For nonprofits

Google will give your nonprofit $10,000 a month in free ads. Most never collect it.

The Google Ad Grant is real, it renews every month, and it is chronically wasted, either never activated or quietly suspended for a compliance rule nobody at the organization knew existed. We activate it, keep it compliant, and point it at the pages that actually drive donations.

$120,000
per year in search advertising, at no cost to your organization

Google's Ad Grants program gives eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in in-kind Google Search advertising. It is not a loan, not a match, and not a one-time award. It renews every single month for as long as the account stays in compliance.

⚠️ If nobody has touched your Ad Grant account in the last year, read this

Smart Bidding became mandatory in 2026. Manual CPC bidding is no longer permitted on Ad Grant campaigns. Accounts built under the older rules can drift out of compliance without a single person at the organization being notified in a way they'd notice.

The failure is quiet by design. Your ads simply stop serving, traffic to your donation page dries up, and unless someone is watching the account, the first sign is a development director wondering why online giving slipped. We see this constantly.

Why grants get suspended

Eight rules, and most nonprofits break one

The grant is free. Keeping it is a compliance job, and that is the part organizations don't have staff for. Here's what Google actually requires.

1
5% click-through rate, every monthTwo consecutive months below the threshold puts the account at risk of suspension.
2
Smart Bidding requiredNew in 2026. Manual CPC is no longer allowed on any Ad Grant campaign.
3
Conversion tracking installedAt least one meaningful conversion action must be tracked and working. Not optional.
4
Quality Score of 3 or higherOn every keyword. Anything scoring 1 or 2 has to be paused or removed.
5
Two ad groups per campaignAnd at least two ads inside every ad group.
6
No single-word or generic keywordsBroad, vague terms are prohibited and tank your click-through rate anyway.
7
Honest geotargetingYou can only target the areas your organization genuinely serves.
8
The annual program surveyMiss it and the account can be deactivated with no grace period. Easiest one to lose.
Ad Grant services

Get it, keep it, or get it back

Priced for nonprofit budgets, and structured so the ongoing cost is a fraction of the advertising value it protects.

One-time

Grant Activation

$1,500

3–5 weeks · free eligibility check first

  • Eligibility confirmation and Google for Nonprofits enrollment
  • Ad Grant application filed and followed through
  • Full account build: campaigns, ad groups, and ad copy
  • Keyword research mapped to donor and program intent
  • Conversion tracking installed and verified working
  • Smart Bidding configured to current 2026 policy
  • Landing page recommendations for your donation flow
Start activation →
Recovery

Grant Rescue

$950

For suspended or lapsed accounts

  • Full audit of what actually triggered the suspension
  • Account rebuilt to current policy
  • Conversion tracking repaired or installed from scratch
  • Reinstatement filed and tracked through to approval
  • Written explanation of what went wrong, in plain English
  • 60 days of monitoring included after reinstatement
Recover our grant →

Not sure whether you're eligible or whether your existing account is healthy? The check is free and takes about fifteen minutes. If you don't qualify, we'll tell you that instead of selling you something.

Beyond the grant

The rest of what nonprofits actually need

Annual reports don't design themselves and gala collateral always comes due in the same three weeks. We do all of it, at nonprofit rates.

📊

Reporting & Impact

Annual reports and impact reports designed to be read, not filed. Plus donor survey design and program evaluation built on real research methods, the kind grant reporting actually asks for.

🎗️

Events & Campaigns

Gala and fundraiser branding, sponsorship decks, silent auction collateral, capital campaign identity, and year-end appeals across print, email, and social.

💚

Digital & Donations

Website builds, donation page optimization, and the analytics to see exactly where a donor drops off before they finish giving. Social and community management too.

ServiceHandled byNonprofit rate
Annual or impact report designMidwestfrom $1,800
Gala / fundraiser event brandingMidwestfrom $1,400
Sponsorship & donor deckMidwestfrom $900
Full brand identityMidwestfrom $1,900
Website design & buildDataPsychfrom $2,975
Donation page optimizationDataPsychfrom $1,200
Impact measurement & donor surveysDataPsychfrom $1,600
GA4 + conversion trackingDataPsychfrom $720
Social media managementSisters at Heartfrom $810/mo
Year-end appeal campaignAll threefrom $2,200

Every rate above is 15% below our standard pricing, and that discount applies to any agency service, not just the ones listed here. See the full menu on the agency page.

Why us specifically

We've sat on your side of the table

Jewell Meagher serves as a nonprofit treasurer. She has built the budget, sat through the board meeting, and watched a well-meaning vendor pitch something the organization had no realistic way to fund or maintain. When we scope work for you, we scope it against a fiscal year, a grant cycle, and a board approval process, because we know those exist.

The Ad Grant is a measurement problem more than an advertising one. Suspensions come from click-through rates, Quality Scores, and broken conversion tracking. Kaylynn Alecia's background is behavioral research and analytics, which is to say the exact discipline of watching numbers carefully and knowing which ones matter. That is the whole job.

And because Cara Paugh runs social and community day to day, the people your ads bring in don't land on an account that last posted in March. The grant drives traffic. Everything else has to be ready to receive it.

FAQ

Straight answers

What is the Google Ad Grant, exactly?
Google gives eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in free Google Search advertising through its Ad Grants program. It's in-kind advertising credit rather than cash, it can only be spent on Google Search ads, and it renews monthly as long as the account stays compliant.
Is my organization eligible?
In the US you generally need valid 501(c)(3) status and a working website with real information about your organization. Government entities, hospitals and healthcare organizations, and schools and academic institutions are generally not eligible, though philanthropic arms of educational institutions can qualify. We confirm your eligibility for free before you pay us anything, and we'll tell you plainly if you don't qualify.
Will we actually spend the full $10,000 a month?
Most nonprofits don't, and anyone promising you will is overselling. Grant ads run on Google Search only and serve at lower priority than paying advertisers, so a regional organization typically uses a meaningful fraction of the grant rather than all of it. The goal is qualified people reaching your donation and program pages, not maximizing a spend number that costs you nothing either way.
Our account got suspended. Is it recoverable?
Usually, yes. The most common causes are falling below the 5% click-through rate for two consecutive months, missing or broken conversion tracking, and keywords with low Quality Scores. Grant Rescue audits what actually triggered it, rebuilds the account to current policy, and files for reinstatement.
What changed in 2026?
Smart Bidding became mandatory. Manual CPC bidding is no longer permitted on Ad Grant campaigns, which means accounts built and left alone under the older rules can fall out of compliance quietly. If nobody has actively managed your account in the past year, it's worth an audit even if it looks fine from the outside.
Why is the management fee worth it if the ads are free?
Because the ads stop being free the moment the account is suspended, and reinstatement takes weeks you don't get back. The monthly fee is a small fraction of the advertising value it protects. If you have staff capacity to monitor eight compliance rules every month, genuinely, do it yourselves, and we'll say so on the call.
Do you discount your other services for nonprofits?
Yes. Every service across the agency, design, web, social, and strategy, is 15% below our standard rates for registered nonprofits.
Can you guarantee more donations?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. We can guarantee a compliant account, honest reporting on what the traffic did, and clear reasoning behind every recommendation. Whether a visitor gives depends on your cause, your case for support, and your donation experience, and we'll tell you candidly if we think that last one is what's holding you back.

Find out what your grant is worth in fifteen minutes

We'll check your eligibility, or audit the account you already have, and tell you exactly where it stands. Free, and no obligation to work with us afterward.

Book a free grant check →