Optimizing Your Nonprofit’s Impact Using Google’s AdWords Grant

Does your nonprofit have a Google AdWords grant?

• No? You are missing out on free money that can send supporters to your website and maximize your nonprofit’s impact.
• Yes? Terrific!  But are you getting the most out of it?

Back in 2013, upon the advice of our Board Director, George Weiner, America’s Charities applied for a $10,000 per month Nonprofit AdWords grant from Google, and simply put – the results have been awesome!

You see in 2012, our website attracted between 4,000 – 9,000 page views per month and 39,000 total visitors that year.  But after receiving Google’s Nonprofit AdWord grant, we were able to double our monthly page views and triple the number of users visiting our website in 2013. Those are pretty great numbers, but what has truly made the results of this grant awesome is its impact on our organization.

America’s Charities is quite the multidimensional nonprofit, and our website serves many purposes concentrated around:

1. Bringing attention to our member charities so we can raise money for them and connect people with their cause in other ways;
2. Helping companies with their corporate philanthropy and employee engagement goals by providing online giving tools, strategic social responsibility plans and advice, connecting them with charities to support and other consulting services; and
3. Gaining support for America’s Charities (we are a nonprofit, so we can’t do any of our work without the generosity and support of donors and partners).

Getting the Most Out of a Google Nonprofit AdWords Grant

Traffic generated from our Google AdWords grant has been really wonderful for our organization, but anyone who already has an AdWords account knows getting the most out of a Google AdWords grant account requires constant learning and testing. We were thrilled with our 2013 web traffic results, but we didn’t just set-up our Google AdWords grant account and leave it be.  Being a recipient of Google’s Nonprofit AdWords grant is a tremendous privilege and one not to be taken for granted.

We are constantly updating our Google AdWords campaigns, looking at the results, and trying out new messages and ways to maximize our utilization of the grant.  And because we have made the grant a priority and key part of our marketing strategy, we have been able to grow our web traffic even more and have even qualified for Google’s $40,000 per month Nonprofit AdWords grant. In 2014, our web traffic was 5 times greater than our 2012 traffic, and the number of visitors we attracted was 4 times that of our 2012 results.  Looking at our web traffic for the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same time last year, our traffic is already up 243% and the number of visitors is up 247%.  And you can bet we’re going to be building on that success as the year continues! 

Building on Our Success with More Training

Remember that Board Director who recommended we apply for the AdWords grant in the first place?  He used to be CTO for DoSomething.org (an America’s Charities member), and has since started his own business, Wholewhale.com, a digital agency designed to help nonprofits increase their impact by leveraging data and technology.  One way we’ll be building on our Google Nonprofit AdWords grant success in 2015 is by taking one of Whole Whale’s online courses, Google AdWords Grant for Nonprofits: Spending free money to drive online impact.  Typically this course costs $249, but George has generously offered to let us take it at a discounted price of just $79, and he’s allowing us to offer that same discount to our friends – but that discount will expire at the end of May.  So whether you are considering applying for a Google Nonprofit AdWords grant, or already have one and want to drive more impact from it, we encourage you to join us in taking the course. 

Register for Course & Get Discount

To receive the discounted price of $79 before it expires, click here to learn more about and register for the course and enter promotion code “WhaleFriends”. After May 30, 2015, you can still take the course at a 30% discounted rate by entering promotion code “GeorgeRocks” (if you take the course you’ll see why).

“The Google AdWords Grant is one of the most powerful tools for nonprofits to drive meaningful traffic to their site. Sadly it is also one of the most underutilized tools. We are trying to change that by teaching the sector how to spend Google’s money to increase their impact. So, please stop reading this quote and figure out how to set this up for your nonprofit!”  – George Weiner, Chief Whaler WholeWhale.com