This nonprofit had $10,000 a month in free Google ads. It was using $1,300.

The problem most nonprofits don't know they have

Google gives qualifying nonprofits up to $10,000 a month in free search ads. Most organizations set the grant up once, or have someone set it up for them, and then assume it is working.

Often it isn't, and nobody on staff has the time or training to tell. The grant shows as active. The reports show conversions. Meanwhile most of the money goes unused, and the people you exist to help never see your ads.

There is also a rule that surprises many executive directors. Google expects at least 5% of the people who see your ads to click them. An account that stays under that can lose the grant.

What we found when we looked

We opened the account and looked at the 30 days before our review.

• Most of the grant sat unused. About $1,300 of the $10,000 was being spent each month.
• The conversions weren't people asking for help. Of about 140 conversions on the report, 133 were visits to the homepage.
• The click rate was about 1.4%. It had been under Google's 5% requirement for seven months in a row.
• Most keywords never ran. About 590 of the 667 keywords had never shown an ad.
• Inquiries couldn't be traced. Phone numbers from the website form weren't being saved, and no inquiry recorded which ad it came from.

Nothing dramatic had gone wrong. The account had simply never been pointed at the organization's real goal: people asking for help.

What we fixed

1. We defined what success means. A conversion became a form, a phone call, or a person telling us they have the problem the nonprofit solves. Page visits stopped counting.
2. We rebuilt the ads around the questions people ask. Each topic got its own campaign, its own ads and a page that answers that exact question.
3. We gave visitors something useful first. Plain-language guides and free tools help people before the site asks for anything.
4. We made the website say plainly who the nonprofit is. Every page now explains what the organization does and how a request for help is handled.
5. We connected every inquiry to a person. Each request now saves the phone number, reaches the team right away, and records the campaign and search that produced it.
6. We checked our own numbers. In the first week, free tool lookups were being counted too generously. We tightened the definition so the report matched real demand.

What happened

The rebuilt campaigns went live at the end of October 2026. These are the first 12 days of November, next to the month before.

The click rate is not at 5% yet, and we won't call it done until it is. We'll update this page with the full month when November closes.

Why it worked

There was no shortcut. Every gain came from doing the underlying work: honest pages, useful tools, accurate tracking and keywords reviewed one at a time.

What tied that work together was strategy. Someone had to decide what the grant is for, question any number that looked too good, and follow each inquiry all the way to a person who can help.

Is your grant doing this?

• You have the grant, but you can't say how much of it you use.
• Your report shows conversions, but the phone isn't ringing.
• Nobody has told you your click rate.
• You can't tell which ad produced which inquiry.
• The account was set up once and hasn't been looked at since.

If any of those sound familiar, the review below will tell you where you stand.

How the free review works

Questions executive directors ask