Grant Research Services

Grant research services identify the funders most likely to support your work and vet them before you spend time writing. We search foundation, corporate, federal and state sources ourselves, using our own database subscriptions and the funders' public filings, screen each candidate for eligibility and real fit, and deliver a ranked prospect list with a deadline calendar your team can act on.

What the research produces

A working document, not a database export. For each recommended funder:

• Fit rating with the reasoning: how closely its giving matches your program, not only its stated interests.
• Grant size: typical and median award, so you do not ask a funder that gives $10,000 for $250,000.
• Recent grantees similar to you, which is the best evidence that a funder will fund your kind of work.
• How to apply: open application, letter of inquiry first, or invitation only; portal or email; deadlines or rolling.
• Geography and restrictions: where it gives, what it excludes (capital, general operating, individuals, new organizations).
• Contacts and relationships: program officer, and any board or staff connections you mention.
• Source and date for every entry, so you know how current it is.

Prospects are ranked into those to approach now, those to cultivate first, and those to drop. Our explainer on grant prospect research shows how each element is judged.

Where we look, and why giving history matters

Foundation tax filings. A private foundation's Form 990-PF lists every grant it made, to whom, and for how much. That record is often narrower and more useful than the foundation's website: a funder that says it supports "education" may in practice give only to three school districts in one county. The filing also shows whether the foundation states that it does not accept unsolicited requests. We read the filings for every serious prospect.

Foundation and corporate databases. The Candid Foundation Directory and similar subscription tools are where the search starts, because they index filings, guidelines and giving at scale. We use our own subscriptions; you do not need to buy or share access to anything. Our comparison of grant databases explains what each covers.

Federal sources. Grants.gov for open and forecasted opportunities, and SAM.gov Assistance Listings for the programs behind them, including their eligibility rules and past funding levels. Federal programs often recur on a predictable cycle, so forecasts let you prepare months ahead.

State and local sources. State agency portals, pass-through programs and community foundations, which national databases cover unevenly and which are often the best fit for local organizations.

Foundation research and federal research are different searches

For foundations, the question is fit and relationship: whose giving pattern matches yours, and how to get in front of them. For federal funding, the question is eligibility and capacity: which programs you are legally eligible for, whether you can meet the match, registration and reporting requirements, and when the next competition opens. We tailor the research to the funding you are targeting, and say so plainly when federal funding is not realistic yet; a grant readiness assessment covers that gap.

For-profit companies get a separate kind of search, because most foundation money is closed to them; our small business grant writing service handles that screening.

What you provide

Your mission and programs, the specific projects you want funded and their budgets, your organization's annual budget, where you work, the funders you already have or have tried, and any board or staff relationships with funders. A first research project usually takes two to three weeks from the start of the engagement, which begins after payment.

Keeping the list current

Funders change priorities, open new initiatives and close old ones, and a prospect list goes stale within a year. We can refresh it on a set schedule, adding new prospects and retiring ones that no longer fit, and our free application deadline tracker keeps the calendar in front of your team between refreshes.

When the list is ready, the next step is writing: our nonprofit grant writing and federal grant writing services take top prospects through to submission. For doing some of this yourself, see our guide to where grants are listed and how to search them.