Free Advertising?
Could your organization use free advertising? Seems like a safe bet that any non-profit would. You’d like people with an interest in your cause to be able to find you?
Google Ad Grants is a program that donates free in-kind advertising to qualifying non-profit organizations. How do you qualify?
You sign up for the “Google for Nonprofits program”, have current 501(c)(3) status and an organization website to which ads can be linked. (If your organization doesn’t have a website, contact me, and I can create one for you at a really competitive cost.)
The Program
Think about what you see when you do a Google search. You see a list of results that come two ways. They come through key words in your search, as Google tries to show you the most relevant content – and from sponsored content, that people and businesses pay Google to show you. It’s one of the ways they monetize their business.
So, Google Ad Grants gives away sponsored space to qualifying non-profits. When people go to Google to search for things related to your program, your website and content will go to the top of the list.
Your organization gets a daily budget set to $329, which is equivalent to about $10,000 per month. You can run campaigns that have a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) limit of $2. You can only run keyword-targeted campaigns. Your ads will only appear on Google search result pages, and you can only run text ads.
But this could be a huge boon to any fundraising or recruiting drive you could possibly run.
Eligibility for Free Advertising in Google Ad Grants
If you’re a Boy Scout Troop or Cub Scout Pack, you’re not directly eligible for Google Ad Grants, as you’re not a 501 (c) 3 (technically, you’re a part of your chartering organization). You may be eligible through your chartering organization, if they’re a 501 (c) 3. But you’re best strategy would be to email this article to your council representative, or give them a call. Your council is a 501 (c) 3 organization, and probably in a much better position to do this kind of advertising – but they could use some of this advertising to promote your fall recruiting event.
If you’re a Rotary Club, you’re automatically a 501 (c) 4 organization, and not immediately eligible… however, if your club has its own foundation, that probably IS a 501 (c) 3, and you would be eligible through your foundation.
Those are the two groups I’m most familiar with, for other groups you should contact your national organization. You can also search the IRS database by clicking here.
The Process
So, you go to the program’s homepage at google.com/grants/, and go through the application process. You’ll need to certify your organization’s country, your nondiscrimination policies, and your eligibility to receive such grants in-kind. You’ll need to certify your 501 (c) 3 status through a website called Techsoup.
Follow the process from there, and start placing your free ads in Google Adwords as soon as possible.
For a tutorial on how AdWords works, watch the video below.