It’s an interesting question. I assume motivated by a desire to maintain the positive perception of the foundation. I’m sure that it is for good reason that extra caution should be taken while guarding such a reputation. I can think of many examples of internet “neighborhoods” that I would not want to see my name. So do large foundations with esteemed reputations use Adwords?
Well, the largest in the world does. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending somewhere in the range of $4,000 monthly on Adwords ads. I tend to think with a substantial positive boost to their reputation. I find it hard to anticipate any harm coming to their reputation when people find their website as a result of searching for “Polio Research”, or “Global Health Issues”?
The Pew Charitable Trusts spend much more than that – looks like maybe as much as $10,000 monthly.
Likewise, I can only anticipate positive brand association resulting from being found in the search engines when someone searches for “How to Invest in Children” or “Global Warming Solutions”
