Google Grants is basically the non-profit edition of Adwords. This allows you to promote and grow your non-profit without having to invest a bunch of cash upfront. They allow up to $10,000 a month of ad spend for organizations that qualify to use this service. Google Ad Grants will help you grow your non-profit and increase support from people around the world.
I bet the burning question at the front of your mind is: does my non-profit qualify? We’ll answer this question as well as a few other things you’ll want to know below.
What do I need to quality for Google Ad Grants?
Naturally, Google Ad Grants come with a set of stipulations you’ll need to cover before you’re granted access to this program.
In order to become eligible your organization will need to hold current charity status that is also valid. To find out if you satisfy this you’ll need to check your countries’ definition. You’ll have to agree to certain nondiscrimination and donation receipt and use clauses within the application. Lastly, you’ll have to have a website that is fully functioning and has been around long enough to have a substantial amount of content.
If you are located in the US, then you must have current 501©(3) status that has been filed and assigned by the IRS.
There are a few organizations that are not eligible for Google Ad Grants, including: hospital and other medical groups, governmental organizations, most educational institutions.
There are also a few requirements for maintaining your eligibly in the program.
1. Your ads can only contain one link to the non-profit that was approved in the application.
2. You must login to your account every month, if you don’t log in for over 30 days your account may become paused.
3. There must be no commercial advertising in your ads.
4. Your keywords must be relevant to your non-profit, and the overall content must reflect your message.
5. Your website cannot display other ads from affiliate or Google AdSense.
What are some of the program details to keep in mind?
There are a few other details you might want to be aware of regarding the overall functionality of the program.
If you’re accepted you’ll be given a daily budget of $329, with a maximum cost per click of $2.00. In creating your ads you’ll only be able to run ads featuring text, the campaigns must be keyword targeted and the ads cannot appear anywhere else, only on Google.com.
Also, if you are granted access to this program, every ad must be related to your mission. You cannot have any ads that are selling products or services.
Lastly, Google Ad Grants are only available in certain countries. Make sure you check the list of eligible countries, noted as a resource at the bottom.
I hope you’ve found this article valuable and now have a good understanding if your nonprofit will qualify, or at the very least you know what to do in order for your non-profit to qualify for this service.
Resources:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/grants/domains.html
http://www.google.com/grants/eligibility.html
http://www.google.com/grants/details.html
About the Author: Zane Schwarzlose is Search Marketing Specialist at Fahrenheit Marketing, an Austin based Internet Marketing company. Zane thinks the Google Grant is pretty cool.