Fountain of Youth Foundation has a simple, powerful mission: connect generous donors with the caregivers and caseworkers supporting children in the foster care system. Founded by Nancy Wilkov, a magistrate judge with firsthand experience in dependency court, FOY helps kids get access to the everyday moments that make them feel seen, like birthday celebrations and extracurricular activities.
FOY had grown almost entirely through word of mouth. The organization had recently secured a Google Ad Grant, worth up to $10,000 a month in free search advertising, but the account itself was an empty shell. Nobody had built the campaigns, set up tracking, or defined an audience strategy. Cornershop stepped in to change that.
A Low-Risk Way to Test What Google Ads Could Do
FOY wanted proof that a Google Ads campaign could actually move the needle before committing to ongoing management. So Cornershop scoped a focused, one-off engagement: a discovery session to map out FOY’s audiences and goals, full account setup for Google Ads and GA4, conversion tracking, a first campaign build, and a 30-day performance report with next-step recommendations. It gave a brand-new nonprofit a low-risk way to find out whether its Google Ad Grant could deliver real results.
Building Campaigns for Two Very Different Audiences
FOY serves two distinct groups, and each needed its own path. A Donate to Foster Kids group sent warm, ready-to-act searchers straight to the homepage. A Foster Parent & Caregiver Support group pointed caseworkers toward FOY’s request-for-help page, connecting them to resources fast.
Reaching Donors Who Weren’t Searching for a Foster Care Charity
To grow beyond FOY’s existing community, Cornershop got creative. An Unique & Meaningful Gifts ad group repositioned FOY as a thoughtful alternative to traditional gift-giving, putting the organization in front of donors who might never have typed “foster care nonprofit” into Google. An Awareness & Education ad group rounded out the strategy, building visibility with top-of-funnel searchers while Cornershop tracked click-through rate closely to protect the account’s ad grant compliance.
From Zero Impressions to a 20% Click-Through Rate
The results made the strategy easy to trust. FOY’s account went from zero impressions, zero clicks, and zero spend to a fully live, multi-audience campaign in a matter of weeks! In its earliest weeks live, the account hit a 20 percent click-through rate, four times the 5 percent minimum Google requires to keep an Ad Grant account in good standing. For an organization with no prior Google Ads history, that’s a strong signal that both the strategy and the messaging landed with the right people.
A Clear Roadmap for What Comes Next
The fast start was only part of the value. Cornershop also handed FOY a plan for building on it. Alongside the performance recap, the team identified the trust-signal content FOY needs to turn first-time visitors into donors, including real impact numbers and caregiver testimonials. Cornershop also mapped out a path for expanding into Meta, where foster care advocates and gift-givers already spend time online.
For a nonprofit just getting off the ground, that mix of quick wins and a clear-eyed next-steps plan is exactly what Cornershop set out to deliver. FOY didn’t just get a working ad account. It got a foundation for growth, and a partner who could show it exactly where to go from here.
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