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Nonprofit Marketing Immersion

The Nonprofit Marketing Immersion (NMI) is a global program that matches students who are studying digital marketing to nonprofits who need extra support with their Google Ad Grants accounts. It is a unique opportunity for nonprofits to get free account assistance while providing students with a valuable, hands-on learning experience.

Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Marketing Immersion (NMI) program allows nonprofits to receive at no cost marketing help for your organization from students or volunteers certified in Google Ads. You can get help with your Ad Grants account from volunteers sponsored by an advisor. This provides you with hands-on help setting up or optimizing Ad Grants search campaigns.

After participating in this program, organizations like Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Books2Africa, and Hear No Evil Australian Deaf Dog Rescue reported positive outcomes such as excellent campaign results, increased volunteer sign-ups, and a better quality of inquiries.

Nonprofits must have an active Ad Grants account in order to participate in the Nonprofit Marketing Immersion. If your organization has not yet been approved for Ad Grants, you can go through the activation process.

1. Register

Before you register, be sure to have an Active Ad Grants account and are able to access the back end of your organization's website to add conversion tracking (if it's not already there). 

When you're ready, register to be matched with a student/volunteer team. The program runs year-round and there is no deadline to apply.

2. Match with a volunteer team

Once you register, matching is dependent on student availability and can generally take anywhere from 1 day to 1 month to get matched. We try our best to match you to a student team that meets your language and location requirements. Once you have been matched, you will receive a confirmation email with your Team Captain’s contact information.

Your Team Captain will send you a request to link their Ads Manager account to your Ad Grants account. You will need to accept their request and grant them edit access to your account for approximately 8 weeks in order to participate (you reserve the right to revoke access at any time).

You’ll have a virtual Kickoff Meeting with your student team to align on your organization’s mission and marketing goals. 
 

Tips for success:

  • Set realistic expectations with your student team as to what is reasonable for them to accomplish during the 8-10 weeks.
  • This partnership will include calls, video chats, emails, etc. Please ensure you have the time to dedicate and be responsive.
  • Reply to student emails and account linking requests within 2 business days, as many students rely on this program as part of a graded course and have limited time during their semester to complete all requirements.
  • Be organized and thorough in teaching the students about your organizations’ marketing goals.
  • Be willing to work with a student, and understand that they are learning.
  • Treat your student team with professionalism and respect.

3. Launch campaigns with account support at no cost

Over the course of your partnership, your student/volunteer team will help you launch ads and deliver a post-campaign report with future recommendations to optimize your account. Every nonprofit's Google Ad Grants account comes pre-loaded with an advertising budget of $329 USD per day. 

Since this program uses the Ad Grants platform, you will only run text-based search ads. You cannot run display or video ads as part of this program.

As a participant of NMI, you’ll receive: 

  • Hands-on help setting up or optimizing Ad Grants search campaigns (this includes 4 weeks of running active campaigns, and approximately 4 weeks of campaign setup, analysis, reporting, etc.). Please note that this program does NOT include website design, or any tasks outside of Ad Grants campaign setup and optimization.
  • A Pre-Campaign Report that outlines the student’s proposed plan for building campaigns that meet your goals.
  • A Post-Campaign Report that shows how their campaigns performed throughout the 4 weeks under management, as well as future recommendations for your account post-NMI.
  • After the 8 weeks are completed, you can continue to work with the student team post-NMI as long as the students agree to it.

Student volunteers

The Nonprofit Marketing Immersion (NMI) is a global program that matches students who are studying digital marketing to nonprofits who need extra support with their Google Ad Grants accounts. The program allows students/volunteers to boost their digital marketing skills with real-world, hands-on experience. You will create Ad Grants campaigns for a nonprofit who needs help to raise awareness for their cause.

To be eligible for NMI, you must be a current college or university student (undergraduate or graduate).
By participating, you will:
  • Gain hands-on experience with Google Ads.
  • Develop valuable analytical and consulting skills.
  • Help nonprofits make a big impact.

Remember that when you participate in NMI, you will be working with a real-life nonprofit client who is depending on you to act professionally, be responsive, be accountable for deliverables, and help guide them toward achieving their digital marketing goals. Please only sign up for the program if you have the time to commit to completing all requirements.

1. Get certified

Before you are eligible to be matched to a nonprofit client, you'll need to pass the Google Ads Search Certification and Google Ads Measurement Certification exams.

2. Register your team

Advisor or professor

We require student volunteers to register under an advisor or professor in order to participate. An advisor/professor can be any registered faculty member who is willing to sponsor your work as part of this program; the Nonprofit Marketing Immersion does not need to be part of a formal course.

Advisors must first register to represent a team of students before student teams can sign up.

Student volunteer

Once your advisor registers and has been approved, your designated Team Captain can sign up on behalf of your team. 

3. Match with a nonprofit

We’ll match you to a nonprofit that speaks your language within 10 business days of your requesting a nonprofit. Note that matching is based on nonprofit availability and in rare cases may take longer than 10 days depending on language and time zone preferences. 

Once you’re matched, you’ll receive a confirmation email with your nonprofit’s contact information. You’ll meet virtually with your nonprofit client to align on their mission and marketing goals.

The full program takes approximately 8-10 weeks from beginning to end. This includes setting up and holding a kickoff meeting, time to create a pre-campaign report, setting up and running campaigns for 4 weeks, time to create a post-campaign report, and holding a closing meeting.

4. Launch campaigns

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be provided a Student Toolkit that has step-by-step instructions to help you through the 8-10 week process to launch campaigns for your assigned nonprofit.

Get to know your client (1-2 weeks)

  • Start by meeting virtually with your client to understand their mission and marketing goals

  • Listen carefully to the goals they want to achieve, find out more about their existing digital marketing strategies, and create a Pre-Campaign Report for your nonprofit

This does not include website design, or any tasks outside of Ad Grants campaign setup and optimization.

Build campaigns that meet your client’s needs (1-3 weeks)

  • Apply the learnings from Step 1 to build campaigns that meet the needs and goals you discussed with your client

  • Communicate with your client about your plans before making any changes in their account

Expect that you won’t know how to do everything perfectly the first time -- you’re still learning! That is why we have a lot of resources and help options for you as part of this program.

Assess and optimize account performance (4-5 weeks)

  • Run campaigns for at least 4 weeks and optimize for account performance along the way

  • Analyze whether the goals you set out to achieve in Steps 1 and 2 were accomplished during your partnership

  • Create a Post-Campaign Report for your client that details the outcomes you achieved

Wrap up your partnership (1-2 weeks)

  • Hold a closing meeting to review your Post-Campaign Report with your client so they know how to continue making progress after your partnership is over

  • Thank them for the opportunity to work together and wish them well in fulfilling their important mission!

  • You’ll receive a Certificate of Completion at the end of the program once you’ve completed all program deliverables. Those who receive top marks from their nonprofit client in the end-of-program survey will receive a Top Marketer Certificate.

Advisors/Professors

The NMI program is open to current college or university students (undergraduate or graduate). We require students and volunteers to register under an advisor or professor in order to participate.

You can be a professor/advisor through a formal course, through a Marketing Club, through a Digital Marketing Bootcamp, or just an individual sponsor. 

Responsibilities

As an NMI professor or advisor, you are responsible for:

  1. Ensuring that your student team(s) complete the program deliverables, as well as making sure they are accountable to and communicative with their nonprofit client throughout the process.
  2. Coach the student team(s) when they run into challenges and offer suggestions for improvement.
You can rely on the resources in the NMI Toolkit if you don’t have a lot of expertise with Google Ads. You’ll receive access to the Toolkit once you register. 

Registration

The NMI program is open to current college or university students (undergraduate or graduate). We require students and volunteers to register under an advisor or professor in order to participate.

Step 1: Register yourself as an advisor/professor. 

Step 2: Once you've been verified and approved, your Team Captain can sign up

Note that the default number of student teams you can have as an advisor/professor is 10; however, if you need to request additional teams, you can do so by submitting a Support Request form and asking us to increase the number of teams in your dashboard.

The program runs year-round and there is no deadline to apply. Once you register and your student team(s) sign up, we will match them to a nonprofit that speaks their language within 10 business days. Matching is based on nonprofit availability and in rare cases may take longer than 10 days depending on language and time zone preferences. 

Once matched, the nonprofit will receive a confirmation email with their Team Captain’s contact information. The Team Captain will send a request to link their Ads Manager account to the nonprofit's Ad Grants account, which the nonprofit will need to accept and grant edit access for approximately 8-10 weeks. You will receive an email notifying you when each of your Team Captains gets matched. 

A virtual Kickoff Meeting will be held to align on goals. 

Timeline

Steps Timeline
Registration and Approval 1 week
Nonprofit Matching 1.5 weeks
Immersion Program 9-10 weeks
Total 9.5-11.5 weeks*

*After the 8 weeks are completed, you can continue to work with the student team post-NMI as long as the students and nonprofit agree to it.

Advisor/Professor FAQs

My student’s nonprofit is unresponsive. How can they get matched to a new one?

The best way to request a rematch is to have your Team Captain submit a Support Request form. To avoid confusion, it is not recommended to have the advisor or professor submit a request on behalf of the student.

As a professor, can I see which nonprofits my students get matched with?

There is not a way for professors to see which nonprofits your students are matched with. However, you will receive an email notifying you when each of your Team Captains gets matched. 

The student registration link appears not to be working. How can my students register?

If you are a registered professor, it will prompt an error message if you click on the student registration link. This is because our system already recognizes you as having registered as a professor and won’t let you attempt to also register as a student. Your student should have no issue clicking on the registration link if they are not already registered.

Why am I having issues accessing my professor dashboard?

Please check to ensure that you are logged in to your browser using the same account you used to register for the program. If you're logged in to your browser using a different account, it will give you an error message. You can also try pasting the link to the dashboard in an incognito tab and see if it'll let you log in that way.

My students have not received their certificates. How can I find out the status?

If your students have successfully completed all program requirements (passed Google Ads certifications, ran campaigns for at least 4 weeks, and uploaded Pre-Campaign Report and Post-Campaign Report), then they should be receiving a certificate approximately 4 weeks after completing the program. However, if they have still not received it, please have your Team Captain submit a Support Request Form to request a certificate. 

Do my students need to get approval from Google for their pre-campaign strategy?

No, there is no approval step from Google. The students should make sure to email their Pre-Campaign Report to their nonprofit for approval before they start building campaigns, but there are no other approval steps needed.

When do my students get the funds in their account for the Ad Grant?

All Ad Grants accounts come automatically pre-loaded with a budget of $329/day, so there is no extra step needed to receive the grant funds. Make sure that your students do NOT enter any credit card information into their account under any circumstances, as Google is not liable for any charges incurred.

What level of involvement is expected of me as a professor?

As an advisor/professor, you are responsible for making sure your students are able to register and complete the required elements of the program. 

Please also ensure that they are familiar with the Student Toolkit and remind them that they are accountable to their nonprofit client.

What if one of my students is not contributing to the team? Will they still get a certificate?

If there is a situation where you don’t feel that one of your students should receive a certificate, just submit a Support Request Form and let us know. We can always remove a student from our certificate list if needed.

What resources are available to professors to help my students if they have questions?

We have a Support Request Form, a program-specific Forum, and Google Ad Grants Support, depending on what your needs are. 

After registration we offer a Student Toolkit, which is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to the entire program from start to finish. It includes checklists for each step of the process and corresponding resources and instructions.

Support

Program questions

Advisors or student teams can fill out a Support Request Form for general program issues or inquiries. When reaching out, include as much detail as possible, including your full name and organization name/Ad Grants CID, to expedite help (if applicable). 

Students can also post a question in our community forum for support from the nonprofit support community. 

Technical account questions

For technical account questions, please refer to the Ad Grants Help Center.


 

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