February 20, 2011; Source: YouTube

Worldwide video-sharing website YouTube is now making it easier for nonprofits to accomplish their mission. Through an initiative called YouTube Next Cause, nonprofits can promote their efforts and obtain one-on-one consulting and community engagement tips to grow their YouTube following.

“We’ve always sought to make YouTube a platform for nonprofits to broadcast their messages,” the YouTube blog states, and “…with 4 billion views a day, we want to make sure nonprofits have the tools they need to reach the global audience on YouTube and turn video views into donations, volunteerism and awareness.”

As the Huffington Post reports, YouTube’s capacity to engineer donations has already been shown in innovative initiatives such as the Project for Awesome charity videos, which raised $64,000 in December. The campaign encouraged people to bombard the site with heart-warming videos about their charities of choice.

Some of the features that have already been created through YouTube include a designation for nonprofits to identify themselves and a “donate” button with videos and other benefits. Nonprofits interested in obtaining these services can apply to attend a summit designed to assist organizations in increasing online engagement. Applications for YouTube Next Cause are due on Feb. 27th. Selected nonprofits will be named on March 5th. Interested nonprofits can apply here.

YouTube, a subsidiary of Google since 2006, has at times been blocked or restricted by countries such as China, Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and Iran. Still, with localized versions of YouTube available in 38 countries, and with 58 different language versions, the announcement of YouTube Next Cause has global implications for the nonprofit sector. –Saras Chung