Charity PPC: How to apply for a Google Charity Grant

Are you a charity who wants to raise awareness? Or perhaps run a campaign to drive donations? It’s still a little known-fact amongst many not for profits and charities that grants are available to them, direct from Google. You could use this money to create an effective online campaign that meets your goals. Read on to find out how to apply for the Google Charity Grant.

Google Charity Grant

What is PPC / Google Adwords?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Google AdWords is the single most popular PPC system in the world, reaching over 90% of internet users worldwide, across many different channels. PPC is a method of online advertising that lets organisations appear when an end user searches for a specific keyword within Google, both on their mobile phone and desktop. Your charity will get found by people on Google precisely when they’re searching for the things that you represent.

If a user clicks the advert you are charged a specific amount. This can vary depending on how competitive the search phrase is and how many other people are bidding for the click, amongst other things. But with a Google Charity Grant, you will effectively get the clicks for free.

What is the Google Charity Grant?

Most charities rely on campaigning to raise awareness and donations. Google is the most widely used search engine globally, and the Google Charity Grant gives non-profits an opportunity to reach potentially billions of people across the globe. Successful applicants will receive a grant of up to $10,000 (roughly £7,500) every month to promote their website using Google Adwords.

What’s more, if you spend over $9,500 (roughly £7,200) in two months of the previous 12 and fulfil other criteria, you may also be able to apply for Grantspro. If you get approved for Grantspro you will receive from Google $40,000 a month to spend. That’s a gigantic $480,000 (roughly £360,000) per year.

Imagine the reach you could get with up to £360,000 of online advertising each year? You could recruit more volunteers. Get your message out further than ever before. Drive more donations. And share your story with your target audiences worldwide.

As an example, the not for profit charity Science Buddies drove 18.2 million website clicks, 100,000 new student registrations, and 1,500 teacher resource downloads. You can see more case studies here.

Am I eligible for a Google Charity Grant?

To qualify for the programme, your charity must be based in the UK and registered with the Charity Commission, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or Inland Revenue.

Also certain organisations aren’t eligible to apply for the Google Charity Grant: hospitals and medical groups, schools and childcare centres, academic institutions and universities, governmental entities and organisations, political organisations, and lobbying groups.

The non-profit must be active, registered and hold valid charity status. It must have a website that is active, functioning and provides comprehensive information about the organization.

How do I apply for a Google Charity Grant?

  1. The first step is to apply for a Google for Non-Profits account here.
  2. You then need to enrol into Google Ad Grants. You are offered two options: AdWords Express (this is pretty much automated but you won’t get as much return), or AdWords (this is the fully configurable experience – you may need professional help if you choose this option).
  3. You then need to create an AdWords account, and set up your advertising campaign. This will be sent to Google for review. If approved, your campaign will go live!
  4. We recommend reviewing the account performance each month, to ensure you can optimise your budgets, understand what is working and what is not, and work out your overall return on budget.

Expect your application to take around three months to approve, but sometimes it’s a lot quicker than this. Once your application has been reviewed, the person who submitted the application will receive an email.

We can apply on your behalf

We’ve applied for Google Charity Grants on behalf of many of our charity clients, with a 100% success rate. If you would like us to manage the entire process for you, get in touch. As a Google Partners specialist, we are experts in crafting high-performing campaigns that generate a great return.

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