How To Get A Google Ad Grant Account For Your Charity

If you run or work in a registered charity, you are probably already aware that Google offers a variety of free tools to support registered charities. One of them is an ad grant for Google Ads with USD 10,000/month free advertising budget to run search campaigns.

This is a pretty big budget that refills every month and gives you plenty of options to advertise the work of your charity. You can use it to run text ads about any area of your charity, for example, promote events, get donations or share educational content, as long as it is closely related to your charity’s mission. 

Sounds good? Here is what you need to do to get a Grant account and start running Google Search campaigns.

Step 1: Apply for a ‘Google for Nonprofits’ account

The first step is to apply for a ‘Google for Nonprofits’ account that opens the door to all of Google’s benefits for charities. These benefits include free subscriptions to Google Workspace, the Google Ads Grant, the YouTube for Nonprofits Program and Google Earth and Maps for Nonprofits. 

The main criteria of eligibility is to be a registered charity in your country. Certain types of organisations are not eligible, for example, government organisations, hospital and health care organisations, schools, universities and other academic organisations. Check the eligibility criteria for your country here.

Once you confirmed that your NFP is eligible, head to the Google for Nonprofits program page and click the ‘Get Started’ button. You will be prompted to provide all relevant information about you, your organisation, registration details and other supporting documents. Make sure to use your organisation’s Google account and email address (not your personal Gmail) when starting the application process. Make sure to provide accurate information and complete all sections to avoid any delays in the application process.

Once your application is submitted, Google will review it and inform you about the outcome via email. The review process can take between a few days to a few weeks.

Step 2: Request a Google Grant account

Once you get a ‘Google for Nonprofits’ account, the hardest step is done and you can access the other charity benefits. To get the Google Ads Grant account, do not attempt to create a Google Ads account on your own. You would set up a regular account and pay for the advertising cost. 

Instead, sign into your ‘Google for Nonprofits’ account, head to the ‘Google Ad Grants’ section and click ‘Get Started’. Since your charity is already validated at that point, you only need to provide your website to confirm that it meets the advertising eligibility criteria. The next step is to watch the welcome video and then you can already submit the account activation request. Usually, it takes only a few days to be reviewed and approved.

As soon as your request is approved, Google will send you an email with your account details and an invitation to access your new Grant account. You can then add other users from your organisation and start setting up Search campaigns.

Things to keep in mind

You can only get one Grant account per organisation and you need to keep your account compliant with Google Ad Grant Policies. We summarised the most important grant policies in this blog post to help you keep your account active. 

Need help getting started? Send us a message and we’re happy to help.