Google Ad Grant requirements: what Google checks — and what it can't

The eligibility requirements

Google's official requirements come in two layers: whether your organization qualifies, and whether your website qualifies. On the organization side, you need current charitable status — in the U.S., a registered 501(c)(3) — validated through TechSoup or Google's validation partner, plus registration with Google for Nonprofits.

On the website side, Google requires an owned, functional site with substantial content about your mission: HTTPS security, a clear description of your organization, no broken promises to visitors, and compliance with the Ad Grants website policy. Thin brochure sites and sites that exist mainly to sell or fundraise for third parties get rejected at this layer.

The program requirements after approval

Approval isn't the end of the requirements — it's the start of them. Active Grant accounts must follow program rules every month, or risk suspension:

• Maintain a 5% click-through rate

  Every month, account-wide. Fall below it repeatedly and the account is at risk — this is the rule that turns sloppy keyword targeting into a compliance problem.

• Track meaningful conversions

  Google expects conversion tracking against mission-relevant actions — not pageviews or time-on-site. Conversion-based Smart Bidding is also the only way past the $2 manual bid cap, so this requirement doubles as the growth mechanism.

• Follow keyword and targeting policy

  No single-word keywords (with limited exceptions), no overly generic terms, no targeting that misrepresents your mission. Structure and geo-targeting rules apply as well.

The requirements Google can't check for you

Every requirement above is about getting and keeping the Grant. None of them determine whether the Grant will spend meaningfully once you have it. That depends on a second set of requirements — the ones a site audit checks:

• Content inventory

  Enough indexable mission, program, and informational pages to absorb search demand. A ten-page brochure site can be perfectly eligible and still have nothing for informational queries to land on.

• Informational query coverage

  Pages that match the questions your audience actually searches — the same query strategy that drives organic SEO. Good SEO is good Grant SEO.

• Measurement that can learn

  GA4 installed, one meaningful conversion defined and firing, so both your SEO work and a future Grant account optimize toward real outcomes instead of vanity traffic.

Check your site against both lists

This is why we audit websites rather than quiz organizations: eligibility checkers can't see a thin sitemap, a missing program page, or a branded-only keyword profile — and those are the constraints that decide what happens after approval.

The free readiness check runs the second list against your website: content inventory from your sitemap, search themes from public data, and GA4 and tag manager setup from the site itself. We email a report that recommends whether to apply now, wait while you build, or fix measurement first.