Has Goodstack denied your application 2 Google Workspace nonprofits? Start here.

[Jason Aune]

Hello Everyone! Welcome to Goodstack Complaints Canada!

This is a simple forum I have set up to collect complaints/experiences on how "Goodstack" (Formerly Percent) https://goodstack.org/ conducts and adjudicates applications to Google's "Google Workspace nonprofits" for Canadians thereby confirming/denying a Canadian organization access to critical resources.

I am not affiliated with Goodstack or Google.
I regularly deploy Google Workspace on the business side as part of my work and believe that the tools in the suite are some of the most accessible and easy to grasp across generations and skill levels.

My goal is to pressure Google to review how/why Goodstack is rejecting organizations that already meet their guidelines and add more transparency and support to the validation process.

My interest in this topic stems from a rejection they have just given me for an organization that has the exact same profile of one they approved early last year.
When I have time I will document this rejection in detail and lay out my argument for why I believe it has already met the requirements for approval.

Most of this issue seems to stem from their inattention to the specifics around what a co-operative IS and IS NOT in the Canadian context.
At one point they even wrote and posted to their website/guidelines that all Canadian co-operatives are ineligible (regardless of how they are organized).
Anyone who works with co-ops, especially across the many different Canadian provinces and territories can tell you that how they are organized is quite a bit different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

This validator does not feel like an organization committed to a mission of helping non-profits administer themselves and empower their volunteers, board members and communities they "feel" like a silicon valley startup that has more interest in venture capital, AI and "charitable giving" then the organizations they assist.

Although Goodstack has been responsive enough the reasons for their rejections and the arbitrary-ness of how they apply them is extremely frustrating.

I've been guiding organizations thru the approval process for Google Workspace Nonprofits https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/workspace/ for many years now.
For most of this time the validator Google used, and I dealt with, was the organization Techsoup https://www.techsoup.ca/.
Techsoup isn't perfect: they can be slow (because the hours in which they give support are quite narrow and they just ended their phone support) as well navigating their portal system takes some practice; however, they do have an office in Toronto, staffed by real people who spend time and effort to give you an authenticated and considered response.
Techsoup (a validator for Adobe, Microsoft and many others) for instance has already approved the organization Goodstack rejected because, as you can tell when you use their system: they have a lot of on the ground know-how about the Canadian context and know the difference between the various kinds of non-profits in Canada.

Simply go look at Techsoup's main social media:
https://x.com/techsoupcanada
and compare it to Goodstack's
https://x.com/wearegoodstack
the difference couldn't be clearer.

In the meantime (before I get to posting additional details) if you are a Canadian organization and have been denied or have a story to share please post on this forum and help me to gather attention to this issue.
If you aren't Canadian but are having another specific issue related to Goodstack's validation process please post as well to help others understand your personal/organizational context and illuminate your specific challenge.

Thanks so much.
Jason Aune

[TickedOffToo]

I found this forum searching for other complaints like mine. While we are in the US, we have had similar frustrating experiences with Goodstack since Google (and Microsoft) switched to using them as a validator. To save having to retell the entire story I am linking my post on the google nonprofit community forum (which also seems to get no attention from google:

https://support.google.com/nonprofits/thread/392129054/goodstack-uncommunicative-do-they-even-review?hl=en&sjid=12701715506981624633-NC

There are a number of stories there from people with validation issues. Perhaps a larger unified collection of voices would help get Google's attention?

[action3tv]

Oh hi! Hopefully you will see this message! I setup this forum when I was definitely ticked off and still am at how Google is handling Canadian validations. It looks like Google removed your story from their support site? Do you perhaps want to tell it here where it won't be pulled down for whatever reason they think is valid?

When I made this forum I also made an area for US complaints!
Would love to hear more.

Sorry for missing your message before!
Yes! for unified voices!!