How Non-Profits Can Expand their Fundraising Efforts for Free

Does Google own the entire internet? Some people I know would say "yes".  No matter what you think of Google here is something every non-profit needs to know. If you have or are involved with a non-profit Google will give you $10,000 per month of free advertising!  It could go up as high as $30,000. To be eligible, you must be a 501(3) C.

Google Ad Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google's online advertising tool. According to Google, the grants empower "nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords™ advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google search result pages." 

It's HUGE! It means you can get FREE advertising about your non-profit anywhere on the internet that Google owns "space".  And where is that? (Yeah, you can say they own the internet).

Why would you want to do advertising?  Besides promoting your mission and initiatives, you can also push people to your website where people can donate to your organization.  With Google Ads you can target your audience by demographics so that you get in front of the exact people that you want and need.

So, what is the catch?  You have to manage the first $10,000 ($329 per day) really well. If you can prove you have good management of the tool, you will be eligible to expand your grant.  In other words, you have to know how to use AdWords and understand the process of cost per click advertising. 

• A $2.00 maximum cost-per-click (CPC)
• Only run keyword-targeted campaigns
• Only appear on Google search result pages
• Only run text ads

That might be tricky for most non-profits that don't have a full time person who can manage this for them.  A good social media manager with Google experience or certification can help you with it.  Or just drop me an email with Google Grants in the subject line and I can assist you.

To find out more, just Google “Google Adwords Grants for Non-profits”.  They provide a handy downloadable guide to assist you.

If you want to get the free report "The 7 Worst Marketing Mistakes You Can Make (and how to avoid them)" join our VIP Marketing Academy at www.fluidcommunictions.net and get free marketing tips, information and insights. 

Also join us on Facebook at facebook.com/fluidcomm and @vipmrkting on Twitter. Karen Williams is president of Fluid Communications, a marketing communications company in Northwest Indiana.

Advertisers already know who you are

I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) the other day.  They were interviewing a marketing professional who was talking about how in three or four years advertisers will be able to target their ads to individual homes while you watch TV.  That means that if my friend and I are looking at the same show (and we live in the same TV market), I will see one ad on my TV and she will see another on her TV based on the demographic data that has been collected on us by perhaps our cable provider.

I wasn't too amazed as that can be done on the internet right now. If you have ever been on the internet (and how many people haven't?) you know that certain advertising is following you.  Those ads have been targeted to you based on demographics, your internet habits and other things that the internet gods have determined.  Then they continue to follow you (re-marketing).

Until last year this type of "hyper" targeting was only available to Fortune 500 companies, who have been doing this for several years.  Everyone knows that advertising on the internet is very beneficial. But limiting small businesses to a paid link at the top of a search page is, well, limiting.


Jump Six, a company in Missouri, was one of the first to provide hyper targeting for smaller businesses with display digital advertising (just like in a newspaper or magazine) and place it on the internet.  It provides a way for advertisers to also gather leads through the system.

Jump Six purchases this valuable real estate on hundreds of sites and then places its clients on sites like national cable news station sites, sports, national blogs and others.  These sites sell national ads and also reserve regional and local space for smaller advertisers.  Just like TV.

If you want to go world-wide or national you can, but most of their clients hyper target people regionally or in certain cities and even zip codes along with other demographics.  Generally, you can buy as few as 50,000 impressions.  Advertisers can change their demographics or increase the impressions whenever they like or need to throughout the campaign length.  Jump Six provides detailed analytics of the campaigns so that advertisers always know how well they are doing.

With this type of hyper targeting, digital advertisers will be able to get a handle on their budgets, better target their products and services, and get a road map for future marketing endeavors.

Thanks to technology, you too can reach out and touch someone (everything old is new again).