Monday, September 21st is the 10th anniversary of Peace Day, a UN-sanctioned day of global nonviolence and ceasefire. In honor of Peace Day, YouTube has launched the "My Take on Peace" contest with a non-profit called Peace One Day. The contest is designed to get people thinking about how they'll create peace on that day and to share their ideas with the online community through video.

The winning video submission will receive a HD camera, and multiple winners will be showcased during Peace Day concerts this year! Visit the "My Take on Peace" contest page or the YouTube blog post for more information about the contest. If your organization needs help creating videos, whether for Peace Day or any other topic, visit Video Volunteers to get assistance from generous volunteers who can help make great videos for your cause.Read More

Monday, September 21st is the 10th anniversary of Peace Day, a UN-sanctioned day of global nonviolence and ceasefire. In honor of Peace Day, YouTube has launched the "My Take on Peace" contest with a non-profit called Peace One Day. The contest is designed to get people thinking about how they'll create peace on that day and to share their ideas with the online community through video.

The winning video submission will receive a HD camera, and multiple winners will be showcased during Peace Day concerts this year! Visit the "My Take on Peace" contest page or the YouTube blog post for more information about the contest. If your organization needs help creating videos, whether for Peace Day or any other topic, visit Video Volunteers to get assistance from generous volunteers who can help make great videos for your cause.


Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

In a few short weeks, the Nonprofit Technology Network, (NTEN), will host a live online conference about how to effectively use technology to meet your organization's mission. The conference will take place on September 16th and 17th, and you can attend right from the comfort of your desk! Keynotes and hands-on sessions will be featured throughout the two-day event, so attendees will walk away with both high-level and more tactical learnings. Visit ...Read More

In a few short weeks, the Nonprofit Technology Network, (NTEN), will host a live online conference about how to effectively use technology to meet your organization's mission. The conference will take place on September 16th and 17th, and you can attend right from the comfort of your desk! Keynotes and hands-on sessions will be featured throughout the two-day event, so attendees will walk away with both high-level and more tactical learnings. Visit NTEN's website for more information, including the conference agenda, registration fees, and more.

A few members of the Google Grants team will be participating in the conference for an "Ask the Expert" session. This session will be held on September 17th from 10:40am until 11:20am Pacific. Feel free to join us and ask any questions you may have. Hope to "see" you then!

Posted by Kristie Ferketich, Google Grants Team

School is almost back in session, and Wayne State University is joining the roster of top notch universities that are participating in AdWords in the Curriculum. Past and current participants include Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, and Emerson College.

How do AdWords in the Curriculum participants (students and non-profits) coordinate to attain success? For many non-profits, time is tight, and the task of developing advertising strategy may fall to the wayside of other concerns such as program development, event planning, or fundraising efforts. These priorities are understandable, and AdWords in the Curriculum is designed to ease the weight of honing online advertising while providing a valuable learning experience for students. That said, the effectiveness of a campaign will depend largely on mutual engagement from both students and non-profits. The time commitment may differ, but close engagement and adherence to deadlines are essential for an online advertising campaign to take flight.

For non-profits who are considering working with a student team or set of interns, the following steps that will be used in the Wayne State course are helpful for ensuring that a partnership develops between a student team and a non-profit team. This partnership will help lead to a fruitful campaign tailored to a non-profit's needs.

Successful communication between Google Grants recipients and students depends on measuring progress and accountability. Deadlines, meetings, and progress reports are three cornerstones of a framework for AdWords in the Curriculum effectiveness.

Wayne State Professor of Marketing Kevin Ketels explains, "The non-profits will receive a copy of my syllabus up front so they understand expectations for the students as well as for their own participation. For example, the non-profits will need to understand hard deadlines for reviewing student work in order to launch on deadline. In my syllabus, I have outlined a specific agenda for the introductory meeting between students and the non-profit. This meeting includes a review of the non-profit mission, overview of Google AdWords, goals for the advertising campaign, deadlines, and exchange of contact information."

Regular progress reports are a final facet of making sure that a partnership is blossoming between a student team and non-profit.

"I have also outlined specific milestones throughout the semester that include definition of organizational objectives, advertising design, campaign launch, evaluation, and optimization of the program," added Ketels. "For each of these items, the non-profit and I will receive a progress report from the student teams."

This is Wayne State University's first semester of AdWords in the Curriculum. Throughout the process, the mission and interests of the Google Grants recipient will be prioritized, keeping in mind time constraints and importance of a strong relationship between the student and non-profit partners.

"This course is unlike any I’ve taught in the past in that the students will be working on a project that directly impacts an outside organization," said Ketels. "It will require a high level of planning and communication between the non-profit organizations and their assigned student teams."

AdWords in the Curriculum at Wayne State will serve to educate students about the online advertising space, and will help non-profits local to Michigan get their first AdWords campaigns off to a running start.

Read More

School is almost back in session, and Wayne State University is joining the roster of top notch universities that are participating in AdWords in the Curriculum. Past and current participants include Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, and Emerson College.

How do AdWords in the Curriculum participants (students and non-profits) coordinate to attain success? For many non-profits, time is tight, and the task of developing advertising strategy may fall to the wayside of other concerns such as program development, event planning, or fundraising efforts. These priorities are understandable, and AdWords in the Curriculum is designed to ease the weight of honing online advertising while providing a valuable learning experience for students. That said, the effectiveness of a campaign will depend largely on mutual engagement from both students and non-profits. The time commitment may differ, but close engagement and adherence to deadlines are essential for an online advertising campaign to take flight.

For non-profits who are considering working with a student team or set of interns, the following steps that will be used in the Wayne State course are helpful for ensuring that a partnership develops between a student team and a non-profit team. This partnership will help lead to a fruitful campaign tailored to a non-profit's needs.

Successful communication between Google Grants recipients and students depends on measuring progress and accountability. Deadlines, meetings, and progress reports are three cornerstones of a framework for AdWords in the Curriculum effectiveness.

Wayne State Professor of Marketing Kevin Ketels explains, "The non-profits will receive a copy of my syllabus up front so they understand expectations for the students as well as for their own participation. For example, the non-profits will need to understand hard deadlines for reviewing student work in order to launch on deadline. In my syllabus, I have outlined a specific agenda for the introductory meeting between students and the non-profit. This meeting includes a review of the non-profit mission, overview of Google AdWords, goals for the advertising campaign, deadlines, and exchange of contact information."

Regular progress reports are a final facet of making sure that a partnership is blossoming between a student team and non-profit.

"I have also outlined specific milestones throughout the semester that include definition of organizational objectives, advertising design, campaign launch, evaluation, and optimization of the program," added Ketels. "For each of these items, the non-profit and I will receive a progress report from the student teams."

This is Wayne State University's first semester of AdWords in the Curriculum. Throughout the process, the mission and interests of the Google Grants recipient will be prioritized, keeping in mind time constraints and importance of a strong relationship between the student and non-profit partners.

"This course is unlike any I’ve taught in the past in that the students will be working on a project that directly impacts an outside organization," said Ketels. "It will require a high level of planning and communication between the non-profit organizations and their assigned student teams."

AdWords in the Curriculum at Wayne State will serve to educate students about the online advertising space, and will help non-profits local to Michigan get their first AdWords campaigns off to a running start.

Posted by Anita Varma, Google Ann Arbor

This month's resource round-up for August includes an invitation to join Googlers in our nation's capital for a live discussion of search, an opportunity to tell the stories of the homeless individuals in your community, and a helpful list of AdWords tools created just for grantees from an Atlanta-based marketing consultant.Read More

This month's resource round-up for August includes an invitation to join Googlers in our nation's capital for a live discussion of search, an opportunity to tell the stories of the homeless individuals in your community, and a helpful list of AdWords tools created just for grantees from an Atlanta-based marketing consultant.

Learn the basics of Search, LIVE.
If your organization is based in Washington, DC, come meet Googlers from our headquarters at our official meet up on August 26th. Be sure to RSVP for details.

Bring awareness to homeless communities in your area.
Mark Horvath, formerly homeless and now founder of InvisiblePeople.tv, is traveling the country (tentative itinerary here) to interview homeless individuals and share their real, unedited stories with the world. If you have a suggestion of a shelter or tent city they should visit along the way, you can email roadtrip [at] invsiblepeople [dot] tv.

Tools for grantees.
One marketing consultant lists his favorite AdWords tools for Google Grantees.

If you come across resources that would be useful to the greater non-profit community, feel free to post it to the appropriate topic in our discussion group so that everyone can benefit. If you'd like to review previous round-ups, just click here and read through previous months' round-ups or search for "resource round-up" from the search box at the top of the page.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

National Women's Law Center is one grantee who is really putting AdWords and Grants to work for their organization. The way they've gone about implementing and running their Google Grants AdWords account, as outlined in ...Read More

National Women's Law Center is one grantee who is really putting AdWords and Grants to work for their organization. The way they've gone about implementing and running their Google Grants AdWords account, as outlined in this two part series by their Online Outreach Manager, Robin Reed, is an excellent example of how to go from zero to 60 with AdWords as a participant in the Google Grants program.

If your organization is currently running an AdWords account, or it's just getting started and you're wondering how other non-profits run successful campaigns, read through these best practices from NWLC and see which of these tips you can use with your own account.

Start off right
NWLC began by reading through our Beginner's Guide before diving in. This is a great way to get a baseline understanding of the AdWords program and discover tactics for starting your account on the right foot.

Get everyone involved
Sometimes it's hard, as a sole individual within a larger organization, to pull together all the best ideas and information for a marketing campaign. By involving other team members, and even your founders, in the process it becomes much easier to do everything from coming up with relevant keywords to developing a strategy for testing marketing initiatives.

Use the right tool for the job
While you definitely know your organization better than any outsider, sometimes enlisting the help of AdWords tools can give your account a boost. NWLC used the Keyword Tool to help fill in the gaps in their keyword list and, when they were stuck with keywords that weren't performing, they added new combinations of terms drawn from ideas presented by the tool to boost traffic in their account.

Be creative
By understanding that their standard marketing messaging wasn't going to work within the constraints of AdWords character limits, NWLC pared down their standard message by focusing on action-oriented terms and a concise but powerful message. They were also creative with the scope of their ads, making sure to have ads customized to each ad group's theme.


Some ad types in their campaigns include:
"Evergreen" ads that are always running and provide general links to their organization's offerings, but are not tied to a specific topic:


Seasonal and timely ads that speak to specific events as they approach or are underway. Branded ads that use their organization's name and its common misspellings.

Use your budget wisely
They direct more of their budget to the better performing campaigns and those that are sending a timely or seasonal message; while they direct less of it to the lower performing campaigns, and pause ad groups when their messages are out-of-season.

Look to your results for best practices
When you've taken stock of your successes, keep track of what you did that resulted in success - then do it some more!

NWLC realized the value of running timely ads associated with events in the news, and also recognized the boost in traffic their account could receive if they actively optimized their keywords and ads to match the searches users were doing. During campaign season, for example, they ran ads encouraging people to register to vote and saw their highest numbers of the season.


They saw that all their testing and experimenting paid off in the end, and determined that they'd continue this practice of testing and experimenting with future campaigns. They also used the effective messages from their AdWords ads in other communications, based on which ads performed best and received the most traffic.

National Women’s Law Center is a non-profit organization focused on protecting and advancing the progress of women and girls at work, in school, and in virtually every aspect of their lives. NWLC has been a participant in the Google Grants program since 2008.

If you have your own best practices or experiences that you'd like to share with other grantees and nonprofits, we encourage you to strike up a conversation with other members in the discussion forum and possibly submit your testimonial to our team.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

Since the introduction of the new AdWords interface, we’ve received feedback as you’ve experimented with the new features and improvements. One grantee, The Real News Network, was kind enough to share a summary of their favorite changes to the new UI via our ...Read More

Since the introduction of the new AdWords interface, we’ve received feedback as you’ve experimented with the new features and improvements. One grantee, The Real News Network, was kind enough to share a summary of their favorite changes to the new UI via our webform, which we think you’ll find helpful as you work with the new tool.

Hands-on control over different keywords
“Overall, the "new and improved" AdWords program tools and multi-layered Analytics data gives me, as campaign craftsman, a macro-view of my audience's prime interests and responses, plus immediate hands-on control over different keyword or topic avenues I can go down to reach various audience segments with different text ad messaging.”

Easily create separate ad groups
“Likewise, the ability to quickly and easily create separate ad groups that reflect separate audience interests is essential.”

Pull up a keyword report in real time
“The ability to pull up a keyword report in real time that displays keyword volume for new terms I may not yet have chosen, or thought of, allows me to broaden my audience reach very quickly - by choosing high volume terms which touch on wide search-audience interests, via optional keyword lists the tool offers me.”

Quickly shift messaging
“These tools also allow me to quickly shift messaging right alongside audience interest or mood shifts, as text ads often go live within an hour or two.”

We’re ecstatic that grantees like The Real News Network are finding the new interface easier and more efficient. Check in with the AdWords team every Thursday to learn even more about the updated features in AdWords.

The Real News Network is a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. The Real News Network has been a participant in the Google Grants program since 2008.

If you have your own best practices or experiences that you'd like to share with other grantees and non-profits, we encourage you to strike up a conversation with other members in the discussion forum or submit your testimonial to our team.


Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team

We've collected some of the handiest and most effective best practices from our grantee base so that you all can benefit from their hard-learned lessons.

Think about the goals your org is working toward and choose the tips that can help you achieve them with AdWords and Google Grants.

Establish goals

Regularly checking their AdWords and analytics account for progress and changes has helped one grantee, "...establish a more concrete baseline of data and move forward with other options such as conversion tracking."

This is an excellent way to become comfortable with the features of the program and get a better understanding of the ebb and flow of your account's performance while setting goals meaningful to your org. Then, when you're ready to branch out, you're already versed in the basics of your account and AdWords and have goals you can measure against.

Secure organization funding

Sometimes it's difficult to provide substantial data about your org's performance, a challenge when working with potential and existing funders, but a few grantees have begun to use the detailed reporting available from their Google Analytics and AdWords accounts to share with their funders and prospective sponsors to ensure new and future funding for their organization.

One grantee pinpoints this strategy even further, using reports showing the downloads of their online materials by their target audience to appeal to the larger sponsors who make up the majority of their funding. Being able to show the efficacy of your org's efforts is a powerful tool in securing support from potential funders.

The reports available in Google Analytics and AdWords can be powerful tools for making a case for resources and funding your org's needs. These tools are free to use and help centers are available for both Google Analytics and AdWords to help you find and build the reports that best suit your needs.

Reach new markets

Reaching new markets with your org's message can be challenging, especially when you aren't sure how to customize your message for different regions.

One grantee uses the geo-targeting capabilities in AdWords to focus their regional messaging only to the most relevant regions, rather than diluting the message with global targeting settings. Another grantee launches new landing pages and markets by running test campaigns in their account and choosing the best messaging based on the rate of impressions and CTR throughout the test period.

React effectively to timely events

There are times when it's crucial to be fast and accurate with your org's message, like during a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. In some cases, you just need to conserve time and resources so you can get everything done! A couple grantees have begun to take advantage of the speed of AdWords to react to emergencies and be more efficient with their marketing strategies.

One grantee has pre-built adgroups built specifically for crisis response which they turn on or off at a moment's notice so that they can, "...quickly help donors when a crisis occurs."

Another grantee, finding herself with limited time to go through the usual process of testing for an email campaign, decided to try a rotation of ad messaging in her AdWords account and was able to see what performed best, thus informing her decisions for the rest of their campaigns. "With Adwords, I can be trying some new ads in 15 minutes! Analyzing what keywords are pulling is also a snap."

Increase traffic

Getting more traffic is a goal for most online advertisers, but there are some tried and true methods for accomplishing this sometimes tricky feat. Some have mastered the launch and iterate method for the benefit of their orgs.

One grantee continually tweaks their best performing ads to maintain or increase high CTRs, which in turn also drives traffic and brings awareness to new their new offerings. Another has taken advantage of a drop in competition for their terms, potentially a result of a down economy, by increasing their bids closer to the $1 maximum CPC and running more ads than normal to promote their content.

Look out for new best practices every quarter as we review the latest grantee trends and strategies in AdWords and analytics. If you've had a recent success with AdWords or analytics you'd like to share, please visit our discussion forum to share with other grantees right now or share the story with our team here.

Read More

We've collected some of the handiest and most effective best practices from our grantee base so that you all can benefit from their hard-learned lessons.

Think about the goals your org is working toward and choose the tips that can help you achieve them with AdWords and Google Grants.

Establish goals

Regularly checking their AdWords and analytics account for progress and changes has helped one grantee, "...establish a more concrete baseline of data and move forward with other options such as conversion tracking."

This is an excellent way to become comfortable with the features of the program and get a better understanding of the ebb and flow of your account's performance while setting goals meaningful to your org. Then, when you're ready to branch out, you're already versed in the basics of your account and AdWords and have goals you can measure against.

Secure organization funding

Sometimes it's difficult to provide substantial data about your org's performance, a challenge when working with potential and existing funders, but a few grantees have begun to use the detailed reporting available from their Google Analytics and AdWords accounts to share with their funders and prospective sponsors to ensure new and future funding for their organization.

One grantee pinpoints this strategy even further, using reports showing the downloads of their online materials by their target audience to appeal to the larger sponsors who make up the majority of their funding. Being able to show the efficacy of your org's efforts is a powerful tool in securing support from potential funders.

The reports available in Google Analytics and AdWords can be powerful tools for making a case for resources and funding your org's needs. These tools are free to use and help centers are available for both Google Analytics and AdWords to help you find and build the reports that best suit your needs.

Reach new markets

Reaching new markets with your org's message can be challenging, especially when you aren't sure how to customize your message for different regions.

One grantee uses the geo-targeting capabilities in AdWords to focus their regional messaging only to the most relevant regions, rather than diluting the message with global targeting settings. Another grantee launches new landing pages and markets by running test campaigns in their account and choosing the best messaging based on the rate of impressions and CTR throughout the test period.

React effectively to timely events

There are times when it's crucial to be fast and accurate with your org's message, like during a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. In some cases, you just need to conserve time and resources so you can get everything done! A couple grantees have begun to take advantage of the speed of AdWords to react to emergencies and be more efficient with their marketing strategies.

One grantee has pre-built adgroups built specifically for crisis response which they turn on or off at a moment's notice so that they can, "...quickly help donors when a crisis occurs."

Another grantee, finding herself with limited time to go through the usual process of testing for an email campaign, decided to try a rotation of ad messaging in her AdWords account and was able to see what performed best, thus informing her decisions for the rest of their campaigns. "With Adwords, I can be trying some new ads in 15 minutes! Analyzing what keywords are pulling is also a snap."

Increase traffic

Getting more traffic is a goal for most online advertisers, but there are some tried and true methods for accomplishing this sometimes tricky feat. Some have mastered the launch and iterate method for the benefit of their orgs.

One grantee continually tweaks their best performing ads to maintain or increase high CTRs, which in turn also drives traffic and brings awareness to new their new offerings. Another has taken advantage of a drop in competition for their terms, potentially a result of a down economy, by increasing their bids closer to the $1 maximum CPC and running more ads than normal to promote their content.

Look out for new best practices every quarter as we review the latest grantee trends and strategies in AdWords and analytics. If you've had a recent success with AdWords or analytics you'd like to share, please visit our discussion forum to share with other grantees right now or share the story with our team here.

Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team