Google Ad Grants gives an eligible charity up to $10,000 USD a month of advertising on Google Search, at no cost. Google quotes the figure in US dollars. It’s advertising, never cash, loaded into a Google Ads account in your charity’s name.
In Ireland, a charity on the Charities Regulator’s register can apply, and so can a few other kinds of non-profit. Each still has to pass Google’s verification and its website check. Government bodies, hospitals and schools are ruled out.
Keeping the grant takes more work than getting it. Google wants at least one click for every twenty times your ads show, a real result recorded every month, and keywords that say plainly what your charity does. Miss the click rate two months running and Google deactivates the account until you fix it and ask for it back.
How does Google Ad Grants work?
You apply through Google for Nonprofits, Google’s programme for charities. Once your charity is verified, you ask Google to activate Ad Grants. If it approves, you get a Google Ads account with the grant already in it. You don’t top it up, and you don’t ask for it each month.
Your ads are text ads on Google’s own search results. They run in what Google calls “a separate auction after paid ads”, and Google says they appear “either independently or in positions below paid ads”.
You can run two kinds of campaign. A Search campaign shows ads for keywords you choose, on Google’s search results only, not on partner sites or the Display Network.
A Performance Max campaign hands more to Google’s AI, which tests combinations of the headlines and descriptions you give it. Google says grant Performance Max campaigns “may not be eligible to serve on all inventory”, so don’t expect everything a paying advertiser gets.
The rest of Google Ads sits outside the grant. Google points to a standard, paid account for features such as remarketing, image ads and video ads.
How much is a Google Ad Grant?
Up to $10,000 USD a month, with a daily ceiling of $329 USD shared across every campaign in the account.
| The grant | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Monthly limit | $10,000 USD |
| Daily limit | $329 USD, split across all your campaigns |
| If your account is in euro | The limit is converted to an approximate equivalent, at a rate that moves |
| Unspent grant | Doesn’t roll over to the next month |
| Minimum spend | None |
| What your charity pays | Nothing. You accept a payments profile to get into the account, but you aren’t charged |
| Bids | Maximise conversions, Target CPA or Target ROAS can bid above the programme’s $2.00 USD maximum bid if your account’s performance merits it |
Treat the $10,000 as a ceiling. Google calls it “a limit, not a guarantee of spend”. How much you use depends on how many people search for what you do, and how good your ads are.
A charity that serves one town won’t find $329 of searches to answer every day. It doesn’t have to. Google has no spending requirement, and using a little of the grant well beats spending all of it on the wrong searches.
Who is eligible for Google Ad Grants in Ireland?
The first step is Google for Nonprofits, which sets four conditions. Your organisation must be registered as a charitable organisation in a country where Google for Nonprofits runs. Ireland is one. It must meet Google’s requirements for that country. It must be verified by Goodstack, which Google calls its “validation partner”. And it must accept Google for Nonprofits’ additional terms.
For Ireland, Google lists four kinds of organisation, in these words.
| Google’s wording | Who holds the record |
|---|---|
| “Charitable organisation with the Charities Regulatory Authority” | The Charities Regulator, which issues a Registered Charity Number (RCN) |
| “Organisation with charitable tax-exemption status with the Revenue Commissioner” | Revenue |
| “Tax exempt sports bodies” | Revenue |
| “Nonprofit companies limited by guarantee registered with the Companies Registry Office” | The Companies Registration Office (CRO) |
When you apply, Google’s guidance for Ireland asks for your Registered Charity Number, or your CRO number if you’re registered as a company limited by guarantee “with charitable status”. The Charities Regulator’s public register holds almost 11,500 charities, and you can search it by name if you’re not sure of your number.
Three kinds of organisation are ruled out, wherever they are:
- Government bodies and government organisations.
- Hospitals and healthcare organisations. Their charitable arms and foundations are eligible, so a hospital’s fundraising foundation can apply when the hospital can’t.
- Schools, academic institutions and universities. Their philanthropic arms are eligible. Google points schools to Google for Education instead.
Ad Grants then adds terms of its own. Grantees “must be organised and operated exclusively for charitable purposes”, and grant accounts can’t run election ads in regions where Google requires verification for them. Your website has to pass Google’s website policy too, and Google keeps the right to refuse any application.
Can a sports club get Google Ad Grants?
It can apply for a Google for Nonprofits account, because Google’s Irish list names tax-exempt sports bodies. The grant itself is less certain.
A club that exists only to promote a sport can’t register as a charity, and the Charities Regulator says sport groups “can separately register for a sports body’s tax exemption” instead.
The Ad Grants terms still require a grantee to be run exclusively for charitable purposes. A club with the sports exemption can ask. The decision is Google’s.
Can a small business get Google Ad Grants?
No. The grant is for organisations run for charitable purposes, and a business isn’t one, however much good it does locally.
If you run a business, most of the grants that fit come from your Local Enterprise Office. The main digital one now, the Grow Digital Voucher, pays half the cost of new software rather than advertising. Our round-up of small business grants in Ireland lists what’s open this year.
Google also runs promotional credits for new advertisers, with conditions attached. That’s a different thing entirely, and our piece on whether Google Ads are worth it explains how they work.
What your website needs to qualify for Google Ad Grants
Google checks your website against its website policy before it switches the grant on.
- You own the domain. Your charity controls the site’s content and settings. It doesn’t have to be a .org; any domain you fully control will do.
- The whole site runs on HTTPS, with no insecure images or scripts mixed in.
- There’s real, original content about your mission and your work. Google names very little text, copied content, pages under construction and core information kept in PDFs as common faults.
- Your mission is plain to see. Google’s advice is to feature it prominently and include your registration number or an annual report. For an Irish charity, that number would be your RCN.
- Every link works, and donation buttons go to a secure page built for donations.
- It loads quickly and works on a phone. Google suggests testing it with PageSpeed Insights.
- It isn’t mainly a shop or an ad board. A small online shop selling items tied to your mission can be acceptable. AdSense ads on the site aren’t.
If you’re refused, Google’s advice is to check the site against every point, fix what fails, then reapply. We build websites as well as run ads, and that’s the list we’d work through on a charity’s site before an application goes in.
How to apply for Google Ad Grants
- Check you’re on Google’s Irish list, and have your RCN or CRO number to hand.
- Request a Google for Nonprofits account. Go to Google for Nonprofits and click Get started. Use an email address the charity controls, not a volunteer’s personal one, because the same login will run the grant account.
- Wait for Goodstack to verify you. Google says most requests are reviewed in 2 to 14 working days. Goodstack may email you for documents from verifications@mail.goodstack.org, so check your spam folder.
- Activate Ad Grants. Sign in to Google for Nonprofits, click Get started under Google Ad Grants, enter your website, watch the five-minute welcome video and submit. Google says the review typically takes three to five working days.
- Accept the two invitation emails. One opens your Ad Grants account and the other accepts a payments profile, which Google says is only there for access. Allow up to three working days for them to arrive.
- Sign in at ads.google.com with the same Google Account, and build your first campaign.
Google warns against creating a Google Ads account yourself at any point while you’re activating. Google creates it for you.
The Google Ad Grants rules that keep your account switched on
A grant account is held to rules a paying advertiser never sees. These are Google’s, from its programme policies.
| Rule | What Google asks for |
|---|---|
| Click-through rate | At least 5% a month across the whole account. Not reviewed until the account is 90 days old. Smart campaigns are exempt |
| Conversion tracking | At least one conversion a month from a meaningful action, such as a donation, a volunteer sign-up, an email sign-up or a call |
| Bidding | Conversion-based Smart Bidding in every campaign, for accounts created on or after 22 April 2019. Google allows Maximise clicks at the start, while you have no conversion data |
| Keywords | No single-word keywords, no overly generic ones, and none with a Quality Score of 1 or 2 |
| Account structure | At least two ad groups per campaign, at least two sitelinks, and location targeting to places where people will find your information and services useful |
| Programme survey | Answer Google’s annual survey when it arrives |
The 5% rule needs the most watching. It means that for every hundred times your ads show, at least five people click. Fall below it for two months in a row and Google temporarily deactivates the account.
To get back, Google says to look at the last seven days your ads had impressions, pause the keywords with plenty of impressions and few clicks until the rest total at least 5%, then fill in its form to ask for reinstatement. Break the rules repeatedly and Google can remove you from the programme altogether.
Single-word keywords have exceptions. Your own charity’s name is allowed, as are recognised medical conditions, acronyms and ten words Google lists by name, among them charity, donate and volunteer. Generic phrases like “free videos” or “things to do” aren’t allowed either.
Conversion tracking has its own trap. Time on site and homepage visits can’t count as conversions, so what you track has to be an action, such as a donation, a form sent or a call.
Why is my Google Ad Grant not spending?
Google puts it down to keywords too specific or too rarely searched, uncompetitive bids, low ad quality or landing page experience, and targeting that’s too narrow. Smart Bidding also holds back when it sees no chance of a conversion at the cost it’s aiming for.
There’s one more that paying advertisers don’t face. Grant ads pass through a quality filter first. If your ads are of relatively low quality, Google says the filter keeps them out of the auction “no matter how high you raise your bid”.
Better ads and landing pages are the way past it.
How to use Google Ad Grants well
A grant account works like any good Google Ads account, with less room for sloppiness. These are the habits that keep one healthy.
- One campaign for each thing you want people to do. Donate, volunteer, use your service. Google’s own example splits a children’s book charity into campaigns by age group, plus one for volunteers and one for donations.
- Show ads where they’re useful. In Google’s own examples, a food bank shows ads only in its local area, and a charity raising donations for relief work abroad shows its ads where its donors are.
- Bid on your own name. It’s allowed as a single word, and Google lists it among its ways to lift your click-through rate.
- Track the action that pays for the work. A donation thank-you page or a volunteer form, not a count of visits, gives Smart Bidding something real to learn from.
- Move to conversion bidding early. Google lets you begin with Maximise clicks when you have no conversion data, but says to switch to Maximise conversions or Maximise conversion value as soon as you have enough, typically 15 to 30 conversions in the last 30 days.
- Read what other charities run. Google says ads served on Google Search can be found in its Ads Transparency Center. Look up a charity doing work like yours and read its ads before you write your own. Our piece on the Google Ads Transparency Center shows how.
Can you have Google Ad Grants and paid Google Ads at the same time?
Yes. Google calls a standard, paid account “a great way to extend your impact”, and says the two “will not compete with one another”, because grant ads run in a separate auction after paid ads.
A paid account buys what the grant can’t, such as the top of the page on searches where businesses are bidding, remarketing to past visitors, and image and video ads. Google suggests considering one for busy times like the year-end giving season.
Paid clicks cost real money, so the sums are the same as for any advertiser. What Google Ads cost in Ireland sets out the click prices and budgets.
Does it cost anything to have a Google Ad Grants account managed?
Google charges nothing for the grant. If someone manages the account for you, that’s a separate cost, and the grant, being in-kind advertising, can’t cover it.
Someone still has to watch the click rate each month, pause weak keywords, keep conversion tracking honest and answer Google’s survey. A staff member or volunteer who learns the rules can do it, and for a small account that’s often the better answer.
Our own management starts at €450 a month plus VAT. For a charity, that has to earn its place in donations, volunteers or people reached, the same test any advertiser applies. Whoever runs it, the grant account stays with your charity, and Google lets you invite other people to manage it as users.
Questions people ask about Google Ad Grants
Is the Google Ad Grant real?
Yes. It’s Google’s own programme, run through Google for Nonprofits, with Goodstack verifying each organisation for Google. You apply at google.com/nonprofits.
What is the Google grant of $10,000?
That’s Google Ad Grants, which gives qualifying charities and non-profits up to $10,000 USD a month of search advertising on Google at no cost. It’s in-kind advertising in a Google Ads account, not a cash grant.
How do I log in to Google Ad Grants?
At ads.google.com, with the Google Account you used for Google for Nonprofits. There’s no separate Ad Grants login page. If a paid account opens instead, use the account switcher and pick the one with your charity’s name and ten-digit customer ID.
Do I have to spend the whole $10,000 every month?
No. Google has no spending requirement, and whatever you don’t use in a month doesn’t carry over.
How long does it take to get Google Ad Grants?
Allow a month. Google’s estimates are 2 to 14 working days for Goodstack to verify your charity, three to five working days to review your Ad Grants activation, and up to three working days for the account invitation to arrive.
Can a charity shop use Google Ad Grants?
Within limits. Google’s website policy says limited commercial activity, such as an online shop selling items tied to your mission, “may be acceptable”, as long as it isn’t the main focus of the site. Its conversion tracking guide even uses a purchase from your charity shop as an example.
Who do I contact for Google Ad Grants support?
Google’s Non-Profits Help Centre has a contact form and a community forum. For access problems, Google asks that you’re an admin on your Google for Nonprofits account and know your ten-digit customer ID before you get in touch.
If you want the grant working for your charity
Eligibility, the website check and conversion tracking decide most of a grant before the first ad runs.
Tell us what your charity does and where. We’ll check you against Google’s Irish list and your site against its website policy, then tell you whether it needs paid management or a volunteer can run it. If you’d like it run for you, our Google Ads team can build and run a grant account for you.
