Grants

Gathers and disseminates information about IRS-registered nonprofit organizations. The information provided includes the nonprofit's mission, legitimacy, impact, reputation, finances, programs, transparency, governance, and more.

Through 400 public locations in the US and internationally, you can access the Foundation Center’s funder database, Foundation Directory Online (FDO), and other materials for free. To see if there is a Funding Information Network location near you, type your location into the Foundation Center’s lookup form. Many locations are public libraries around the United States. Visit the library and ask a librarian about access to the database.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form 990s and PF 990s are filed annually with the IRS by US-based nonprofits and foundations, respectively. An organization’s 990 can provide lots of useful information. If you are looking at the 990 of a nonprofit organization, the form will include a list of their funders from the fiscal year in question. If you are looking at a foundation’s PF 990, you’ll see the names of the organizations that the foundation funded during the filing period, the dollar amount given to each organization, and sometimes even a brief description of the purpose of each grant. Information about a foundation’s past giving history can help you find out if they fund organizations like yours, which can speed up the process of creating your target funder list.

Provides a comparison of some different grant research tools as well as links to other resources.

This database is behind a paywall, but the page with search tips does offer some helpful strategies that can be applied to grant searches elsewhere, such as narrowing and broadening your search and using keywords.