What should we report to our board about our Ad Grant?
By Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAAdapted from Chapter 14 of The Nonprofit Ad Grant Handbook · Checked against Google's rules November 3, 2026Lead with what the grant did for your mission, in the mission's own terms, such as families helped, volunteers recruited and donations received. Show whether results are better or worse than before, the grant used, and compliance in one line. Report the same numbers in the same order every month, and say whether the board needs to decide anything.
Lead with results
Boards want to know what the grant did for the mission. They also want to know whether it's working better or worse than before, whether anything is at risk, and whether there's a decision for them to make. Almost everything else is detail for the people running the account. Lead every report with results, in plain words, and put the account numbers underneath for anyone who wants them.
The person who runs the account knows the numbers best, but is often the least able to see them as an outsider would. Have the account manager gather the numbers and draft the report. Then someone closer to the board, such as the executive director or development director, reads it before it goes out and asks, line by line, "would a board member understand this?"
The numbers that matter
A small set of numbers tells the whole story, if you report them the same way every month. We put them in a report in this order.
- Real results, by type. The actions your organization cares about, such as donations, volunteer sign-ups, registrations, applications and enquiries. Each type gets its own line. Count only primary conversions you trust, and where your donation platform or CRM is more reliable, use it as a check and note any difference.
- Value of results. The money value of results that have one, such as donation amounts, ticket sales and memberships. Report donation revenue as it stands, from your own records, and keep estimated values on a separate line so nobody confuses the two.
- Cost per result. The grant spent divided by the number of results. Grant spending is in-kind, so this isn't money out of your budget, but it shows how efficiently the grant turns into results. A rising cost per result while results stay flat is a warning sign.
- Grant used. How much of the grant was spent this month, in dollars and as a share of the $10,000 available. Never report it without results next to it.
- Compliance. Whether the account meets every Ad Grants rule, with the click-through rate against the 5% line as the headline. For a board, a single line is enough, such as "Compliant, click-through rate 7.1% (minimum 5%)." If anything failed, say what and what was done.
Google's FAQ for grant accounts says "there is no spend requirement," which is one more reason not to report spending as a success in itself.
A sample month
An illustration from the handbook. The family support nonprofit is a composite, not a real organization.
For a family support nonprofit, those numbers looked like this when written for its board.
| Measure | This month | Last month | Same month last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Families who requested help through the website | 64 | 58 | 31 |
| Volunteers who signed up | 22 | 25 | 14 |
| Online donations | 19 ($2,140) | 15 ($1,690) | 8 ($780) |
| Grant used | $4,800 of $10,000 | $4,500 | $2,100 |
| Cost per result (in-kind) | $46 | $46 | $40 |
| Compliance | All rules met; click-through rate 7.1% | All rules met; 6.9% | All rules met; 5.6% |
The first three rows are what the board reads. The last three are there for anyone who wants to know how the account is doing as an account.
When a month goes badly
Report bad numbers anyway, in the same format, with a sentence on why and what's being done. Skipping a bad month, or changing the format to hide it, costs more trust than the bad number does.
The sentence should say what happened, what was done, and what to expect next month. The handbook's example reads "Volunteer sign-ups fell to 9 because the sign-up form was broken from the 4th to the 12th; it's fixed, and we expect a normal month in May." A sentence like that shows the board someone is watching the account closely.
Results the account can't see
Some of what the grant does never shows up as a conversion. A parent sees your ad, doesn't click, and calls the number on your sign the next day. Don't guess at these, and don't add them to the conversion numbers.
Do mention them when you have evidence, such as a rise in phone enquiries in the same weeks as a campaign, or intake forms where people answer "searched online." A line like that tells the board the conversion count is a floor.
One page, every month
A monthly report should fit on one page, use the same layout every month, and be readable in two minutes. Its sections are results, the account, what we did, what we learned, risks, and a last line headed "Decision needed." When there's nothing to decide, write "None this month" rather than leaving it blank. That line tells the reader you looked and found nothing that needs them.
Send it on the same day each month, such as the third working day, and in the body of an email rather than as an attachment if you can. Keep campaign-level numbers and search terms in an attachment or a linked file for the people who want them.
To gather the numbers, start in Google Ads by setting the date range to last month and opening the campaigns view. Once the columns and template are set up, the routine takes about twenty minutes.
Section 14.2 of the handbook has the full routine for pulling the numbers, and section 14.4 has the one-page template with a filled-in example. Appendix F has the template in full.
Questions
How do we set targets the board can trust?
Use your own account's history. Take the last six to twelve months of each result type, note the average and the range, and set a target a little above the average for the coming quarter, adjusted for the season. Avoid borrowing targets from agency case studies or benchmarks, which come from different organizations with different programs, places and websites.
What if our conversion numbers don't match our donation platform?
Use your own records as a check on the Google Ads number, and note any difference in the report.
Can we change what we report from month to month?
Try not to. Changing what you report from month to month makes every report look new and every trend impossible to see. The same numbers, defined the same way, in the same order, every month, let anyone see the trend at a glance. Decide your numbers once, write their definitions on the back of the template, and keep them.
See something wrong or out of date? Tell us
Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAJose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTA, is the CEO of 3nity. He founded the company in 2001 to serve the people who serve people, after working as Internet Director at a media network. He built a career website that was acquired by Salem Communications in 2004, and created the 3nity Web Presence Platform. Through Nonprofit Marketing Center, a division of 3nity, he and his team help churches and nonprofits of every kind bring resources and awareness to their missions, including by helping them get the most from the Google Ad Grant.