In recent posts we've called attention to Grants recipients providing relief during times of crisis around the world. Our goal for these posts is to bring awareness to organizations uniquely suited to provide support when disaster strikes and give you a place to find information and ways to help.Read More

In recent posts we've called attention to Grants recipients providing relief during times of crisis around the world. Our goal for these posts is to bring awareness to organizations uniquely suited to provide support when disaster strikes and give you a place to find information and ways to help.

We'd also like to offer optimization help to those of you whose organizations are seeing an increase in traffic from disasters. Rather than waiting for one to strike, we thought we'd share some tips with you now so you can prepare for future events:

1. Ready your accounts
   Create a specific campaign for disasters and a specific ad group for the crisis at hand. If your organization provides relief for disasters, create a campaign within your account specifically for disasters. And when you respond to a disaster, create an ad group within your disaster campaign for the current disaster. This kind of organization will make it easier to manage your keywords, ad texts and budgets to best handle the traffic and disseminate information to those in need.
   
   
2. Prioritize your budget
   Allot the majority of your budget to your disaster campaign when disasters occur. When the majority of your traffic is focused on your disaster relief efforts, shift your account budget to focus mainly on that campaign. You can then pause previous disaster ad groups in the campaign and activate the current disaster ad group to support the increased traffic with the most relevant information. If the rest of your account is drawing too much traffic away from your disaster relief campaign, you can also pause these ad groups/campaigns to give your disaster campaign more traffic.
   
   
3. Build a targeted keyword list
   Create a very precise keyword list for your crisis ad group. You'll want a list that's specific to the disaster at hand and to the support you're providing. Use geo-targeting or geographical terms if relevant, such as "Hurricane Gustav shelters in Houston." Avoid general terms such as "hurricane", "tropical storm" and "disaster," as they won't be as effective as more narrowly targeted terms.
   
   
4. Send users right to the source
   If you're asking for donations or volunteers in your ad text, be sure to link your ads directly to the landing pages where these options are given. Put as few clicks as possible between the user and the information they are seeking.
   

While we hope you won't have to use them, these tips may help you prepare for possible crises so that you can spend your time helping those in need. To discuss these strategies further, visit our Help Group, and start a discussion about best practices for managing increases in traffic.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team

In last week's NTEN webinar, AnnMarie and German from our Grants team discussed the heart of AdWords advertising: keywords. We covered basic optimization techniques and why optimization is so crucial to the success of your Grants account. And we shared tips and best practices for creating and maintaining effective keyword lists. The Q&A portion of the session was especially helpful for attendees, who raised tons of great questions.Read More

In last week's NTEN webinar, AnnMarie and German from our Grants team discussed the heart of AdWords advertising: keywords. We covered basic optimization techniques and why optimization is so crucial to the success of your Grants account. And we shared tips and best practices for creating and maintaining effective keyword lists. The Q&A portion of the session was especially helpful for attendees, who raised tons of great questions.

In thinking about this session, I took away these major points:

• Optimizing is simply modifying your account to improve its performance. Optimizing can take many shapes and can involve just a few minor tweaks or mass changes.
  
• Before optimizing, take some time to define your optimization goals - improving account quality, site traffic, conversions (donations, volunteer sign-ups), account manageability, etc.
  
• Use these best practices to optimize your keywords: steer clear of very general keywords; include negative keywords; avoid duplication of keywords across Ad Groups; and include all variations and common misspellings of your keywords.
• Once you've optimized, you're not entirely done! Be sure to monitor performance after two weeks and refine your campaign based on analysis of what is and isn't working.
  

You can view slides from our webinar here and purchase the recording of the session on NTEN's site. And on Friday, Sept. 26, we'll be discussing ad text and best practices for optimizing ads in your account. Join us from 11am to 12:30pm Pacific if you'd like to learn about this topic in-depth.

To register for or learn more about our webinar series, including the next three sessions, please visit NTEN's site.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team

Before some non-profits decide if the Google Grants program is right for them, they want to see the impact that the program could have on their organization's reach. We often receive requests for examples of non-profits who have used the program to help further their mission.Read More

Before some non-profits decide if the Google Grants program is right for them, they want to see the impact that the program could have on their organization's reach. We often receive requests for examples of non-profits who have used the program to help further their mission.

Today we're pleased to share with you Direct Relief International's story. With the help of Google Grants, they raised funds to provide relief to people adversely affected by poverty, disaster and civil unrest in more than 140 countries worldwide. As Annie Maxwell, COO for Direct Relief, put it, "In our 60-year history, there are five events that have really affected us, and our relationship with Google is one of them. It’s been incredible to take this leap in online visibility, for Direct Relief to move forward as an organization and develop sophisticated advertising in such a short period.”

To learn more about Direct Relief's experience with Google Grants, download their story. For more details on the Google Grants program, visit our homepage. 

Posted by German, The Google Grants Team

As you may have read, we're holding a 5-part webinar series during this month and next with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). In this series, we'll discuss Google Grants and how to maximize its effectiveness for your organization. This past Thursday, we held the first session, which focused on setting yourself up for success with ...Read More

As you may have read, we're holding a 5-part webinar series during this month and next with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). In this series, we'll discuss Google Grants and how to maximize its effectiveness for your organization. This past Thursday, we held the first session, which focused on setting yourself up for success with AdWords and the details of the Grants program.

We wanted to share some lessons from the first session:

• Grants can help qualifying organizations achieve their missions through free ads on Google.com
• Grants AdWords accounts must be managed by an active contact at your organization
• Details on the program and eligibility are all online
• Learning AdWords is key to ensuring your account is effective – and we have resources to help you!
  

If you missed the session, you can still view the slides we covered. And a recording of the session is available for purchase on the NTEN website.

Feel free to check out NTEN's site for more information about this ongoing series and to sign up if you're interested in joining us. You can still register for the whole series and access a free recording of the first session.

Next Friday, September 19, we'll hold the second session of the series, which will cover best practices for optimizing keywords in AdWords. Hope you join us then.

Posted by Kristie, Google Grants Team

From time to time we'll be aggregating resources we think are useful to you as a non-profit, whether you're involved with Google Grants or not.

These resources will be anything from links to online articles to ...Read More

From time to time we'll be aggregating resources we think are useful to you as a non-profit, whether you're involved with Google Grants or not.

These resources will be anything from links to online articles to PDF guides to upcoming webinar announcements—anything that might be helpful to you as you manage your non-profit and work toward your mission.

For our first round-up, we've collected items from around the web, including:

• UK launch announcement for YouTube for Non-profits
  
  
• NTEN article about using analytics as a non-profit
  
  
• Chronicle of Philanthropy article about how the IRS should speed up 501(c)(3) applications
  
  
• NTEN article about "Accidental Techies" at non-profits turning into "Purposeful Techies"
  
  
• 5-part webinar series focused on setting up and managing a Google Grant
  

If you come across a resource that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our Help Group so that everyone can benefit from your find.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team

As we mentioned in our last post, AdWords Editor is a great desktop application that helps you make changes to your account.

Editor can save you hours because of the ease with which you can make mass changes to your account. And it works offline, so now you can make changes when you don’t have an Internet connection.Read More

As we mentioned in our last post, AdWords Editor is a great desktop application that helps you make changes to your account.

Editor can save you hours because of the ease with which you can make mass changes to your account. And it works offline, so now you can make changes when you don’t have an Internet connection.

The first step to getting started with Editor is downloading the application, which you can do here. Once it’s saved to your desktop, you'll download your account. You may choose to include account statistics or not. For starters, I recommend reviewing your AdWords statistics online first in your account, especially if you’re more comfortable with that interface. Then try using Editor to make any changes.



Once your account is downloaded, you’ll notice that Editor has two panels – the narrow one on the left is to navigate the account; the larger one on the right is to make edits. Whatever campaign you highlight in the left panel will permit you to edit it on the right. It’s not possible to make any changes in the left panel; it’s just for navigation. To learn more about navigating with Editor, check out this article.

If you’re looking to make multiple large changes, consider using a spreadsheet. Then you can upload the spreadsheet to make multiple changes to your account. If you’re only changing a few keywords or ad texts, try doing it directly in Editor; there’s no need to format a spreadsheet to simply add a keyword or remove a couple ad creatives. It’s also possible to update campaign settings using Editor. You can adjust your geo-targeting settings, for example, or rename your campaigns.

After you make any changes, you need to post them to your account for them to go live. Since Editor is a desktop application, no changes will be made to your account until you post them. However, before you post changes, I recommend checking the changes to ensure that everything will post smoothly. This way you can know in advance if there are any expected errors. The red and yellow spots in any of the tabs help you see where errors or warning will occur. Then you can make the necessary changes to post your revisions.

Editor’s sleek interface and offline-editing capabilities will hopefully help you make more changes in your account and do so quicker than before. Try starting out with it by making a few changes, posting them, and checking out your AdWords account to make sure the edits are up and running. Then you could consider adding new ad groups with the application. And check out our How-To Guide for more details on using the application.

Posted by Taylor, AdWords Team

Many of the non-profits our program are taking part in the relief efforts for the floods in northern India.

We'd like to call attention to some of them so that you can get involved, offer support or learn more about the effects of the floods.

• Project Concern is providing water purification, storage supplies, soap and basic amenities and operating motorized boats for rescue missions in the region. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• The American Indian Foundation is working with the local government and other regional organizations to secure safe drinking water and facilitate information between those displaced. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• Catholic Relief Services is providing those in dire need with ready-to-eat foods, purification tablets and tarps for transitional shelter. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent is working with the India Red Cross Society to distribute medicine and coordinating the delivery of tents to the affected regions to serve as temporary housing. Read more or donate to help.
• 
  

If you're a grant recipient providing relief to those affected by the floods and have questions about managing your AdWords account to scale with traffic increases, please contact our team so we can make sure you reach those in need and those who can help.Read More

Many of the non-profits our program are taking part in the relief efforts for the floods in northern India.

We'd like to call attention to some of them so that you can get involved, offer support or learn more about the effects of the floods.

• Project Concern is providing water purification, storage supplies, soap and basic amenities and operating motorized boats for rescue missions in the region. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• The American Indian Foundation is working with the local government and other regional organizations to secure safe drinking water and facilitate information between those displaced. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• Catholic Relief Services is providing those in dire need with ready-to-eat foods, purification tablets and tarps for transitional shelter. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent is working with the India Red Cross Society to distribute medicine and coordinating the delivery of tents to the affected regions to serve as temporary housing. Read more or donate to help.
• 
  

If you're a grant recipient providing relief to those affected by the floods and have questions about managing your AdWords account to scale with traffic increases, please contact our team so we can make sure you reach those in need and those who can help.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team

Google Grants launched in Brazil at the beginning of 2007, and since then, our biggest reward as volunteers for the program has been the opportunity to extend online publicity to help NGOs that otherwise wouldn't have a presence in this highly competitive space. Even before becoming Google Grants volunteers, we were involved in the NGO area, doing volunteer work and studying the field.Read More

Google Grants launched in Brazil at the beginning of 2007, and since then, our biggest reward as volunteers for the program has been the opportunity to extend online publicity to help NGOs that otherwise wouldn't have a presence in this highly competitive space. Even before becoming Google Grants volunteers, we were involved in the NGO area, doing volunteer work and studying the field.

The first grant in Brazil went to an NGO called Projeto Arrastão which provides children from poorer backgrounds with musical instruments (most made from recycled materials such as cans).


After one year advertising with AdWords, they increased their monthly website visits by 240%. They now receive many new additions to their mailing list each month. They also told us that through their AdWords campaign, they received a donation of a new piano which has enabled the formation of a choral group.


While we take pride in stories like this one, we still have some hurdles to work through. Our biggest challenges are related to staffing and time allocation. Google Grants still has a lot of ground to cover in Brazil, and generating new applicants and reviewing submissions can be challenging. Also, educating the NGOs in the program, many of whom are new to AdWords and online advertising, can be intense. Some challenges these NGOs face are developing their online savvy and internal structures to take advantage of the program's benefits.

Meanwhile, we have gained a better and broader vision of NGOs and services available. We can testify that there many people in Brazil doing wonderful things and creating worthwhile projects. From our small but significant list of grant recipients, we can see that an AdWords campaign can really have a direct and positive effect.

Of course we still have many things to do. We're focusing on reinforcing the importance of AdWords as a tool for NGOs and carving out time and resources to educate the non-profit sector. We're also focusing on helping structure and monitor their accounts.

As we get to work on our latest initiatives for Grants in Brazil, we'd like to offer two recommendations for all NGOs:

• Separate different projects or initiatives into different campaigns. This way you'll be able to generate specific reports, have more control over popular services and have seasonally targeted advertising, if relevant.
  
  
• Create a site that is clear and easy to navigate. Your mission statement and projects should be explained in detail and found quickly within the site.

Posted by Anna, Lidiane, Vivian, Brazil AdWords Team Team

Many of the non-profits in the Grants program are taking part in the relief efforts for Hurricane Gustav.

We'd like to call attention to some of them so that you can get involved, offer support or learn more about the storms affecting the U.S. Gulf Coast.Read More

Many of the non-profits in the Grants program are taking part in the relief efforts for Hurricane Gustav.

We'd like to call attention to some of them so that you can get involved, offer support or learn more about the storms affecting the U.S. Gulf Coast.

• Oxfam America has staff on the ground in the affected regions and is providing supplies, manpower, food and rebuilding assistance. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• The American Red Cross is supplying local shelters with meals, cots and blankets for people displaced by the hurricanes. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• Save the Children is supplying shelters with child-specific supplies like diapers, baby wipes and cribs. Read more or donate to help.
  
  
• VolunteerMatch has been aggregating volunteer opportunities in the affected regions to assist in the relief efforts. See volunteer needs by region.
  

• Direct Relief has committed $250,000 in special hurricane response funds to assist the medical "safety net" along the U.S. Gulf Coast in response to Hurricane Gustav. Read more or donate to help.
  
  

If you're a Grant recipient providing relief to people affected by the hurricanes and have questions about managing your AdWords account to scale with the traffic they've generated, please contact our team so we can make sure you reach those in need and those who can help.

Posted by Jessica, Google Grants Team