A major Jewish organization applied to be included in YouTube’s nonprofit program. Today they got this letter:

YouTube Broadcast Yourself™
Thank you for taking the time to submit your application to the YouTube Nonprofit program. As you might expect, we’ve received many applications, but we’re limited in the number we can support. Regrettably, your organization was not selected.

We appreciate your interest in the YouTube Nonprofit program.

Sincerely,

— The YouTube Team

The criteria to be included in YouTube’s program is not clear. They encourage all 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to apply and fill out an application, but I couldn’t find on their site anything that said how they determined who gets in.

The American Jewish World Service, a client of ours, was accepted into the program, so don’t start calling YouTube/Google anti-Semitic.

The best thing about YouTube’s nonprofit program is the promise of getting videos in a wider featured rotation on the home page. The other elements of the program — such as a link to Google Checkout for donations is unlikely to yield much benefit.

I will write more as we learn more about who gets in and who doesn’t.