Short answer: the median nonprofit earns about $0.17 in revenue for every $1 of Google Ad Grants credit and gets 229 website visits for every $1,000 of credit spent. At a fully used $10,000/month grant, that works out to roughly $1,700/month in donations and about 2,290 website visits per month. But the median hides a huge range: well-run accounts and certain sectors earn many times more, and most nonprofits never spend enough of their grant to hit these numbers at all.
Those figures come from the 2026 M+R Benchmarks Study, which analyzed 180 nonprofits. Below is what the data actually says, what it means for your organization, and how to land on the high end of the range instead of the low end.
A quick, honest note before the numbers: every eligible nonprofit gets up to $10,000/month in Ad Grants credits. The benchmarks below are reported “per $1,000 of grant spend,” so we multiply by 10 to show the monthly picture at a fully used account. Very few nonprofits actually spend the full $10,000 without help, which is exactly where the opportunity (and the gap) lives.
The headline Google Ad Grants benchmarks
Here are the three numbers that matter most, straight from the 2026 M+R Benchmarks. All figures are medians.
| Metric | Per $1,000 of grant credit | At a full $10,000/month account |
|---|---|---|
| Return on ad spend (ROAS) | $0.17 | about $1,700/month in donations |
| Cost per donation | $793 | roughly 12.6 donations/month |
| Website visits | 229 | about 2,290 visits/month |
If you only remember one line: a fully used Google Ad Grant delivers, for the median nonprofit, around $1,700 a month in donations and about 27,500 free website visits a year, paid for entirely with Google’s ad credits rather than your budget.
Why the ROAS number looks low (and why that is the wrong way to read it)
A ROAS of $0.17 looks alarming next to paid search, which returns $2.48 per dollar. But that comparison is misleading for one simple reason: Grants dollars are ad credits, not cash.
You are not spending $10,000 of your own money to earn $1,700. You are spending $0 of your own money. The honest comparison is not “Grants versus paid search.” It is “Grants versus the $0 alternative of not running Grants at all.” In that frame, every donation and every website visit is incremental revenue and reach you would not otherwise have.
M+R says it plainly: the cost-per-donation figure should be read “with giant air quotes on the word cost,” because it is ad credits, not dollars out of your account.
The metric that matters most: free website traffic
For most nonprofits, the real value of Google Ad Grants is not immediate revenue. It is consistent, free traffic to your website: people who are actively searching for the cause you serve, the program you run, or the help you provide.
The median nonprofit gets 229 website visits per $1,000 of grant credit. At a full grant, that is about 2,290 visits a month, or roughly 27,500 a year, at no media cost. Some sectors do far better.
| Segment | Visits per $1,000 | Visits per month at a full grant |
|---|---|---|
| Rights and advocacy | 440 | 4,400 |
| Small nonprofits (under $1M) | 391 | 3,910 |
| Environmental | 283 | 2,830 |
| Wildlife and animal welfare | 248 | 2,480 |
| Health | 245 | 2,450 |
| All nonprofits (median) | 229 | 2,290 |
| Disaster and international aid | 218 | 2,180 |
| Public media | 168 | 1,680 |
| Hunger and poverty | 167 | 1,670 |
Rights and advocacy organizations get about 2.6 times the visits per dollar of any other sector, thanks to lower costs per click on issue and advocacy search terms. Small nonprofits also punch well above their weight on reach.
What you can earn, by sector
Donation revenue varies widely by cause area. Here is median ROAS by sector, with the monthly figure at a fully used grant.
| Sector | ROAS | Monthly donations at a full grant |
|---|---|---|
| Disaster and international aid | $0.63 | $6,300 |
| Hunger and poverty | $0.41 | $4,100 |
| Health | $0.18 | $1,800 |
| Rights and advocacy | $0.17 | $1,700 |
| All nonprofits (median) | $0.17 | $1,700 |
| Wildlife and animal welfare | $0.14 | $1,400 |
| Environmental | $0.08 | $800 |
Disaster and international aid organizations lead by a wide margin on direct revenue, while environmental and wildlife groups tend to see Grants pay off more in traffic and awareness than in immediate gifts.
What you can earn, by organization size
Size is the single biggest predictor of donation revenue from Grants, and the spread is dramatic.
| Organization size | ROAS | Monthly donations at a full grant |
|---|---|---|
| Large ($5M to $10M) | $0.84 | $8,400 |
| Medium ($1M to $5M) | $0.19 | $1,900 |
| Extra large (over $10M) | $0.13 | $1,300 |
| Small (under $1M) | $0.04 | $400 |
A large nonprofit running Grants well generates about $8,400 a month, close to $100,000 a year, directly from ad credits. A small nonprofit averages just $0.04 per dollar of credit. That is not because small nonprofits cannot succeed with Grants. Part of it is execution: they rarely have the staff time or paid media expertise to build compliant, well-targeted campaigns and use the full $10,000. But a big part is demand: larger nonprofits have brand awareness they can bid on for easy, high-converting gifts, plus stronger websites and complementary marketing. Better management closes the execution gap, and closing the rest means building the audience, site, and content that convert free traffic into donations.
Cost per donation, by size
The same execution gap shows up in cost per donation.
| Organization size | Cost per donation (in credits) |
|---|---|
| Large | $305 |
| Extra large | $520 |
| Medium | $610 |
| Small | $2,765 |
Small nonprofits’ cost per donation through Grants is about 9 times the large cohort’s, reflecting lower conversion rates and smaller donation funnels. Again, this is a number that improves quickly with better campaign structure and conversion tracking.
How Google Ad Grants compares to paid channels
For context, here is how Grants stacks up against channels nonprofits pay for with real money.
| Channel | ROAS | Cost per donation |
|---|---|---|
| Paid search | $2.48 | $70 |
| Multi-channel (Performance Max, Demand Gen) | $1.82 | $67 |
| Display | $1.11 | $113 |
| Meta | $0.76 | $74 |
| Google Grants | $0.17 | $793 |
Yes, paid search returns far more per dollar. But paid search dollars are dollars. Grants dollars are free. For a nonprofit without a media budget, Grants is often the only always-on acquisition channel available, and it costs nothing but the time to set it up and keep it compliant.
Why Grants impression share is capped: the secondary auction
Google Ad Grants run in a secondary ad auction. Paid advertisers compete first, and Grant ads only appear in whatever space remains. In practice, this caps nearly every Ad Grant account at under 10% impression share, meaning your ad shows fewer than one in ten times it theoretically could, even for your own brand terms.
This structural ceiling is already baked into the benchmarks above. The median 229 visits per $1,000 is not underperformance relative to a paid account. It is the realistic output of a channel that, by design, shows your ads a fraction of the time. Understanding this changes how you interpret the numbers: the goal is not to match paid search, it is to maximize what the secondary auction will give you through high Quality Scores, the right bidding strategy, and strong landing pages.
Why Grants matters more in 2026, not less
Two trends from the 2026 data make Grants more strategically valuable this year:
- Organic search traffic is declining. AI Overviews and zero-click search reduced organic traffic for nonprofits month over month through 2025. Grants is one of the few levers left to generate consistent website visits without a paid budget.
- Multi-channel ad formats grew 131% year over year. Grants accounts with Performance Max access benefit directly from the fastest-growing format in nonprofit advertising.
As AI search erodes the free organic traffic nonprofits used to rely on, the 229 free website visits per $1,000 of ad credit becomes one of the most dependable sources of reach a mission-driven organization can tap.
What this means for your nonprofit
Three takeaways from the 2026 benchmarks:
- The medians are a floor, not a ceiling. These are median results across 180 nonprofits, many of whom run their grants part time or not at all. A well-managed account routinely beats them.
- The biggest variable is execution, not your cause or your size. The difference between $0.04 and $0.84 in ROAS, or between $305 and $2,765 per donation, comes down to compliant campaign structure, good keyword targeting, working conversion tracking, and actually using the full grant.
- Most nonprofits leave the majority of the grant on the table. The $10,000/month is there for the taking. The hard part is building and maintaining campaigns that spend it well and stay within Google’s rules.
That last point is the entire reason Ad Grants Pilot exists. Most nonprofits cannot afford a $500 to $2,000 a month agency, and they do not have a paid media specialist on staff. Ad Grants Pilot builds compliant, well-targeted campaigns automatically, sets up conversion tracking in one click, and keeps your account inside Google’s rules, so you spend more of the grant and earn closer to the high end of these benchmarks instead of the low end. It costs $199 a month, with a 30-day free trial and no credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
How much money can a nonprofit make from Google Ad Grants?
The median nonprofit earns about $0.17 in donations per $1 of ad credit, or roughly $1,700 a month at a fully used $10,000/month grant, according to the 2026 M+R Benchmarks. Large nonprofits and top sectors earn several times more, and well-run accounts regularly exceed the median.
How many website visits does a Google Ad Grant generate?
About 229 visits per $1,000 of grant credit at the median, or roughly 2,290 visits a month at a full grant. Rights and advocacy organizations average 440 visits per $1,000, the highest of any sector.
Is a $0.17 ROAS on Google Ad Grants bad?
No, because Grants dollars are free ad credits, not cash. The right comparison is against not running Grants at all. In that frame, every donation and visit is incremental value at no media cost.
What is the cost per donation on Google Ad Grants?
The median is $793 in ad credits per donation, ranging from $305 for large nonprofits to $2,765 for small ones. Remember that this “cost” is grant credits, not money from your budget.
Which types of nonprofits do best with Google Ad Grants?
On donation revenue, disaster and international aid ($0.63 ROAS) and hunger and poverty ($0.41) lead. On website traffic, rights and advocacy (440 visits per $1,000) and small nonprofits (391) are the most efficient.
Why do small nonprofits earn so much less from Grants?
Small nonprofits average just $0.04 ROAS and $2,765 per donation, and the reasons run deeper than limited staff time and expertise (though those matter too). The bigger factor is usually demand. Larger nonprofits have established brand awareness, so they can bid on their own brand terms for cheap, highly relevant direct gifts, and they tend to have stronger websites, more content depth, and complementary marketing that primes people to give. Many small nonprofits do not have that demand yet, so even a well-run grant has less to convert. Smart campaign management closes part of the gap, but the rest comes from building the website, content, and audience that turn free traffic into donations.
Do these benchmarks assume I spend the full $10,000 a month?
The per-$1,000 figures do not. The monthly figures multiply them by 10 to show a fully used grant. Most nonprofits never reach the $10,000 cap on their own, which is the single biggest reason real results fall below their potential.
How does Google Ad Grants compare to paid search?
Paid search returns about $2.48 per dollar versus $0.17 for Grants, but paid search uses real money and Grants uses free credits. For nonprofits without a media budget, Grants is often the only always-on acquisition channel available.
Why is my Google Ad Grants impression share under 10%?
Because Google Ad Grants run in a secondary ad auction: paid advertisers compete first, and Grant ads only fill the space that is left over. That structural cap holds most Ad Grant accounts under 10% impression share, even on their own brand terms. It is not a flaw in your account, it is how the channel is designed. The goal is to maximize the share you can win through high Quality Scores, the right bidding strategy, and strong landing pages.
Why is Google Ad Grants more valuable in 2026?
Organic search traffic is declining due to AI Overviews and zero-click search, while multi-channel ad formats grew 131% year over year. Grants is one of the few remaining ways to generate consistent, free website traffic.
How do I earn more than these median benchmarks?
Build compliant, well-structured campaigns, target the right keywords, set up working conversion tracking, and use more of the full grant. Ad Grants Pilot automates this for $199 a month so your account performs closer to the top of the benchmark range.
Put your grant to work
Google gives your nonprofit up to $10,000 a month in free search ads. The 2026 benchmarks show what that is worth when it is managed well, and how much most organizations leave unclaimed. Ad Grants Pilot makes capturing it straightforward, with plug-and-play campaigns, built-in compliance, and one-click conversion tracking.
Start your free trial and see how much of your grant you can actually put to work.
Source: 2026 M+R Benchmarks Study (Volume 20), Advertising section, based on 180 nonprofits. All figures are medians unless noted.