Nonprofit marketing is not the same job as marketing a retail brand. Before you sign anything, make a prospective agency answer these questions honestly.
01 · Ask to see it
Industry experience with proof you can click
Donor marketing runs on different math than retail marketing. A shopper buys because they want a product now. A donor gives because they trust an outcome months or years down the road, so a strong nonprofit campaign gets judged on cost per donor and retention, not on a same-day ROAS number. Ask any agency, including us, to show a live Google Ad Grant account or nonprofit campaign with real numbers, not a slide-deck case study.
02 · Read the contract
Transparent pricing, not a cut of your donations
Some agencies charge nonprofits a percentage of the funds they help raise. That model eats directly into your mission dollars and creates a conflict of interest most donors and watchdog groups frown on. A cleaner model is a flat management fee that has nothing to do with how much you raise. We charge 10% of your monthly Google Ads budget for management, $600 per month minimum, and your full ad budget goes straight to Google. We never touch a cent of what you raise.
03 · Check the fine print
No long-term contracts
Nonprofit budgets follow fiscal years, grant cycles, and board approvals, not a marketing calendar. If your board needs to pause spending mid-quarter, a 12-month agency contract turns a budget decision into a legal one. We work month-to-month, so you can scale up for Giving Tuesday and year-end giving, then pull back when funding is tight, with no penalty.
04 · Demand clarity
Reporting your board can actually read
Your marketing report often has to go straight into a board deck or a grant renewal application. If it is full of impressions and engagement rate with no line connecting to donations or cost per donor, it will not hold up in front of your board or your funders. Ask to see a sample report before you sign anything. We build ours in plain language, meant to be handed straight to a board.
05 · Protect your mission
Ownership of your accounts and donor data
Your Google Ad Grant account, donor email list, and analytics data are assets that belong to your organization, not to whichever agency happens to be running them this year. If an agency sets up your accounts under its own login instead of yours, that is a warning sign. Every account we build for you is created under your organization's own login from day one.