Case studyNonprofitNorthern CaliforniaEngaged 2021 to present
How NorCal Shiba Rescue built a national adoption pipeline
An all-volunteer 501(c)(3) rescuing Shiba Inus across Northern California. SEOD rebuilt the digital presence in 2021 and put a Google Ad Grant behind it, with no paid ad spend at any point.
The Ad Grant compliance loop
- Eligibility
- Application
- Compliant campaigns
- Maintain 5 percent CTR
- Grant continues
Grant compliance maintained, back to Maintain 5 percent CTR.
Most nonprofits either do not know about Ad Grants or cannot hold the compliance requirements.
The business
NorCal Shiba Rescue is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit staffed entirely by volunteers, rescuing Shiba Inus from Bay Area shelters and private surrenders. They adopt out approximately sixty to eighty dogs a year. No paid staff. No marketing budget.
One dog, one URL, one schema block
NorCal Shiba Rescue
- Adoptable dogsOne page per dog
- Breed content18 breed articles
- DonateRecurring giving
- ApplyRedesigned form
The challenge
Finding a reputable breed rescue is hard, and prospective adopters default to breeders because breeders invest in being found. Application inquiries arrived mostly through word of mouth and Instagram.
The website had a donate button that did not work on mobile. The adoptable-dog pages carried no structured data, so a search engine had no way to know there were dogs available.
Breed searcher to adopter
- Breed question
- Honest answer
- Rescue as an option
- Dog listing
- Application
The diagnosis
The rescue was competing against breeders for the same searcher and losing on discoverability rather than on merit. Two things followed from that. The dogs had to become indexable objects rather than entries in a list, and the rescue had to reach the searcher earlier, at the point where somebody is still deciding whether they want the breed at all.
The third element was money the organization was already entitled to and not using.
What we delivered
Local-first rebuild.
Structured content types for each adoptable dog. Every dog gets its own URL, its own schema and its own share card, so individual listings are indexed as objects.
Content for breed searchers.
Eighteen articles answering what people actually search before they search for a rescue: apartment suitability, shedding, temperament with children. Honest answers, ending with rescue as an option.
The Google Ad Grant.
Application handled, compliant campaigns built, and the required click-through rate maintained. The rescue runs at the program ceiling of ten thousand dollars a month in grant credit.
Donation funnel rebuild.
Mobile-first donation page, one-click recurring giving, branded thank-you automation.
Results
Weekly application inquiries moved from approximately six to fifteen or more over a year, on a client-confirmed baseline. Monthly donations moved from roughly $2,500 to $3,000 up to roughly $6,000 to $7,500 in twelve months. No paid ad spend at any point.
Two figures that appear on the current page do not appear here. A recurring donor retention multiple and an application form conversion multiple were both published without a baseline, and neither renders until one exists.
| Figure | Timeframe | How it was measured |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly application inquiries | One year | Client-confirmed baseline. A founder recollection of 2 to 3 a week exists and is not used as the baseline; it appears only inside the labeled quote. |
| Google Ad Grant unlocked | From approval | The Ad Grants program ceiling, applied for and maintained in compliance. It is grant credit, not cash and not SEOD spend. |
| Monthly donations | Twelve months | Client-provided approximate figures either side of the donation funnel rebuild. |
| Paid ad spend | Throughout | No paid media at any point. The Ad Grant is grant credit. |
Client verification: metric baseline provided by the client on 14 August 2026. Baseline is approximate historical, not audited.
Business impact
The rescue coordinator's recollection at the time is below. It is a recollection rather than the measured baseline, and it is labeled as one.
We went from 2-3 calls a week to 25 potentials a week in just a year. We started seeing results in 3 months of SEO.
Rescue Coordinator, NorCal Shiba Rescue
Why SEOD
Small nonprofits have access to some of the most capable tools available, and mostly lack somebody to set them up and keep them compliant. The work here was not clever. It was structuring what already existed so it could be found, and claiming a grant the organization already qualified for.
Let us look at yours.
If you run a nonprofit and are not using the Google Ad Grant, start with a Business Growth Review.
It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If SEOD is not the right fit, Eric will tell you straight.