Apply for a US$ 10,000 / month Ad Grant from Google for Nonprofits and reach more supporters, volunteers, and donors. The set-up can be a bit tricky, but I’m here to help you navigate the process and guide you through step by step.
When you think of your fundraising efforts, what words come to mind? Volunteers, social media, email marketing? How about adding “online advertising” to that list?
In June 2014, Google for Nonprofits expanded to Canada, offering registered charities, federal nonprofits as well as provincial nonprofits a variety of free tools. Among them is a $10,000/month ad grant for running ads on Google’s search engine. What better way to share your message and mission with the world?
Who can apply?
In Canada, Google is collaborating with TechSoup Canada to speed up the application process. TechSoup helps Google with the validation of an organization’s charity or nonprofit status.
Organizations interested in the Google for Nonprofits program must:
1) Be a registered charity, a federal nonprofit or a provincial nonprofit in Canada.
2) Be currently registered with TechSoup Canada
What you’ll need for your TechSoup registration.
3) Acknowledge and agree to Google Grant’s required certifications concerning how your organization can receive and use donations it obtains through the grant
4) Have a functional website. Don’t have one? Let me help.
Who cannot apply?
- Governmental entities and organizations.
- Hospitals and health care organizations.
- Schools, childcare centers, academic institutions, and universities. However, philanthropic arms of educational organizations are eligible to apply. Google also offers a whole suite of great resources to education providers through Google for Education. If you have any questions about these resources, please feel free to reach out.
The Google Ad Grants application consists of 2 major steps?
Step 1: Register with TechSoup Canada
Timeline:
- Submitting the application to TechSoup Canada takes a few minutes.
- Registration approval with TechSoup Canada usually takes around 7-10 days.
What you’ll need:
Charities:
- Charity registration number (e.g. 123456789RR0001)
- Operating budget
- Your mission statement
Nonprofits:
- Business registration number
- Operating budget
- Your mission statement
- Number of computers for staff
- Additional provincial documentation for nonprofits
Step 2: Apply for Google for Nonprofits
Timeline:
- All in all, this process will take you about 1-2 days.
- The approval time can be about 1-3 days for each of a variety of steps. However, if your submissions are straight-forward, you will see a much faster turnaround time, usually even within the same day of submission.
What you’ll need:
- Access to your hosting account to verify your domain
- A gmail address that is not yet associated with an Adwords account
The verification of your domain as well as the AdWords account set-up can be tricky. You may wish to ask an experienced AdWords professional for help with this.
Limitations
Google for Nonprofits Grants come with a variety of restrictions.
- the maximum CPC (cost per click) bid allowed is $2. You cannot bid more than that for each click.
- the maximum budget is $10,000/month (yes, per month).
- you can only run ads on the Google Search Network.
Getting Help
If you’re like most nonprofits, you will likely decide to do this yourself (good for you). You may wish to do some research or reach out to someone who is familiar with the process before you get started, because the Google AdWords set-up and the Google Ad Grant enrolment can seem a bit tricky if you’re new to this.
If you need any help during or after the set-up (to maximize the outcome), feel free to reach out. In the past, I’ve helped a variety of organizations with their application process as well as their account management. One of the organizations even saw a 400% increase in (quality) traffic within just 3 months. I’m happy to work with you on your campaigns as well if you wish!