Map to find if your area is still available. If your zip-code isn't available you can always grab one that is. Zip-codes that are already claimed are shaded green and those still available are coloured yellow.

Once you have found a clear location you can donate your $100 by PayPal. If you can't afford $100 you can make a general donation of any sum.

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Charity Bike Ride Tracked with Google Maps

Biking for Kids in India

Lauren Brown is currently cycling across the U.S., from San Luis Obispo, CA to Washington, D. C.. During his epic journey Lauren will be raising funds to help rural children in India attend nine Methodist schools in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Lauren is tracking his journey using Spot. Spot is a GPS messenger that allows you to send and save your location and track your progress in near real time using Google Maps.

Lauren's Spot map shows his real-time location on Google Maps. At the time of writing Lauren is approaching Flagstaff in Arizona.

Via: Mibazaar

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Drinking Water Charity using Google Maps

Charity : Water Map

Charity:Water is a non-profit organisation working towards bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The organisation has produced a Google Map to show where water projects have been completed.

When a water project is completed, local field partners report back to Charity : Water with photographs and GPS coordinates and the project is added to the map.

It is possible to search the map by coordinates or by country. To read about an individual project just click on any of the water-well shaped map markers.

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