Google Grants?

About the Program

The Google Grants program empowers over 4,000 organizations to achieve their goals by helping them promote their websites via advertising on Google. Google ads appear when users search on Google. For example when you search for "world poverty" on Google, text ads related to world poverty appear on the right hand side. When you click on one of the ads, you are brought to the website being advertised.

Organizations that receive a Google Grant are awarded an in-kind online advertising account which can be used it in a variety of ways, including general outreach, fundraising activities, and recruitment of volunteers. Google Grants participants have found much success with the program. For example, the US Fund for UNICEF's e-commerce site, Shop UNICEF, experienced a 43 percent increase in sales over the previous year, while CoachArt – supporting children with life-threatening illnesses through art and athletics programs – has seen a 60 to 70 percent increase in volunteers.

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What to Expect

About Google's advertising program

Google Grants will give you an advertising grant within the Google AdWords™ program. AdWords is our online self-managed advertising program where your organization will build its own AdWords account by creating and monitoring text ads that run on Google. You create ads and choose keywords, which are words or phrases related to your organization. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results, and people can click on your ad to see your website. You're advertising to an audience interested in your organization because you've created a relevant ad and chosen relevant keywords to describe your efforts. You can edit your ads or keywords at any time.

The value of the advertising that your organization receives is solely dependent upon the performance of its ads in the program. Results will vary; the typical grantee in our program receives just over $300 worth of advertising on Google.com per month. However, this is dependent on many variables including how many times people search on the keywords you choose and whether searchers click on your organization's ads. As a result, we cannot predict or guarantee the value of the advertising that you will receive.

Upon acceptance into the Google Grants program, your organization will be provided with a guide and instructions for creating your Google Grants AdWords account. Most organizations experience a learning curve in the quest to take full advantage of their advertising grant, so it's important that you have an understanding of the way our advertising program works. Please review detailed information about AdWords, including instructions for creating effective ads and selecting keywords.

High-Level Program Guidelines

Please be aware of some important criteria regarding the program. (Note that the Program Details section of this page contains more specific information about Google Grants.)

You must have a website, and your ads must link to a page on your website.
The keywords you target must be relevant to your programs and services.
Your website cannot display revenue generating ads, such as Google AdSense or affiliate advertising links, while participating in Google Grants.
The on-going, active management of your advertising campaign is your organization's responsibility once your account is active.
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Eligibility

To be eligible for the Google Grants program, organizations must fit our eligibility criteria.

In the United States – Read our legal requirements.

Other countries/regions – We are currently accepting applications from eligible charitable organizations based in these areas.

If your country/region isn't listed and you'd like to be notified via email should Google Grants launch in your country/region, please send us your contact information.

Beyond the legal requirements, organizations must also meet our policy guidelines to be considered for a Google Grant. When we consider your application to the program, we review not just the content included in your application, but we also closely review your website, as this is where users will be taken via your Google Grants ads. Please review the policy guidelines we consider when reviewing your application and website below.

Eligible nonprofits include, but are not limited to, the following focus areas:

Animal rescue & conservation
Arts
Disaster & relief services
Education
Environment
Health
Science & technology
Voluntarism &community outreach
Youth advocacy & programs
Ineligible nonprofits include, but are not limited to, the following concentrations:

Commercial non-profits
Credit-counseling services
Mutual membership benefits (networking, professional, alumni, and other membership organizations)
Portals and directories
Be aware that any organization with the following components on site are not eligible for the program: political/lobbying content; religious content which proselytizes or discriminates on the basis of religion; Google AdSense; car/boat/real estate donation-focus; and entirely fee-based programs.

Google reserves the right to award advertising to any organization. Selections are made at Google's sole discretion, and decisions regarding award recipients are final.

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Program Details

The Google Grants program helps charitable organizations leverage the power of AdWords to engage and inform your constituents on Google. The policies outlined below are specific to Google Grants and are designed to help your organization use its advertising grant most effectively. Please thoroughly review these guidelines to ensure that your organization's use of the Google Grant adheres to our policies. Violation of our program guidelines and policies, or any misuse of your grant, will cause your organization's grant to be terminated.

Grantee Requirements & Responsibilities

Google AdWords is an online, advertiser-managed program, meaning that a contact at your organization must build your Google Grants AdWords account and be responsible for your AdWords advertising account at all times. Your active participation is required, and this includes understanding and following the guidelines outlined on this page, building your Google Grants AdWords account, regularly logging into the AdWords system, and ensuring your Google ads and keywords are relevant, accurate, and timely.

Grantees are required to be actively engaged in the program and to actively manage their AdWords accounts, meaning your account contact must:

build your Google Grants AdWords account
be responsive to email requests from our team
log in monthly to review campaign performance and make updates as appropriate
Should you not login to your account for three consecutive months or prove unresponsive to email requests from our team, your account will be subject to automatic pausing or cancellation without notification.

Grantee AdWords Campaigns

Your ads must link only to the URL included in your application, as this is the URL approved for your Google Grant. You must submit any significant changes of content on this URL for our review before the updated site is promoted via your AdWords account.

Other websites belonging to your organization require our review and approval before they can be promoted through your AdWords account. Please notify us if you wish to promote additional websites through your ads.
If your organization's focus, website content, and/or URLs change significantly for any other reason, please notify us about the change.
Important: If your website currently features Google AdSense and / or other non-Google ads that generate revenue for your organization when visitors click on the ads, please notify us today.

Your ads must reflect the mission of your organization, and your keywords must be relevant to your programs and services.

Strictly commercial advertising is not allowed through this program. If you intend to promote products or services, 100% of the sales and/or proceeds must support your programs.
Your Google ads cannot link to pages that are primarily links to other websites.
Ads offering financial products (such as mortgages or credit cards) or those requesting car, boat, or real estate donations and related keywords are not allowed.
Please review the difference between mission-based ads and ads not based on your mission below. When creating new ads or editing existing ads, please ensure that your ads reflect your organization's mission.