If you are a charity or NGO you may be eliglble for the Google Ads For Nonprofits Grant - allowing you to spend up to $10,000 per month on Google Ads.
I've helped many charities to utilise the Google Ads Grant to help their organisation reach a wider audience - learn how I can help you make the most from your Google grant.
Over 10 Years Experience of Google Ads for Charities
I’ve got over 10 years experience setting up, managing and optimising Google Ads Grants for Charities and NGO's. I’m also a certified Google Ads Partner too, meaning I’ve passed their qualifications and other Ads Partner requirements.
Get Help With Your Google Ads Nonprofit Grant - From Someone Who Cares
I've done a lot of probono and voluntary work with charities, helping them with various areas of digital marketing, including SEO efforts and managing Google Ads accounts. When it comes to the Google Ads Grant for Nonprofits - probably the most common challenge is spending the full $10,000 grant on a monthly basis (unless you have a very established charity with a very high brand search volume!).
I understand the aims, objectives and restrictions that many charities face when it comes to their website and ads - and would welcome the chance to help ensure your organisation is making the most out of the Ads Grant.
I used to manage all types of Google Ads accounts - but I've made the transition to focus on serving charities and NGO's - because this better aligns with my own personal values.
For many years I've worked with all kinds of businesses to help them get found online through Google Ads - charities and for-profit businesses too. Recently I took the decision to solely focus on working with charities, and those with the Nonprofit grant. There are many reasons for making this switch - personally I like working with charities and supporting worthwhile causes - I'm particularly interested in environmental organisations, those in the humanitarian space, human rights activist groups and anything that supports oppressed groups.
On top of this, I have become reluctant to support a BigTech monopoly (Google, or Alphabet) who have been supportive of the Genocide in Gaza, and the co-founder of which has denied that a Genocide is taking place.
Arguably if I am anti-Google perhaps I shouldn't be offering to manage any Google Ads accounts - but for me the Google Ads Grant is an exception, because Google doesn't generate revenue from this program (it just profits from the tax benefits it receives from running such a program, and of course the ability to "greenwash" or "causewash" by shouting about all the money it donates* to charities via the program).
*is it really a donation - when likely the only costs involved here are admin or technical costs?
Features of the Google Ads Nonprofit Program
Within the Google Ads Nonprofit Grant program (at the time of writing, in 2025) not all features are available, because this type of account has some restrictions on it. For example - you can't run display ads (banner or video ads), can't run ads directly on YouTube, and can't make use of the remarketing ads to maximise the value of previous site visits.
You're also restricted as to the CPC bid limit ($2) - but there are ways around this, for example by using a different bidding strategy.
And since the launch of the Performance Max campaign type, suprisingly this has been made available to those using the nonprofit grant. And so by utilising this feature, charities and NGO's can run ads on the display network, allowing them to show ads on the likes of Gmail, YouTube and Google Discover.
Search Campaigns
These are the standard text search ads - which allow charities to run text ads that target specific keywords. These are typically the ads you will see at the top of Google, when making a search query. You can "bid" on keywords, and based on various factors, your ad will rank (hopefully) somewhere on the page, enabling you to bring people to your charity's website.
Performance Max Campaigns
Many Ads agencies and consultants were excited when Google announced that Ad grant accounts could now run Performance Max (pMax) campaigns. These campaigns rely on historic goal and conversion data, and by utilising this type of campaign your charity can text, image and video ads across a wide variety of Google owned property - YouTube, Google Discover, Gmail, Google Maps, and so on. pMax campaigns can be a bit of a "black box" in the sense that you don't quite have as much insight into what is going on in the backend, and you have a lot less control when compared to traditional search campaigns, but if you have strong historic goal data in your account they can be a great addition to any Ads Grant account. This is especially true due to the fact that, by using them, you are in effect "unlocking" the ability to run banner and video ads - which was never previously possible in the Ads Grant accounts. Previously if you wanted to use those features you would need to pay for a standard Google Ads account, so would be required to manage two seperate accounts.
Matt has been very helpful improving our organic search rankings and advising us on a variety of technical elements to help improve our SEO.
Jason Hegetschweiler
Trace Creative, Founder
Would you like some help with your Google Ads Nonprofit Grant?
If you’re interested in hiring me on a freelance basis to setup your Google Ads Grant, or if you have a campaign running at present but you’re not happy with its performance, just complete the contact form below.
