Free Advertising Worth Up to £89,100 Per Year (That Most Charities Don’t Know About)
If you run a charity or work for a charity and you’re not using Google Ad Grants, you’re leaving a significant amount of free advertising on the table every single month.
We understand that running a non-profit is no small feat, and figuring out Google Ads on top of everything else can feel overwhelming. But that’s exactly why we’ve put this guide together.
By the end of it, you’ll know:
- Exactly what a Google Ad Grant is
- Whether your organisation qualifies for it
- How to get the ball rolling
Let’s get into it.
So, What Actually Is a Google Ad Grant?
Google Ad Grant is part of Google’s wider Google for Non-profits programme, and it gives eligible charities up to $10,000 per month (roughly £8,000+) in free Google advertising.
That’s up to $120,000 (~£89,100) a year – at no cost to your organisation.
Why the $ you may ask? Well, Google is an American company after all so it’s easier for them to have it all standardised across the countries.
Nonetheless, here’s how it works:
When someone searches for something relevant to your cause on Google, your charity’s advert can appear at the top of the results. If they click through to your website, the cost of that click is covered by Google – not you.
It comes out of your monthly Ad Grants allocation.
Think of it like a pre-loaded advertising budget that Google tops up every single month – for free because they are nice like that.
The potential reach here is significant. Google handles around 16.4 billion searches every day, and it holds roughly 89.9% of the global search engine market.
The opportunity to get in front of people who are actively looking for what your charity offers is enormous.
What can you actually use it for?
We’ve seen non-profits use their Ad Grants allocation in all sorts of ways:
- Driving more online donations
- Fundraising for specific campaigns or appeals
- Recruiting volunteers
- Promoting events and community activities
- Raising awareness about their cause
- Providing free resources and signposting support
- Help cover more informational searches that might not lead to a direct donation, but will increase the Top of Funnel activity – thus trust worthiness of the charity
The key thing to understand is that the Grant is plays a big role for all charities – especially smaller one that don’t have that kind of marketing budget available to them.
Will You Be Able to Spend the Full $10,000 a Month?
Honestly? Not always – and it depends on a few things.
We won’t sugar-coat it: some non-profits struggle to use their full monthly allocation, and there are 3 main reasons for that:
1. The location you target and the number of people that search for your cause:
The smaller the area that you target, the smaller the number of searches there are for your cause. Also, the less people know about your cause, the less direct cause related searches people will make.
2. Your website content:
This is more of an SEO related issue, but the more in-depth, relevant content around your cause you have on your website, the more keywords you can target – and the more clicks you can generate. A website with just a handful of pages has far less to work with than one packed with helpful articles and resources.
3. How well your account is managed:
This is the biggest problem of them all.
A well-managed Ad Grants account can make a dramatic difference to how much of your allocation you actually use, and – more importantly – how much of that spend converts into real outcomes for your organisation.
This is where working with a specialist agency can make the difference between an account that ticks along quietly and one that genuinely drives results.
Are You Eligible?
Google Ad Grants is available to non-profits in 50 countries, including the UK. Eligibility requirements vary by country, so let’s focus on what you need to qualify here.
UK eligibility requirements
To be eligible as a UK-based non-profit, your organisation must be:
- Registered with the Charity Commission (England and Wales), NICC (Northern Ireland), or OSCR (Scotland) – or recognised by HMRC as a charitable tax-exempt organisation or church
- Based in the UK
- Operating a website with sufficient content (more on this below)
- Displaying your charity registration number clearly on your website
If you’re a registered charity with a charity number, you’re very likely eligible.
However, the following types of organisations are not eligible, regardless of their charitable purpose:
- Government entities or organisations
- Hospitals or healthcare organisations
- Schools, academic institutions, or universities
Does your website pass the test?
Your website isn’t just a nice-to-have here – it’s a fundamental part of your eligibility.
Google has specific requirements, and your site needs to tick all of these boxes:
- You must own the website being advertised (no third-party platforms you don’t control)
- The site must clearly explain who you are, what your mission is, and what you do
- Navigation must be clear and there should be obvious calls to action (eg. donate here, volunteer for us, contact our team, etc.)
- Content should be regularly updated and genuinely useful to visitors
- No broken links, and your site must be secured with HTTPS
- Selling products or services is fine, but it can’t be the main purpose of the site – and you should explain how the items you sell contribute to funding the cause
- Any advertising on your site must be relevant and non-intrusive
If your site is a bit outdated or thin on content, it’s worth investing some time in improving it before applying — it’ll pay dividends once your Ad Grants account is live.
How to Register: A Step-by-Step Overview
The registration process isn’t complicated, but there are a few steps to work through. Here’s the full picture:
Step 1: Request a Google for Non-profits account
Head to the Google for Non-profits website and click ‘Get Started’. You’ll need a Google account to do this.
Here’s a practical tip from us: use a general organisational email address (like admin@ or marketing@) rather than a personal one.
We’ve seen too many non-profits where the person who set everything up has since moved on, and access has been lost as a result.
Save yourself the headache.
Step 2: Wait for verification from Goodstack
Google uses a third-party organisation called Goodstack to verify non-profit status. Most applications are reviewed within 2 to 14 working days. They’ll check that your organisation is a legitimate, legally registered non-profit.
Step 3: Activate Google Ad Grants
Once you receive your confirmation email, log in to your Google for Non-profits account, click ‘Activate Products’, select Google Ad Grants, and complete the eligibility form.
Step 4: Set up your Google Ads account
Use the same email address you registered with. When setting up:
- Enter your website URL – make sure it’s HTTPS
- Link any existing Google products (like Google Business Profile or GA4 if you have them)
- Add your organisation’s phone number
At this point, Google will offer to walk you through creating your first campaign.
You can follow their guided steps, or skip and set things up from scratch.
We’d generally recommend the latter – it gives you much more control over structure, which matters a lot for compliance and performance.
What Does a Compliant Account Actually Look Like?
This is important. Google Ad Grants accounts have specific requirements that you must maintain – not just at setup, but ongoing.
If your account falls out of compliance, it can be suspended.
At a minimum, your account needs:
- At least 1 active campaign generating daily traffic
- Each campaign must have at least 1 ad group
- Each ad group must contain at least 1 responsive search ad
- Ad groups must include at least 1 keyword
- No single-word or overly generic keywords
- At least 2 sitelink extensions per campaign
- Active, accurate conversion tracking
- At least 1 tracked conversion per month
- An account Click Through Rate (CTR) of at least 5% (for Search campaigns ONLY)++
Keeping on top of these requirements is one of the main reasons non-profits benefit from working with an experienced Google Ads agency – compliance isn’t a one-time job, it’s ongoing.
What’s Next?
Want to find out if your charity qualifies and what we could do with your Ad Grants account?
Get in touch, or take a look at our PPC For Charities page – we’d love to help you punch above your weight online and bring awareness to your cause.
Bianca Croitoru
PPC Account Manager
Bianca joined the WildcatDigital Team in October 2025, having worked with charities from £100k to £7M, blue-collar lead gen businesses, and clothing e-commerce brands – building multi-channel marketing strategies that flow seamlessly, Bianca will be a real asset to the team.
When she’s away from the office, Bianca loves diving into holistic health experiments… and indulging her inner conspiracy theorist (or truth seeker, depending on who you ask).
