Since 2011, the Give Back Nation Ad Grant Manager Team has been helping thousands of nonprofits maximize the Google Ad Grant opportunity.

Google Ad Grant Intro

Google offers eligible nonprofits access to $10,000/mo in digital advertising with Google Search Ads. This money can go a long way towards promoting your mission, initiatives, and the rest of the awesome work you do to make the world a better place.

Google Ad Grant Benefits

• Leverage up to $10,000 in advertising from Google.
• Reach new users, prospective supporters and leads for products, services, those in need of assistance, and your organizational goals.
• Appear more prominently on Google’s search bar with an expanded reach.

Getting Started

The Google Ad Grant application starts with a Google for Nonprofits account. This account is required to apply for the grant, and can be set up before hand or during the application process. If you do not yet have an active Google for Nonprofits account and would like our help setting it up, we would just need a copy of your 501c3 determination letter to apply.

How Does Spending The Money Work?

When Google gives $10,000/mo, the money doesn’t end up in your bank account. It works more like a gift card that is refilled in your Google Ads account that will equate to $10,000/mo for you to use. This money is used to drive people to your website who might not be familiar with your organization and the great work you do, but are searching for broader themes your organization and the user have in common. Google Ads work similar to an auction. Many organizations are bidding on similar keywords, and those that spend the smartest, drive the most traffic at the lowest cost in order to grow their organization.

There is no direct allocation of spend with the Google Ad Grant. The actual spend of the grant money can be determined by a number of factors:

A) The keywords (terms people are searching on Google) in use

B) The “cost” or “competitiveness” associated with different keywords

C) The search volume (number of people searching) for those keywords

D) Ultimately, a user ‘clicks’ on an ad.

The best part about this is that you only "pay" if someone clicks on your ads. So you may have millions of people see your ads, which in effect gives you free advertising like a billboard, but the money is only spent when someone chooses to engage your ad. When we help to manage ad grants for nonprofits, our end goal is to utilize as much of if not the full $10,000 you are allotted. We believe this is best achieved through a holistic approach, regular optimizations, and time. While this is our end goal, it’s important to note that not all grant accounts will utilize all $10k/month.

Most ad accounts we see that are self-run (vs managed by a Google Certified team like GBN Ad Grant Manager) only spend between $500-$1,000/month of the available $10,000/month; missing out on fully leveraging the opportunity and maximizing outcomes.

Have questions?

As a nonprofit serving nonprofits since 2006, Give Back Nation provides complimentary brainstorming calls for nonprofits to learn more, provide feedback and see what opportunities might exist to help maximize Giving Tuesday, increase fundraising success, expand impact and more!