Google Ad Grantspro Is No Longer Accepting Applications

Yesterday afternoon, I happily navigated to the Google Grantspro page to send the application link to a client who had just become eligible. They couldn’t wait to get up to $40,000 per month of free search advertising budget! I found this foreboding banner at the top of the page:

As of 1 September 2016, Google is no longer accepting new Grantspro applications. Here’s the official response about the change from the Ad Grants team.

While indeed, this is a bummer for nonprofits who rely on their monthly Ad Grant for both fundraising and growing their online communities, there’s reason to be optimistic that this is temporary. Google has paused the Grantspro program numerous times since it was launched, and it has been reinstated each time. Here’s our blog post from June 2014 after a similar suspension of the program.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the Grantspro suspension is temporary and update this blog when we find out more!

If you’re scratching your head about “free” Google advertising for nonprofits, here’s a bit more context:

For years, Google has generously doled out advertising budgets to qualified nonprofits that are making the world a better place. The Ad Grant program helps nonprofits compete for clicks in an increasingly noisy market.

After the simple Ad Grant application process (find eligibility requirements here), nonprofits receive up to $10,000 of monthly budget for Google AdWords within the Search Network– those text ads at the top of your screen after you’ve searched in Google.

Until yesterday (1 September 2016), nonprofits with strong ad performance were then able to apply for Grantspro (find eligibility requirements here)– up to $40,000 per month of search ads! This was an awesome opportunity that helped everyday folks discover nonprofits that are literally changing the world.

Why are clicks so important to nonprofits? Because behind each click is a person being exposed to a nonprofit’s mission, perhaps for the first time. Nonprofits rely on site traffic to build communities that support their impactful work. To fill up a bucket, you’ve got to turn on a hose!

Here’s an example of what we achieved with a Google Ad Grant for our client, diaTribe:

Learn more in our case study for diaTribe here.

Need some help driving new traffic to your nonprofit’s site with a Google Ad Grant? Drop us a line!

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