Guides · Nonprofit marketing
How to Build a Nonprofit Marketing Budget Your Board Can Read
By Josh Croom · October 27, 2026 · 11 min read
Build a nonprofit marketing budget from your goals, one line at a time, and start with what Google gives you before you spend any cash. For most charities, the Google Ad Grant comes first, then the people and pages that put it to work, and then paid ads for the searches the Grant can't reach.
The budget line nobody could explain
Tuesday, 7:10 PM. The treasurer works through next year's budget and stops at a single line that says Marketing. She asks what it buys, and the room goes quiet, because the number came from last year's number with a little added on top.
The executive director promises a one-page plan for the next meeting. What she brings back puts the Google Ad Grant on the first line, even though it isn't cash, and gives every line after it a reason. The board approves it in ten minutes.
How much should a nonprofit spend on marketing?
There's no single right percentage, so start from what you need marketing to do. A food bank short on Saturday volunteers needs a different budget than a counseling center that wants more people to call. Write down two or three goals for the year first, like new monthly donors, volunteer sign-ups or people served, and then price the work each goal takes.
A share of revenue is a fine check at the end, but it's a poor place to start. It can't tell you whether to spend on a website, on ads or on staff time. It also misses the biggest line most charities can claim, because Google's Ad Grant is in-kind advertising, not cash, and it never shows up in a revenue number.
So build the budget in layers, and start with what Google gives nonprofits, because those lines cost you time rather than money.
What Google puts on the table
- $10,000a month in search adsin-kind, for qualifying nonprofits
- $329a day, the Grant's daily limitfor the whole account, set by Google
- $0paid to Google for Grant adsGoogle's FAQ: you do not pay for Ad Grants campaigns
- 80.9%of the credit put to work, on averageacross our 36 Grant accounts, September 2026
Layer 1: what Google gives nonprofits
Google says Google for Nonprofits offers eligible organizations access to no cost or discounted Google products. The one that matters most for marketing is the Ad Grant, which Google describes as up to $10,000 a month of in-kind search advertising for qualifying nonprofits. To qualify, Google's eligibility page says your organization must hold valid charity status in your country.
Grant ads are text ads on Google Search. Google's FAQ says they appear either on their own or in positions below paid ads, so plan the Grant around the questions and topics people search about your mission. Its help pages put the Grant's limit at $329 a day for the whole account, which you split across your campaigns.
Google's FAQ says the funds do not roll over if unused, and that rule shapes the whole budget. Credit you don't put to work this month is gone next month. Treat the Grant like a monthly gift with a use-by date. Google decides how much of the Grant your searches can use, and the job is putting as much of it to work as you can.
What the Grant buys you
Here's the kind of ad a Grant pays for. Someone in your town searches, your text ad shows on Google, and a click takes them to the page that answers them.
volunteer opportunities near me
Layer 2: the work that puts the Grant to use
The Grant costs nothing at Google's end, but it doesn't run itself. Somebody has to pick keywords, write ads, build pages that answer each search and set up conversion tracking. Google also asks every Grant account to keep a 5% click-through rate each month, so somebody watches that number too. Our Google Ad Grants guide covers each rule and how we meet it.
Your website belongs in this layer, because Grant ads point to it. Google's website policy says your nonprofit must own the domain your ads point to and serve the entire site over HTTPS. A slow, thin or broken site wastes the credit even when the ads are good. The budget may need a line for a site rebuild before the ad lines can pay off.
You can staff this layer two ways. A team member can learn the account and give it a few hours each week, which costs payroll time rather than cash. Or you can hire help, which costs a fee and frees that person for your mission. Either way, put the hours or the fee in the budget, because without someone running the Grant, nobody adds the campaigns and pages that put the credit to work.
Two ways to write the marketing line
Last year plus a little
- One line called Marketing, with no breakdown.
- The Grant isn't in the budget, because it isn't cash.
- Paid ads run because they ran last year.
- Nobody can say what a new volunteer or donor cost.
Built from goals
- Two or three goals, each with the lines that serve it.
- The Grant sits at the top, with the hours or fee to run it.
- Paid ads cover named searches the Grant can't win.
- Every line has a number the board can check next year.
Layer 3: paid ads, only where they add reach
Add your own ad dollars when you can name the searches the Grant isn't winning. A paid campaign can show above the Grant ads and run on more of Google than Search. Grant ads can't, because Google puts them on their own or below paid ads. That matters most for a handful of urgent, local searches, where a person in need may call the first name they see.
Before you add a dollar, fill the Grant you already have. If your account puts only part of its credit to work, paying for clicks won't fix it. You fix it inside the Grant account, with more campaigns, better pages and more of the searches that match your mission, so the credit has somewhere to go. Across our 36 Grant accounts, 80.9% of the credit went to work on average in September 2026.
When you do add paid ads, budget them by the day. Google's help page says a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, but by the end of the month you'll have spent no more than 30.4 times that daily budget. So put $608 on the budget line for a $20 daily budget, because Google won't bill more than that in a month.
Build your budget in five steps
This takes one afternoon with last year's numbers in front of you. Each step feeds the next, so work them in order.
Step 1
Write two or three goals
Pick the outcomes the board cares about, like monthly donors, volunteer sign-ups or people served, and write down what one of each is worth to you. That number tells you later whether a line paid for itself.
Step 2
Claim what Google gives
Check that you're enrolled in Google for Nonprofits and that your Grant is active. If you don't have a Grant yet, that's the first line to apply for, because the credit doesn't cost you cash.
Step 3
Price the work behind it
Add the staff hours or the management fee that runs the Grant, plus any website work it needs. Give it a line of its own, because this work is what turns the credit into results.
Step 4
Add paid lines last
Name the searches the Grant can't win, set a daily budget for each paid campaign, and multiply by 30.4 to get the most it can cost in a month. Leave this step blank if the Grant still has room to grow.
Step 5
Set the yardstick for next year
Next to each line, write the number you'll check next year, like the share of the Grant put to work or the cost of a new volunteer. Then the board can see what each line produced before it votes on the next budget.
What each line costs with us
We bill every 4 weeks, so a year is 13 bills, and every price is on our pricing page.
You pay half of the Grant money we put to work for you each bill, and never more than $750. If we put $1,000 of your Grant to work, you pay $500. Your fee starts the day your Grant ads go live, and paid ad spend is always separate from our fee.
Grant + Search has a second way to start. The 13-cycle plan: the $1,997 Search build is $0 today, and you sign up for 13 cycles, one every 4 weeks. The $1,500 Grant setup is still paid, and Search has no 30-Day Stop on the plan. If you stop before your 13th cycle, the build you skipped goes on your last bill.
| Line | What it covers | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ad Grant | Text ads on Google Search, up to $10,000 a month | You don't pay Google for Grant ads |
| Grant | We build and run the whole Grant account | Half of the Grant money we put to work each bill, never more than $750, plus a $1,500 setup paid once |
| Grant + Search | Your Grant plus paid Google Search, with as many campaigns as you need | Up to $1,500 every 4 weeks, plus the $1,500 and $1,997 builds paid once |
| Search without a Grant | Paid Google Search for an organization without a Grant | $997 every 4 weeks, plus a $1,997 build |
| Website | A nonprofit site built around calls and forms | $2,997, paid once, with hosting at $50 every 4 weeks unless you're on a plan |
| SEO | Search work on a site we built | $750 every 4 weeks, only on a site we built |
Is your marketing budget ready for the board?
Answer these five questions about next year's plan, and the result shows what to fix first. Your answers stay on your device.
Does the budget name two or three goals, with a value for each?
Is the Google Ad Grant listed, even though it isn't cash?
Does someone own the Grant account, by name or by contract?
Does each paid ad campaign have a daily budget you've multiplied by 30.4?
Will you be able to show the board next year what each line produced?
Your budget explains itself. Bring last year's results to the meeting too, because a board approves a line faster when it can see what the line did.
You're close. Fix the first question you answered No before the meeting, since that's the one a sharp treasurer will ask about.
Start with the goals and the Grant, because those two lines decide the rest of the budget and most of the other answers follow from them.
Before the budget meeting
Tick each one off as you go. Your ticks stay on this device.
0 of 6 done
Where we fit
We've run Google Ads since May 2016, and today we manage 35+ Grant accounts for nonprofits, churches and pregnancy centers. Google pays for the Grant's ads, up to $10,000 a month. You only pay us half of what we put to work, never more than $750 a bill. Our Grant management page shows how we run the account, and the Grant meter on our tools page puts last month's Grant spend next to the accounts we run.
If you'd like help putting numbers on your own budget, book a call with Miguel. He'll look at what your Grant does today, what your goals need and which lines would fill the gap.
Questions people ask
How much should a nonprofit spend on marketing?
Start from your goals rather than a share of revenue. Write two or three outcomes for the year, claim what Google gives nonprofits first, price the work that runs it, and add paid ads only where they reach searches the Grant can't win.
Does the Google Ad Grant cost anything?
Google's FAQ says you do not pay for Ad Grants campaigns. The cost is the work: keywords, ads, landing pages and tracking, done by your staff or by someone you hire. Google also asks Grant accounts to keep a 5% click-through rate each month.
Should a nonprofit pay for ads if it already has the Ad Grant?
Fill the Grant first. Add paid ads once you can name searches the Grant isn't winning, since Google's FAQ says Grant ads show on their own or below paid ads, and paid ads can run beyond text ads on Google Search.
What does Google Ad Grant management cost?
Ours is half of the Grant money we put to work for you each bill, and never more than $750, plus a $1,500 setup paid once. We bill every 4 weeks, so a year is 13 bills.
See how we manage Google Ad Grants for nonprofits
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