Google does not check your charitable status itself. It uses a verification partner — currently Goodstack — and that check is where most Ad Grant applications stall. Almost none of the failures are about eligibility. They are about records that do not match.
What the check actually does
Goodstack compares what you entered against public charity records in your country: the legal name, the registration number, the registered address, and whether the status is currently active. Where records are incomplete or the match is imperfect, they ask for documents.
It is a records-matching exercise, not a judgement about your work. Understanding that changes how you approach it — the goal is to make the match unambiguous, not to explain your mission.
Enter the registry's version, not yours. If the register says "The Harbourside Trust Limited" and you have called yourself "Harbourside" for a decade, enter the registry version. You can use your trading name everywhere else afterwards.
The five things that fail
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Legal name does not match the register | Use the exact registered name, including Ltd, Inc, Trust, CIO |
| Address does not match | Use the registered address, not the operational one |
| Registration number wrong or wrong type | Some countries have several numbers — company, charity, tax. Check which is asked for |
| Status lapsed without anyone noticing | A filing problem, not a verification one. See losing charitable status |
| Rebrand never reached the register | Update the register first, then apply |
Documents worth having ready
Not always requested, and having them saves a fortnight when they are:
- Your registration certificate or determination letter, in the legal name.
- Most recent annual filing or accounts.
- A document tying your website domain to the organisation — an invoice, a registrar record.
- Something showing the applicant is authorised to act for the organisation, if you are not a listed officer.
Scans should be legible and complete. Cropped documents and photographs of screens get rejected and cost you another round.
The domain question
Verification also considers the email domain you applied with. An application from a Gmail address for an organisation whose website is at a real domain looks inconsistent, and inconsistency is what a records check flags.
Apply from an address on the organisation's own domain. If you do not have one, that is worth fixing before applying — it is inexpensive, and the Ad Grant requires you to own the domain anyway.
How long, and what to do about silence
Days to a few weeks, depending on the country and whether documents are requested. Silence usually means a queue, sometimes an email you missed.
- Check spam and any shared inbox filters. Document requests are the most-missed email in the whole process, and they expire.
- Log into the verification portal directly rather than waiting — status is often visible there before it is emailed.
- After three weeks with no contact, follow up. Politely and once.
If you are rejected
Read the reason precisely. "Could not verify" means records did not match — a fixable, administrative problem. "Not eligible" means the organisation type is excluded, which is a different conversation and no amount of documentation changes it.
For the first, correct the mismatch at source — update the register if that is where the error is — and reapply with the corrected details. For the second, check the eligibility rules before spending more time; government bodies, hospitals and most schools are excluded by category.
The thing that saves the most time
Before you begin, open your national charity register and look at your own entry. Copy the name, number and address from that screen into the application, character for character. That one habit removes the majority of verification failures.
The rest of the process is in applying for the Ad Grant, step by step.