Whether you’re just finding out about Google Grants or considering applying for one, knowing how it can be used to benefit your charity can help you make that decision. Even if you have a Google Grant already, these five ways of using it can provide you with some direction, improve your ad spend, and increase its real and tangible impact on your charity.
1. Fund Raise More By Connecting With Cause Donors
Donations are the lifeblood of charities, and while government or grant funding are great assets, building a strong base of donators can provide some long term security. Google Grants can be a powerful tool to connect with potential donors. I can personally attest to that as well as point out several other examples.
To increase donations, be sure to tap into keywords that include “donate” and your cause (e.x. donate to autism, donate to woman’s shelter). If someone is looking to support your particular cause but doesn’t know where to donate, your organization can then appear at the top of search results and you’ll be a lot more likely to capture that eyeball. It’s also important that the ad you show sends visitors specifically to your donation or landing page that has good content on it. Sometimes when I visit a charity’s donation page, all I see is the information on how to donate instead of the critical question: why to donate. By including content that outlines what your cause is and what people are supporting, not only will your “donate” keywords get better quality scores (which means more traffic), but also will be much more engaging and therefore convincing.
2. Generate Interest in Events People Want to Attend
There are a lot of creative fundraising ideas and a whole field on event fundraising. In fact, chances are you or your charity has already run a fundraising event before. Google Grants can be fantastic to drive traffic to these events based on interest for that kind of event alone. For example, say you’re hosting a charity kid’s concert in Toronto where the proceeds support the cause. You can include keywords like “Toronto Concert” or “Kids Concert” to target an audience that may be interested in the concert alone, regardless of whether they know of your organization. This opens up the possibilities to tap into high trafficked keywords and drive attendance up, which will do wonders for your fund raising. Make sure, however, that you set that event’s AdWords campaign to end after the event has passed to ensure you’re not advertising something that has already expired.
3. Connect With Volunteers Looking For Opportunities
Volunteering is another key resource for many charities. Particularly if you’re looking for young volunteers who not only are hungry for hours (think school requirements) but also tech-savvy, Google Grants is a perfect outlet. Similar to donations, look to advertise keywords like “volunteer” to your cause. In this case, make sure your geographic targeting is set as specific to the local areas where you accept volunteers. Unlike donations or information that can be delivered or shared virtually, volunteerism often includes that physical aspect and so you want to make it relevant to searchers.
4. Raise Awareness of Your Informational or Educational Content
If your informational or educational content has been well put together, they often become rich sources of keywords that can dramatically increase traffic and ad spend to your site. With the traffic volume you can generate through this content, the idea is to lead those visitors into other desirable areas of your site, the donations page for example. Be sure that your navigation is easy and clear to use so that visitors can hop from one topic to another.
5. Help More of Your Target Users
Helping your target users is, after all, the primary purpose behind what your charity does. It makes sense then that your Google Grant should be used to advertise to the people in need in order to help them. A great example of this is a charity we work with, the Redwood Women’s Shelter. They found that actually a lot of their service users (abused women and children) saw Internet search as a preferred way of reaching out for help information. Using Google Ads, we could then connect with those looking for help by advertising a 24/7 crisis hotline. Now, nearly 75% of their outreach originates from Google Grants, and ultimately they are better fulfilling their mission. Similarly, think about how your target audience may be looking for you in need. Focusing your keywords and ad text on them will pay charitable dividends.
