Google Ad Grants gives eligible UK charities up to $10,000 USD a month, roughly £7,500, in free advertising on Google Search. To qualify, you need formal charitable status, verification through Google’s validation partner, and a website that passes Google’s review. Keeping the grant is the harder part: you must hold a 5% account-level click-through rate, track real conversions and log in every month. This guide sets out what the grant is, who can apply, how the process runs and where charities most often lose their accounts.
According to Google for Nonprofits, eligible charities receive up to $10,000 USD a month in in-kind advertising credit for text-based ads on Google Search. The sterling figure moves with the exchange rate, which is why UK sources quote anything from about £7,400 to £7,500.
Three points shape how you should plan around it:
The last point is the one we would underline for any trustee or head of fundraising. The credit has a real cost in staff time and expertise, even though the media is free.
The core requirement is formal charitable status. Google’s eligibility guidance requires a non-profit charitable organisation in good standing, and UK organisations are verified through Goodstack, Google’s validation partner.
In England and Wales, GOV.UK explains that a charity generally has to register with the Charity Commission once its annual income exceeds £5,000, while Charitable Incorporated Organisations must register whatever their income. Scottish and Northern Irish charities register with their own regulators, so check the position for your jurisdiction before you apply.
Several types of organisation are excluded. Government bodies, hospitals, schools and universities cannot take part, even where they have a charitable arm that looks similar. If you are a school foundation or a hospital charity with its own registered number and separate governance, confirm your status with the validator rather than assuming either way.
The route runs through Google for Nonprofits, and the stages are sequential. Skipping ahead is the commonest cause of delay.
Charities rarely fail because the site looks poor. They fail because the site does not state, plainly and early, that the organisation is a charity and what it does. Google’s checks are prescriptive and look for explicit disclosure. Before you apply, make sure the landing pages show your charity status and registration number, describe your mission and activities in the first screen, and have clear navigation that works on mobile.
The Google for Nonprofits community forum has a steady stream of applicants stuck on this stage, and the pattern is usually a missing or buried disclosure rather than anything exotic.
Getting approved is a milestone, not the finish line. Google’s account management policy sets conditions that you have to meet continuously.
| Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| 5% account-level click-through rate | Two consecutive months below it leads to automatic suspension |
| Conversion tracking | Track meaningful actions such as donations, volunteer sign-ups or ticket purchases, not just time on site |
| At least one verified conversion a month | Needed to remain compliant and active |
| Conversion-based Smart Bidding | Required across campaigns, per Google’s programme rules |
| Monthly login | The account must be accessed at least once every month |
| Sound location settings | Geo-targeting must match where your services and information are genuinely useful |
The 5% threshold is the one that catches people. It is an account-level average, so a handful of broad, low-intent keywords can drag the whole account under. Manual, keyword-only approaches often struggle to reach it, which is why disciplined structure matters: tightly themed ad groups, specific keywords tied to a real need, and negative keywords added regularly.
Google’s website and tracking requirements mean that smaller charities often need technical help to implement conversion tracking and structural changes before the free budget can be used well. In practice you are making a baseline investment first, in a site that converts and in measurement that works. That is not a reason to avoid the grant. It is a reason to budget for the groundwork honestly.
There is also a ceiling problem. Many charities never spend anywhere near the full £7,500 equivalent, because relevant search demand for their cause is limited. Spending the whole credit is not the goal; producing donors, volunteers, beneficiaries or event attendees at a sensible cost is.
Charity Digital’s overview of the grant points to the same conclusion we reach with clients: successful grantees run it with the rigour of commercial pay-per-click, aimed at defined outcomes rather than traffic. A sound operating model looks like this:
If your team also contacts corporate supporters or sponsors by email alongside the grant, remember that outreach carries its own rules; this explanation of two legal tests for B2B cold email compliance is a useful check before you send.
There are three realistic models, and the right one depends on capacity rather than ambition.
In-house. Works where a digital or fundraising officer has time each week and some search experience. The risk is that the grant becomes one task among many and slips.
Student or volunteer support. Google’s Nonprofit Marketing Immersion matches students of digital marketing with nonprofits needing extra help on their Ad Grants accounts. It is a good way to add capacity, provided someone senior owns the strategy and the compliance.
A specialist partner. Suits charities where the grant could be a meaningful acquisition channel and the team cannot give it continuous attention. The test of a good partner is whether they talk about conversions and cost per outcome, not impressions.
Viaduct Generation works with charities alongside B2B and e-commerce businesses, and our approach to paid search starts from measurement and conversion rather than spend. If you want the grant set up on firm foundations, or an existing account rescued before it is suspended, our paid media team can assess it. We also commit up to 5% of our annual contract revenue to charities and community initiatives, which you can read about on our charity partners page. To discuss a 90-day engagement, start from our services overview.
Google sets the grant at up to $10,000 USD a month, which is approximately £7,500 at the time of its UK guidance. The exact sterling value shifts with the exchange rate, so different UK sources quote slightly different figures. It is advertising credit, not a cash payment.
Not every charity qualifies. You need formal charitable status, verification through Google’s validation partner and a website that passes review. Government bodies, hospitals, schools and universities are ineligible. In England and Wales, charities with income over £5,000 generally need to be registered with the Charity Commission, and CIOs must register regardless of income.
Most verification requests are processed within 2 to 14 working days, and a secondary website review can add 3 to 5 working days, according to Google’s guidance. Applications often take longer overall because the website needs changes first. Prepare your disclosures and tracking before you submit.
The most common trigger is an account-level click-through rate below 5% for two consecutive months. Missing conversion tracking, no verified conversion in a month or a lapse in logging in also breach the policy. Regular auditing is the practical safeguard.
