How to Find Grants for Nonprofits: 8 Places to Search

To find grants for your nonprofit, search in widening circles: your community foundation and local United Way first, then your state's grant portal and nonprofit association, then federal listings on Grants.gov, then the foundations that already fund organizations like yours, which you can identify from peer annual reports and foundation tax returns. Before you search, write down four filters (your cause, the population you serve, your service area, and the amount you need) so every source can be checked against them quickly.

This page is about where grants are posted and how to dig them out. Once you have a list, the process of qualifying, approaching, and applying is covered in how to get grants for nonprofits.

1. Your community foundation

Almost every region in the United States is served by a community foundation, a public charity that pools gifts from local donors and makes grants in a defined area. They run open grant cycles, publish their deadlines, and are usually the most realistic first funder for a small or young nonprofit, because they exist to fund local work.

Find yours with the Council on Foundations' Community Foundation Locator, which maps community foundations by state. Then read three things on its website: the competitive grant cycles (with dates), any field-of-interest funds that match your cause, and the list of donor-advised funds or giving circles it hosts. Donor-advised fund holders often follow the foundation's lead on which local nonprofits to support.

2. United Way and local funding collaboratives

Local United Way chapters fund community programs through periodic requests for proposals, often focused on education, income stability, and health. Many cities also have funding collaboratives where several foundations pool money on one issue, such as early childhood or homelessness, and run a shared application. Your community foundation's staff usually knows which ones are active.

3. Your state's grant portal and nonprofit association

State agencies distribute large amounts of money, much of it federal funding passed through to local organizations. Most states publish open opportunities on a central grants page; search your state's name with "grant opportunities" and look for a .gov address. Agencies for health, human services, education, arts, and the environment each run their own programs.

Your state nonprofit association is the other key resource. The National Council of Nonprofits lists every state association, and many of them maintain funding opportunity pages, newsletters with grant deadlines, and discounted access to search tools such as GrantStation.

4. Federal opportunities on Grants.gov

Every federal agency posts its competitive grants on Grants.gov, and you can search the same data on the newer Simpler.Grants.gov. Set up saved searches or email alerts for your category so new notices reach you without daily checking. Federal grants are larger and come with stricter compliance, so read the eligibility section of each notice first; many restrict applicants to specific organization types or require a partner such as a school district or local government.

Before a federal deadline appears, check that your SAM.gov registration is active, because it can take weeks. Our guide to Grants.gov registration and the Unique Entity Identifier explains the steps, and how to apply for federal grants covers the rest.

5. Peer organizations' annual reports

This is the fastest source of warm prospects. Pick five to ten nonprofits doing similar work, in your region or in a comparable one, and read their annual reports and websites. Most list their funders by name. A foundation that funds a peer in your field and geography has already shown it supports work like yours, which is more than any keyword search can tell you.

6. Foundation tax returns (Form 990-PF)

Private foundations file Form 990-PF every year, and the returns are public. The grants schedule lists each grant, the recipient, and the amount. Free tools such as ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer let you open these returns for any foundation you are considering, or search for a peer organization and work backward to the foundations that fund it.

The return also answers whether a foundation will read your proposal at all. It asks whether the foundation gives only to preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests. According to Candid's analysis of fiscal year 2023 returns, 71 percent of private foundations checked that box. Those foundations can still be worth knowing, since a board connection can open the door, but they do not belong on your list of open applications.

7. Corporate giving and local businesses

Corporate funding comes in several forms: company foundations with formal grant programs, community investment budgets run by local branches or plants, employee volunteer grants, and matching gift programs. National banks, utilities, and grocery chains frequently fund the communities where they operate, usually through a regional office rather than headquarters. Look for "community giving" or "foundation" pages on the websites of the largest employers in your service area, and ask your board who works where.

In-kind resources belong in the same search. Eligible charities can receive free search advertising through the Google Ad Grants program, and many software companies offer nonprofit pricing.

8. Grant databases

Databases are where most people start, but they work best after the steps above, because by then you know what you are looking for. Candid has the deepest foundation giving data, Instrumentl matches opportunities to your profile, and GrantStation offers broad coverage at a lower price. Candid partner libraries provide free in-person access. Our comparison of the best grant databases covers prices and which fits which organization.

Keep the list from going stale

Searching once is not enough. Foundations change priorities, state agencies post new rounds, and federal notices appear on annual cycles. Record each lead with its deadline, amount, and status in a simple deadline tracker, and revisit your sources every quarter.

Each lead still has to pass a fit check before it earns an application: eligibility, mission, geography, and typical grant size. That qualifying work is the subject of our guide to grant prospect research. If you would rather receive a screened list than build one, our grant research service does the search for you.