Key facts
- Google's Ad Grants program gives eligible nonprofits free Google Ads credit, but it comes with specific rules, a required conversion tracking setup, a minimum click-through rate to stay enrolled, and restrictions on single-word keywords, and a vendor unfamiliar with the program can get a nonprofit removed from it.
- A registered charity typically has to disclose its charitable registration number on official communications in Canada, and donation-related marketing in the US often references its 501(c)(3) status, so a marketing vendor needs to know and correctly use this information rather than treating it as optional fine print.
- Giving to many nonprofits spikes at year-end for tax reasons and again around a specific cause's awareness period, and a marketing plan spending a flat monthly budget all year can miss the window when donors are actually most likely to give.
- A nonprofit's marketing usually has to speak to at least two different audiences at once, donors being asked to give and program participants or the community being served, and a single message written for one often falls flat with the other.
- Donor trust depends partly on transparency about where money goes, so a website that cannot clearly show program impact or how funds are used is working against its own fundraising campaigns regardless of how much is spent driving traffic to it.
Scope boundaries
Name the channels in scope: website, Google Ad Grants management if the nonprofit is enrolled or eligible, local SEO, and any paid social. State which audiences the marketing needs to reach, donors, volunteers, program participants, or a combination, since the messaging and the pages differ for each.
Out of scope unless separately priced: managing paid Google Ads outside the Ad Grants program, which has different rules and billing, and any fundraising platform integration beyond what is already in place. Confirm the vendor understands the Ad Grants program's specific compliance requirements before scoping that part of the work.
What the vendor must be given
Manager-level access to Google Business Profile and Google Ads or Ad Grants, not primary ownership. Access to the donation platform's reporting, or an export, so campaigns can be tied to actual donations, not just website visits to a donate page. The charitable registration number or nonprofit status details required for compliant disclosure on marketing materials.
A clear breakdown of the year's key giving moments, year-end, a specific campaign period, or an annual event, so the vendor can plan spend around real dates. A named contact who can supply program impact information the marketing can use honestly.
Ownership and exit clauses
State that the nonprofit owns its Google Business Profile, its Ad Grants or Google Ads account, its website, and its domain outright, with the vendor added as a manager. This matters specifically for Ad Grants accounts, since the nonprofit's own eligibility, not the vendor's, is what keeps the account active, and ownership needs to be unambiguous.
On exit, require full access handover within a set number of days, along with any donor list segmentation or campaign history built during the engagement, since that institutional knowledge should stay with the organization.
Milestones and acceptance tests
Ad Grants compliance check within the first 30 days if the nonprofit is enrolled, confirming conversion tracking and click-through rate requirements are being met. Campaign calendar built around the organization's actual giving moments, agreed before the year's key campaign period. Donor-facing and program-facing content clearly separated across the site.
Acceptance test: at each major giving moment, can the vendor show donations tied to specific campaigns, not just traffic, and can they confirm the Ad Grants account remained in good standing with Google's requirements throughout.
Scoring rubric
Weight bidders on nonprofit-specific competence.
Experience with Google Ad Grants and its compliance requirements, 25 percent.
Ability to separate donor and program-participant messaging, 20 percent.
Integration with the donation platform for real conversion tracking, 20 percent.
Price and contract terms, 20 percent.
References from other nonprofits, called directly, 15 percent.
A bidder with no Ad Grants experience should explain clearly how they will avoid the compliance mistakes that get accounts suspended.
Questions every bidder must answer
Require written answers.
Have you managed a Google Ad Grants account before, and how do you keep it compliant with the program's rules?
How do you separate messaging for donors versus program participants or the community served?
How do you tie marketing campaigns to actual donations, not just website traffic?
How do you plan spend around our specific giving calendar rather than a flat monthly budget?
Who owns the Ad Grants or Google Ads account, the Business Profile, and the website once we sign?
What happens to our accounts and campaign history if we switch agencies?
Related questions
It is a program that gives eligible nonprofits free Google Ads credit, subject to eligibility requirements and ongoing compliance rules, including a minimum click-through rate and specific conversion tracking. Not every nonprofit qualifies, and a vendor managing an Ad Grants account needs to understand these rules well enough to keep the account in good standing.
Usually not. Giving often spikes at year-end for tax reasons and around specific campaign periods or events, so a flat monthly budget can miss the windows when donors are most likely to give. A plan built around the organization's actual giving calendar tends to perform better than an evenly spread budget.
Donors are usually being asked to give, so the message centers on impact and trust, while program participants or the community being served need practical information about services or how to get involved. A single message written for one audience often does not land with the other, so most nonprofit sites need to separate the two clearly.
Tie campaigns to actual donations tracked through the donation platform, not just traffic to a donate page. A campaign can drive plenty of visits that never convert, so connecting marketing reporting to real gift data is what tells you whether the spend produced results.
This depends on jurisdiction, but Canadian charities typically need to reference their charitable registration number on official communications, and US nonprofits often reference their 501(c)(3) status in donation-related marketing. A marketing vendor should know this detail and use it correctly rather than treating it as optional.
SearchPod is a vendor for this kind of work and would answer this RFP; the acceptance tests here are the ones we agree to.
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