Free tool
Do you qualify for the Google Ad Grant?
Six plain questions, about sixty seconds. Google gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 a month in free search ads, and a lot of sports organizations rule themselves out without ever checking. This tells you where you actually stand.
Eligibility checker
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Charity status
Is your organization a registered 501(c)(3) (its own charitable entity, not a department of a school, government body, or hospital)?
The Ad Grant goes to charities. Schools, government entities, and hospitals are excluded as institutions.
Guidance only, not an official Google determination. Your answers stay in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
The program
What the Ad Grant actually is.
It funds Google Search text ads only, so it is good at one specific thing: catching people who are already searching for something you do. It does not fund YouTube, display, or social.
- What you get
- Up to $10,000 a month in Google Search ads, funded by Google rather than your budget.
- How long
- Every month, for as long as the account stays compliant with the program's rules.
- What it costs
- Nothing. It is an in-kind grant, not a discount or a credit against spend.
The rule that trips teams up
A school can't hold the Grant. Its foundation usually can.
Schools, universities, government entities, and hospitals are excluded from the Ad Grant as institutions. That single line stops a lot of athletic departments from applying, and it is usually the wrong conclusion.
If your booster club, athletic foundation, or friends-of-the-program group is registered as its own 501(c)(3), Google sees a distinct charitable organization. The school's exclusion does not pass down to it. That is question two above, and it is the one that changes the answer most often.
Want the long version? Read the full eligibility rules, or the step-by-step application guide.
Qualifying is the easy part.
Keeping the account compliant, and turning $10,000 a month of search traffic into donors and registrations, is the work. That is what Rally & Cause does, exclusively for sports nonprofits.