Google for Nonprofits offers a grant through Google AdWords to give nonprofits the ability to advertise on Google.com to promote awareness or increase donations, volunteers, etc. If you have been managing a Grant or Grantspro account, you may have noticed a major change earlier this year. Grant accounts used to be restricted to $1 max CPC keyword bids, which really held back a lot of companies because a lot of keywords they want to target are highly competitive and are not eligible to show ads for a lot of their more important terms. Google decided to make a change to help advertisers with this problem, but it still came with some brand new issues to work with. Learn about the update, how it changed your data, and also what you need to do to improve performance with the new updates.

Update: January 28, 2013

On January 28, 2013, Google AdWords made a widespread change, increasing keyword bid limits for Grant accounts from $1 to $2. The notification came via email to Grant account owners and Admins, with the portion regarding the change below:

Recently, there have been some pretty big changes to Google Grants for Nonprofits. Before I go into the elbow dropping details of the recent changes, I will give you a larger overview of what the Google Grants Program is.

Last week’s webinar “The 4 Online Marketing Tactics Nonprofits Need for Success” resulted in a lot of great questions from attendees – questions we were, unfortunately, unable to get to on the day because the webinar ran overtime.  But, I did promise that I would post answers to your questions, and I like to keep my promises.

Nonprofit marketers face a number of challenges, not the least of which is marketing their organizations effectively through multiple channels. And while the holidays are certainly the busiest season for giving, nonprofits are up against a lot of competition for attention. With so many channels (such as search, social media and email) and limited resources, what are the best options to ensure that your nonprofit organization is gaining the most donations for the marketing efforts you’re investing in?

Are you a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in the United States?  If so, you could be eligible for the Google for Nonprofits program!

What Is It?

A program offered by Google to help nonprofit organizations further their missions by helping reduce costs, increase efficiency, and more.  Through the Google for Nonprofits program, you can get access to great programs like: