Free Adwords - Doing Charity Differently

Generating brand awareness and driving classified traffic to websites can financially drain any organization. The challenge increases manifold for non profit organizations, often limited by resources and marketing expenditure. Most non profit organizations need to prioritize spending and Online advertisement does not make it to this list, in most cases. What if they could rally Search Engines to accomplish this feat without spending a penny.

Philanthropy does not find many takers in the world of 'for-profit' organizations. This poses an acute fund raising problem for 'no-profit' organizations, as shortage of funds act as an embargo to their cause of existence – charity. Online exposure can provide impetus to the fund raising initiatives by promoting the websites meant to garner help and support. Within the past few years, Search Engines have warmed-up to the altruistic cause of supporting charity organizations.

'Google Grants', a charitable initiative by Search Engine giant Google, is a way of doing charity differently. The program awards free Adwords (pay per click) credit to eligible charities, to help them leverage the benefits of sponsored listings. The mission is to use Google's Internet marketing capabilities to support non profit organizations. Google's commitment reverberates in the statement made Sheryl Sandberg, “As a company we are interested in giving back to the community."

'Google Grants', an appurtenance to Google's paid advertising model, is currently available in Beta version. It is already providing support to hundreds of charities, whose missions range from providing shelter to homeless children to research in the field of fuel efficient technologies. According to Google “The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing our philosophy of community service, and with a strong mission to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.” Charity organizations, granted non profit status by their respective governments under various legislations, can avail off Google Grants in 15 countries and the number is set to grow with time.

'Google Grants' award is given for a minimum of three months and can be extended. The free Adwords account remains active, unless or until Google notifies you that the grant has expired. The notification is usually received 30 days in advance. The value of the grant depends on performance of ads on Google or the click-through-rate (CTR). These ads are triggered by keywords and are also displayed when Google does not have any sponsored listings to display, for the keywords searched by users.

Google Grants is part of a bigger altruistic dream, that Google is committed to pursue. In order to realize its dream, Google has setup a separate entity Google.org, a 'for-profit' company. An interesting approach, as 'for-profit' status is generally associated with certain amount of vested interests. Google has already pledged $25 million in grants to address issues ranging from poverty to climate change, and is in line with its motto “Don't be evil.”