Google for Nonprofits is not available in Nepal. Google's eligibility page requires an organisation to be "registered as a charitable organization in one of the countries or regions listed", and Nepal does not appear on that list (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan do). Google's own wording for a missing country is that it has not launched the programme there yet. The free Google Workspace for Nonprofits edition therefore cannot be claimed by a Nepal-registered NGO. Check the official country list before planning around it, because Google adds countries over time.
What that means for three kinds of organisation
Nepal-registered NGO
Registered with the District Administration Office and the Social Welfare Council, no foreign parent. Your route is a paid Business edition: Starter, Standard or Plus, per user, through Google directly in USD or through WebsNP in NPR.
INGO country office
If the parent organisation holds Google for Nonprofits in a supported country, the Nepal office normally receives accounts from the parent's Workspace tenant. Ask headquarters before buying anything locally; two tenants for one organisation creates permanent confusion.
Community group or cooperative
Small groups with two or three staff often start on Business Starter for the email and Drive, and grow into Standard when they need Meet recording and Gemini in Docs for report writing.
Why NGOs move off free Gmail
Most organisations arrive at Workspace after one of three incidents. A programme officer leaves and the donor correspondence in their personal Gmail leaves with them. A proposal is rejected because the contact address was a personal account and the reviewer could not verify who it belonged to. Or an audit asks for the email trail behind a procurement decision and nobody can produce it. Workspace addresses all three: every mailbox belongs to the organisation's domain, an admin can transfer a leaver's mail and files before deleting the account (Google keeps a deleted user's data for 20 days), and, on Business Plus, Google Vault holds messages for as long as your retention policy says.
Choosing the edition
| Need | Business Starter | Business Standard | Business Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email on your own domain | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pooled storage per user | 30 GB | 2 TB | 5 TB |
| Meet with donors and partners abroad | 100 people, no recording | 150 people, recording, noise cancellation | 500 people, attendance reports |
| Gemini for report drafting in Docs | No (Gmail only) | Yes | Yes |
| Retention and eDiscovery (Vault) | No | No | Yes |
| Advanced device management for field phones | No | No | Yes |
| WebsNP price per user per month | $2.78 | $3.97 | $19.53 |
A common pattern is mixed editions: Plus for the executive director, finance and admin accounts that carry audit exposure, Standard or Starter for programme and field staff. Google allows different editions in one organisation; ask us how the mix is set up. Prices and the full comparison are on the price page, and the Business Plus guide explains Vault in detail.
Field teams and phones
Field officers in Karnali or the Terai mostly work from phones with patchy data. Gmail and Drive apps work offline and sync when the signal returns, so a monitoring form attached to a Drive folder still gets filed. Every Business edition includes basic endpoint management, which lets an admin require a screen lock and wipe organisation data from a lost phone. Business Plus adds advanced management if the organisation issues devices. Keep personal data of beneficiaries out of email bodies where you can; put it in access-controlled Drive folders instead.
Documents that survive staff turnover
Use Shared Drives, not personal My Drive folders, for project files. A Shared Drive belongs to the organisation, so a departing project coordinator's files do not need rescuing. Name Shared Drives by project and donor, restrict external sharing by default, and give the finance team their own. The Drive guide covers pooled storage and sharing settings; the Shared Drives article covers structure.
Security defaults for a small NGO
- Enforce 2-Step Verification for everyone. Donor-portal logins and bank correspondence live in these inboxes.
- Set recovery phone and email on every account. Especially for staff who change SIM cards.
- Create groups, not shared passwords. info@, finance@ and hr@ as groups that deliver to real people, never one login shared around the office.
- Write an offboarding step into HR. Suspend, transfer Drive and Calendar ownership, set an auto-reply, then delete after the 20-day window. The offboarding guide walks through it.
- Decide retention early. If donors or auditors expect records for years, that is a Business Plus and Vault decision, made before the first project closes.
The full checklist is in the security guide.
Costs and paying in NPR
Google bills Workspace in US dollars or euros by card; Nepali rupees are not a supported Google billing currency, which is awkward for an organisation whose budget lines are in NPR. WebsNP bills per user per year in NPR with an invoice, by Fonepay QR or bank transfer, which fits a grant budget line. As an illustration, five Business Starter accounts cost $129.14 a year at current prices, and five Standard accounts $238.41. Setup, DNS and migration of existing mail are included; the migration guide explains the process.
Frequently asked questions
Can we apply to Google for Nonprofits through an Indian partner?
Google for Nonprofits accounts are tied to the registered organisation and its country. An Indian-registered organisation can hold its own account; a Nepal-registered NGO cannot use another organisation's programme membership for its own domain. An INGO's Nepal office normally gets accounts from the parent's tenant instead.
Will Google add Nepal to the programme?
Google says a missing country means it has not launched there yet, without dates. Check the official list periodically; if Nepal is added, an existing paid Workspace organisation can apply for the programme at that point.
Do we need Business Plus for audits?
Not always. If your policy only needs current mail and files to be retained while staff are employed, Standard with careful offboarding works. If you must guarantee retention of deleted messages for a set period or run searches across all mailboxes for an investigation, that is Vault, which is Business Plus.
Can volunteers and short-term staff have accounts?
Yes. On WebsNP's yearly billing, plan the number of accounts for the year; unused accounts can be reassigned to new people rather than deleted.
Sources and further reading
Product facts on this page were checked against Google's own documentation on the date shown above. Google changes plan contents, limits and country availability over time, so treat the official pages as the final word.