The Google Ad Grant gives eligible UK charities up to around £7,400 per month (set by Google as $10,000 USD) in free Google Search advertising. This 2026 guide covers eligibility, application via Goodstack, current rules, Performance Max availability, and how to get value from the grant.
Last updated: May 2026. Note: Google sets all Ad Grant limits in USD, so the GBP figures below are approximate and shift with the exchange rate.
The Google Ad Grant is a programme from Google for Nonprofits that gives eligible UK charities up to around £7,400 per month (set by Google as $10,000 USD) of free Google Search advertising. The grant runs as in-kind advertising credit, paid directly into a dedicated Google Ads account managed by the charity. It does not appear as cash in your bank account, it appears as ad spend Google does not charge you for.
The grant is designed to help charities reach people searching on Google for the causes, services, and information they support. Since launching in 2003, Google reports the programme has given over $10 billion in ad credits to more than 115,000 nonprofits worldwide.
Quick facts:
To qualify for the Google Ad Grant in the UK, your organisation must be a registered charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, or The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. You must also be verified by Goodstack (formerly Percent, formerly TechSoup), hold valid charity status, and operate a website that meets Google's policy requirements for nonprofit advertising.
The full eligibility list:
The grant gives a maximum of around £243 per day in ad spend ($329 USD), totalling up to roughly £7,400 per month ($10,000 USD). That works out to roughly £88,000 of free advertising per year, if you can fully utilise the budget.
Most charities don't fully utilise it. According to Getting Attention's 2026 industry data, the average Ad Grant account uses only around £220 ($300 USD) of the £7,400 monthly credits. Well-managed accounts (whether in-house or with a specialist) typically average £6,000 to £6,700 ($8,000 to $9,000 USD) in monthly spend, with grant management agencies reporting around 68 per cent of their managed accounts exceeding £6,700 ($9,000 USD) per month. The reasons for low utilisation are usually structural: not enough relevant keywords, low Quality Scores, weak ad copy, the CPC limit, or the 5% CTR threshold pulling the account down.
The Google Ad Grant lets UK charities run Search ads on Google.co.uk and Google.com results pages, Maps placements, and Performance Max campaigns (limited to Search and Maps inventory). You can drive traffic to any page on your charity's website that supports your mission. The most common use cases I see across UK charity accounts:
Google enforces several rules on Ad Grant accounts. Breaking them can lead to account suspension. The main ones:
Search campaigns in your account must maintain a click-through rate of at least 5% across the account over a two-month period. If account-wide Search CTR drops below 5% for two consecutive months, Google may suspend the account. Performance Max campaigns are exempt from this calculation. In practice, modern well-structured Ad Grant accounts rarely fall below 5%.
Maximum cost per click is capped at around £1.47 ($2 USD) on manual or non-Smart bidding strategies. The cap is removed when using Smart Bidding strategies including Maximise Conversions, Maximise Conversion Value, or Target ROAS, allowing the account to bid higher when Google predicts a conversion. Most charities competing for high-value keywords find the CPC cap too restrictive and need to switch to Smart Bidding.
You cannot bid on single-word keywords (with exceptions for branded terms, medical conditions, and a small list of approved exceptions). Overly generic keywords like "shoes" or "books" are also restricted. Keywords must clearly relate to the charity's mission.
Keywords must maintain a Quality Score of at least 3 out of 10. Keywords with Quality Scores below 3 must be paused or improved.
Active, valid conversion tracking is required for all Ad Grant accounts. Conversions must be "meaningful actions" such as donations, volunteer sign-ups, newsletter sign-ups, or contact form submissions, not page views or thin engagement signals.
You must log into the account at least once per month, and make meaningful changes (new keywords, paused poor performers, ad copy edits, etc.) at least once every 90 days.
The application process for UK charities runs through Google for Nonprofits and typically takes around 2 to 4 weeks if your paperwork is in order. The full process:
For most UK charities, hiring a Google Ads Grant specialist or freelancer delivers significantly better results than in-house management. Industry data from Ad Grant management agencies suggests well-managed accounts can hit 80 to 90 per cent budget utilisation, compared to industry-average accounts that often spend just a few hundred pounds of the monthly budget.
The reasons are usually structural. Charity teams running grants in-house tend to be small and stretched, often with the grant being one of fifteen things on someone's plate. Ad Grants have specific quirks (the 5% CTR rule, the CPC cap, the keyword restrictions, the Smart Bidding requirements) that catch out generalists. And Google updates the policy regularly, so what worked two years ago may now risk suspension.
If you do manage in-house, the highest-impact things to focus on are: tight keyword groupings, regular search term audits, conversion tracking that actually works, and Maximise Conversions bidding once you have enough conversion data.
Most UK charities see meaningful traffic within the first 2 to 4 weeks of an Ad Grant campaign going live, but it typically takes 2 to 3 months of optimisation before the account is reliably hitting the 5% CTR threshold and converting at a reasonable rate. The first 30 days are usually about getting the basics right (keyword research, ad copy, conversion tracking). Months two and three are about pruning underperforming keywords, restructuring ad groups for better Quality Score, and switching to Smart Bidding strategies once enough conversion data exists.
One of my recent Google Ad Grant builds was for EDT (the Engineering Development Trust) and their Industrial Cadets accreditation scheme. The brief was to promote the scheme to UK employers, schools, and organisations interested in formal recognition for STEM engagement work with young people.
The build was a multi-ad-group structure organised around employer-focused, school-focused, and accreditation-specific search intent, paired with a custom employer-focused landing page. The structure made it possible to maintain tight keyword-to-ad-to-landing-page relevance, which is essential for keeping Quality Scores high and Search CTR above the 5% threshold.
The takeaway worth sharing: Ad Grant accounts succeed or fail on structure. A well-built account with five tightly-themed campaigns will outperform a sprawling fifteen-campaign account every single time, because Google rewards relevance and consistency in this programme more than scale.
The Grantspro programme historically lifted the cap to around £29,500 per month ($40,000 USD) for top-performing nonprofits, but Google closed Grantspro to new applicants in September 2016. Existing Grantspro holders are grandfathered in and can continue to spend at that higher level, but new charities cannot apply. The standard £7,400 ($10,000 USD) per month cap applies to all new Ad Grant accounts.
Yes, you can run a paid Google Ads account alongside the Ad Grant account, and many charities do. The paid account can use Display, YouTube, Discover and Gmail placements (which the Grant version of Performance Max cannot serve on), while the Grant focuses on Search and Maps including Performance Max. Just keep them as separate accounts under one MCC.
Suspended accounts can usually be reinstated by fixing the underlying issue (typically the 5% CTR rule or Quality Score) and submitting a reactivation request through Google for Nonprofits. Reactivation typically takes a few business days to a couple of weeks. Repeated suspensions risk permanent removal.
No, there is no obligation to spend the full budget. You only spend what your campaigns can effectively use, and unused budget does not roll over. However, consistent low utilisation can flag the account for review.
Yes, the Ad Grant allows international targeting as long as the campaigns relate to your charitable mission. Many UK charities run UK-only campaigns simply because that's where their service operates, but international targeting is permitted.
If your UK charity is not getting the most from your Google Ad Grant, or you want help applying, building campaigns, or fixing a suspended account, I work with charities directly as a freelance Google Ads consultant based in Bournemouth. Recent work includes the EDT Industrial Cadets grant build referenced above. Get in touch to discuss your account.
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