Many tech companies give discounts or free software to eligible charities (refer to this blog post Free Tools for Non Profits and Charities (2023) for a list of them).
One of the more generous offerings is for Google Ads. Every qualifying non-profit has access to up to US$10,000 per month in search ads shown on Google.com.
Eligibility Criteria
Organizations must be registered with or recognized by relevant authorities as: (1) Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs); (2) charities; or other organizations operating on a nonprofit basis for the public benefit, including (3) charitable trusts registered as a body corporate; (4) societies; or (5) companies limited by guarantee.
Some types of organizations are not eligible:
- Not a governmental entity or organization
- Not a hospital or healthcare organization
- Not a school, academic institution, or university (Google for Education offers a separate program for schools)
How to Apply: Create an Account with TechSoup
In order to access this, eligible charities will need to create an account with TechSoup.
TechSoup is a nonprofit with local partners around the world, with a mission to equip not-for-profit, non-governmental organizations with transformative technology solutions and skills. TechSoup handle the nonprofit verification process for Google’s non profit programme.
Based on the information and documentation you provide at registration, TechSoup will validate your organization’s legal status and activities. Once they have validated your organization, you can apply for Google for Nonprofits using your validation token. Verification typically takes 2-14 days. You can register for an account here.
Terms and Conditions
- Budget Limit: All Google Ad Grant accounts are limited to a monthly budget of US$10,000 which equates to a daily budget of US$329. Any unused funds at the end of the month will not be rolled over or credited to your account.
- Bidding Strategy: Your account must have conversion tracking set up properly.
- Any campaign set up after April 2019 must use either Maximise conversions, Maximise conversion values, target CPA or target ROAS bidding.
- With the Max conversion / Max conversion value / target CPA / target ROAS bidding strategy, you are not limited to the manual bid limit of $2.
- Keywords: Each ad and keyword in your Ad Grants account must reflect your organisation’s primary mission, be relevant to your nonprofit’s programmes and services, and be specific enough to provide a good experience for the user seeing your ads.
- Keywords that are not allowed:
- Single-word keywords (excluding your own brand name and a small number of exception keywords)
- Overly generic keywords, names of other organisations, places, historical events or people on their own
- Keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2 (to prevent account disruption, set up an automated rule to pause low-quality keywords automatically)
- Website Policy: Your organisation must own the domain that users land on when they click on your ad. (Giving.sg as far as I know is not a verified donation platform)
- Your website must not host Google Adsense ads or affiliate advertising links.
- Commercial activity must not be the main purpose of the website (see other commercial activity terms here).
- Account Management: You must have at least two active ad groups per campaign with at least two unique sitelink ad extensions.
- You must maintain a 5% click through rate each month at the account level. If the CTR requirement isn’t met for two consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.
Full terms and conditions can be found here.
Any account found in violation of programme policies is subject to automatic suspension without notification.
Other Points to Note
Additional Google Ads may be purchased in a separate account.
Setting Up your Google Ads for Charity Account
If you need help with your Google Ads for Charity account, please contact us here.