Grant prospect research is the work of building a short, ranked list of funders who are genuinely likely to fund your organization — before you spend hours writing. The goal is not a long list; it is a qualified list. A strong prospect is one where three things line up: geography (the funder gives where you work), program area (they fund what you do), and grant size (your ask fits their typical award).
You can do most of this for free. ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer lets you read any U.S. foundation's Form 990-PF — including the full list of grants it paid last year. Candid's Foundation Directory (now Candid Search) is available free on-site at hundreds of partner libraries and community foundations through the Funding Information Network. And grants.gov is the free federal portal for government funding. Paid tools like Instrumentl mostly buy you speed and deadline tracking, not access to anything secret.
The discipline that separates effective fundraisers from spray-and-pray applicants is a fit-scoring rubric: a simple, repeatable way to rate each prospect so you apply to your best 8–12 matches instead of your nearest 40. This page walks through the sources, the signals to read, and a worked scoring table you can copy.
What prospect research is — and why fit beats volume
Grant prospect research is the process of identifying institutional funders — private foundations, family foundations, corporate giving programs, community foundations, and government agencies — and then qualifying each one before you invest in an application. Qualifying means answering one question honestly: is there real evidence this funder would fund an organization like ours, for work like ours, at the amount we need?
Most small nonprofits over-apply to poor-fit funders and under-research good ones. The cost is real: a full proposal can take 20–40 hours, and many foundations decline more than 80–90% of unsolicited requests (this varies widely by funder — verify each funder's own ratios where disclosed). Sending the same proposal to 40 loosely-matched foundations is slower and lower-yield than tailoring 10 well-matched ones.
A better mental model is a pipeline, not a lottery. You research broadly, score ruthlessly, and advance only qualified prospects to cultivation and application. This connects directly to two adjacent practices: how to find grants (the discovery step) and building a grants calendar and pipeline (the tracking step). Prospect research is the qualification step that sits between them.
A quick vocabulary note
A private foundation files Form 990-PF and is generally required to pay out roughly 5% of its assets annually (the federal minimum distribution requirement, as of 2026 — verify). A public charity that also makes grants files the standard Form 990. A corporate giving program may not file a separate 990 at all if it gives directly rather than through a foundation. Knowing which you're looking at tells you where the grant data lives.
The free sources: 990s, Candid, grants.gov
You can build a strong prospect list without paying for anything. Start with these three.
1. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (projects.propublica.org/nonprofits). A free, searchable archive of millions of nonprofit tax filings going back roughly two decades, including full-text search of filings. For prospect research its superpower is letting you read a foundation's 990-PF, which lists every grant the foundation paid, to whom, for how much, and often for what purpose. If you can find one peer organization that won a grant, you can find the foundation that funded them.
2. Candid (Foundation Directory / Candid Search) (candid.org). Candid aggregates 990 data plus self-reported funder information into a searchable directory you can filter by geography, subject area, and grant size. The full professional product is a paid subscription, but you can use it free on-site at hundreds of partner locations — public libraries, community foundations, and nonprofit resource centers — through the Funding Information Network. Candid has been migrating its tools into a unified Candid Search platform (combining Foundation Directory and GuideStar); branding and tiers are changing through 2026, so confirm what your local partner offers before you visit. Candid Learning also hosts free training on funder research.
3. grants.gov (grants.gov). The single free portal for U.S. federal grant opportunities across 26+ agencies. You can search and filter open opportunities without an account, but to apply your organization generally needs a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and active registration on SAM.gov (as of 2026 — verify; SAM.gov registration is free and can take weeks, so start early). For a deeper walkthrough of federal mechanics, see the federal grants guide.
Free-source starter checklist
- Bookmark ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and search two or three peer organizations you admire.
- Locate your nearest Candid Funding Information Network partner and check its free-access hours.
- Create a SAM.gov registration and confirm your UEI now, before any federal deadline.
- Set a saved search on grants.gov for your program keywords and check it weekly.
- Note which funders appear in more than one source — overlap is a strong signal.
How to read a funder 990-PF
The 990-PF is the most honest document a foundation produces, because the IRS requires it and the foundation cannot spin it. For prospect research, focus on a handful of fields rather than reading cover to cover.
Schedule of grants paid (often in Part XV or an attached statement): this is the gold. It lists recipients, amounts, and frequently the purpose. Scan it for organizations like yours, geographies like yours, and grant sizes near your ask. A foundation that paid forty $5,000 grants to local youth programs is a very different prospect from one that paid three $500,000 grants to national research institutes.
Total assets and total distributions (Part I and the balance sheet): assets tell you capacity; distributions tell you actual giving. A foundation with $10 million in assets typically pays out roughly $500,000+ a year (the ~5% payout rule, as of 2026 — verify), but read the actual number rather than assuming.
Application policy / restrictions: many family foundations state plainly that they do not accept unsolicited applications and give only to pre-selected grantees. Reading this one line saves you from wasting a proposal — and tells you that cultivation through a board connection is the only route in.
Trustees and officers (Part VIII): the named decision-makers. Cross-reference these against your board and volunteers. A warm introduction from a shared connection is worth more than any cold letter of inquiry; see building funder relationships.
Read the grant list, not the mission statement
Funders' stated priorities are aspirational; their grant lists are factual. If a foundation says it funds "education and community" but every grant last year went to private universities, your community after-school program is not a fit no matter how well the keywords match. Always let the actual checks written override the website copy.
The three fit signals: geography, program, size
Every qualifying decision reduces to three questions. Score each one before a prospect advances.
Geography. Does the funder give where you operate? Foundations frequently restrict giving to a specific city, county, state, or region. A perfect program match in another state is usually a non-starter — community foundations and family foundations in particular are often hyper-local by charter. Check the grant list's recipient locations, not just a stated "national" claim.
Program area. Does the funder support your kind of work and your population? Go one level deeper than the keyword. "Youth" is not enough — do they fund direct service, or only research and policy? Do they fund operating support, or only capital and capacity-building? Your ability to articulate program fit also depends on having a clear theory of change; a logic model makes this far easier.
Grant size. Does your ask fit their typical award? Asking a foundation whose grants cluster at $5,000–$10,000 for a $150,000 project signals you didn't do your homework — and vice versa. Find the median grant in the schedule, not the largest, and pitch within a band around it. This is also where your grant budget needs to be realistic and scalable.
A prospect that fails any one of the three hard signals usually shouldn't advance, no matter how strong the other two are. The rubric in the next section weights these so a single hard miss caps the score.
Worked example: a funder fit-score table
Here is a concrete, copyable rubric. Score each funder 0–3 on five criteria, apply the weights, and sum to a total out of 100. Advance prospects scoring roughly 70+ to cultivation; park 50–69 for later; drop below 50. (Thresholds are a starting convention — tune them to your capacity.)
| Criterion (weight) | 0 = no | 1 = weak | 2 = good | 3 = strong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geography (25%) | Outside service area | Adjacent region | Funds our state | Funds our city/county |
| Program fit (25%) | Different field | Same field, wrong model | Same field & model | Funds our exact population |
| Grant size (20%) | 10x off our ask | 2–3x off | Our ask near their range | Our ask = their median |
| Accepts applications (20%) | Invitation only, no link | By LOI only | Open application | Open + clear guidelines |
| Relationship/warm path (10%) | None | Indirect | Board knows a trustee | Prior grantee / staff tie |
Now a filled example. Suppose a local youth literacy nonprofit in Travis County, Texas, seeking a $25,000 operating grant, evaluates three foundations it found on ProPublica:
| Funder | Geo (25) | Program (25) | Size (20) | Open? (20) | Path (10) | Total /100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hill Country Family Fdn (local, $5–30k grants, open LOI) | 3 → 25 | 3 → 25 | 3 → 20 | 2 → 13 | 2 → 7 | 90 — apply |
| National Reads Inc (national, research grants, $100k+) | 3 → 25 | 1 → 8 | 0 → 0 | 1 → 7 | 0 → 0 | 40 — drop |
| Statewide Children's Trust (TX, direct service, $20–50k, invite-only) | 2 → 17 | 3 → 25 | 2 → 13 | 0 → 0 | 1 → 3 | 58 — park, cultivate |
Scoring math: each criterion's weighted points = (raw score ÷ 3) × weight, rounded. Example for Geo at raw 2: (2÷3)×25 ≈ 17. Figures are illustrative; real funders and amounts will differ — verify each against the actual 990.
Notice what the rubric surfaces: National Reads is a strong geographic and reputational name but a hard miss on grant size and program model, so it drops despite "literacy" matching. The Statewide Children's Trust is an excellent program fit but invitation-only, so it moves to cultivation rather than application — exactly the kind of distinction that protects your writing hours.
When paid tools earn their cost
Paid platforms do not unlock secret funders — almost everything ultimately traces back to public 990 data. What they sell is speed, aggregation, deadline tracking, and matching. For a small shop running grants part-time, that can be worth real money; for an all-volunteer group, the free stack is often enough.
Instrumentl is the most common upgrade. It advertises roughly 450,000+ funder profiles and 27,000+ active RFPs with 990 financial detail, AI-assisted matching that explains why a funder fits, and a pipeline with automatic deadline reminders (figures as of 2026 — verify on their site). Pricing starts around $299/month on an annual plan (the Discover tier), scaling up for teams and added lifecycle features, with a 14-day free trial, no card required (as of 2026 — verify). The trial is genuinely useful: run your real prospect list through it and see whether the time saved justifies the spend.
GrantStation is a lower-cost alternative oriented toward a curated database of funders and announcements; it is sometimes available at a steep discount through TechSoup or state nonprofit associations (verify current offers).
| Need | Free stack | Paid tool |
|---|---|---|
| Read one funder's grants | ProPublica 990-PF | Same data, faster UI |
| Filter 1000s of funders by geo/size | Candid at a library | Instrumentl from your desk |
| Federal opportunities | grants.gov (free always) | n/a |
| Deadline tracking & reminders | Your own spreadsheet | Built-in pipeline + alerts |
Decision rule of thumb
If you submit fewer than ~8 grant applications a year, the free stack plus a spreadsheet is usually enough. If you're running a real pipeline, juggling multiple deadlines, and a missed deadline costs more than a monthly subscription, a paid tool's tracking alone can pay for itself. Always start with the free trial before committing annually.
A repeatable monthly workflow
Prospect research works best as a habit, not a panic before a deadline. A simple monthly loop keeps your pipeline full.
- Discover (1–2 hrs). Pull new prospects from one peer organization's 990 grant list, one Candid search, and one grants.gov saved search.
- Qualify (1 hr). Score each new prospect with the rubric above. Be honest about hard misses.
- Advance. Move 70+ scorers to your application calendar; route invitation-only high-fit funders to a cultivation list with a named relationship owner.
- Track. Log every prospect, score, deadline, and status in one place — see grants calendar and pipeline. Stale prospects expire; refreshed ones get re-scored.
- Prepare. Make sure the organization is application-ready before deadlines hit; see how to get grant-ready.
The payoff compounds. After a few months you'll have a ranked, evidence-based list of funders, a clear sense of which need cultivation versus a cold application, and the documentation — budgets, logic model, outcomes — to move fast when a strong-fit deadline appears. That is the difference between chasing grants and building a fundable pipeline.
You're ready to research when you can answer these
- Can you name three peer organizations whose 990-funded grantmakers you've reviewed?
- Do you know your own typical and target grant size?
- Have you scored at least five prospects with a written rubric?
- Is every qualified prospect logged with a deadline and an owner?
- Are your SAM.gov/UEI registration and core documents current?
Build a base of recurring, unrestricted revenue while you research grants
Grant prospect research takes months to pay off, and even great-fit grants are usually restricted and one-time. Good Circles adds a different kind of funding underneath your grant strategy: supporters pick your cause once, then a share of their everyday local spending funds you automatically — about $72 per active supporter per year, or roughly $36,000 a year from 500 supporters. It's recurring, unrestricted, and free to join. (That figure is an estimate.) It's the steady base that lets you be patient and selective with funders instead of chasing every deadline.
Claim a Founding Nonprofit spot →Sources & tools
Free first
- ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer — Free, searchable archive of millions of nonprofit tax filings, including full Form 990-PF grant lists — the single best free source for reading a funder's actual grant history.
- Candid Funding Information Network — Hundreds of partner libraries and community foundations that provide free on-site access to Candid's Foundation Directory / Candid Search, plus staff help with funder research.
- grants.gov — The free federal portal for searching and applying to grant opportunities across 26+ agencies; set saved searches on your program keywords (requires SAM.gov/UEI registration to apply).
- Candid Learning — Free training, knowledge-base articles, and tutorials on finding funders, reading 990s, and prospect research fundamentals.
Paid — optional labor-savers
- Instrumentl — Funder-search and grant-management platform advertising 450k+ funder profiles and 27k+ active RFPs, AI matching that explains fit, and a deadline-tracking pipeline. Worth it when Worth it when you run a real pipeline and juggle multiple deadlines; pricing starts around $299/month annually with a 14-day free trial — run your real list through the trial first (verify current pricing).
- GrantStation — Curated database of funders and grant announcements at a lower price point than full prospect-research suites, sometimes discounted via TechSoup or state nonprofit associations. Worth it when Worth it for a budget-conscious small nonprofit that wants a curated feed of opportunities beyond the free sources; check for association/TechSoup discounts before paying full price.
Last verified 2026-06-16. Figures and rules change — verify at the source before you act.
FAQ
Where can I read a foundation's grant history for free?
Use ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer (projects.propublica.org/nonprofits). Search the foundation by name, open its most recent Form 990-PF, and find the schedule of grants paid — usually in Part XV or an attached statement. It lists recipients, amounts, and often the purpose, so you can see exactly who they fund, where, and at what grant size.
Is Candid's Foundation Directory really free?
The full professional subscription is paid, but you can use it free on-site at hundreds of partner libraries, community foundations, and nonprofit resource centers through Candid's Funding Information Network. Candid has been moving its tools into a unified Candid Search platform through 2026, so confirm what your local partner offers and its access hours before visiting (verify current details).
What's the single most important fit factor when scoring a funder?
All three hard signals matter — geography, program area, and grant size — and a clear miss on any one usually disqualifies a prospect regardless of the others. In practice, geography and grant size are the fastest disqualifiers: if a funder doesn't give where you work or in amounts near your ask, even a perfect program match rarely succeeds. Always read the actual grants paid, not the stated mission.
Do I need a paid tool like Instrumentl to do prospect research?
No. Paid tools buy speed, aggregation, matching, and deadline tracking, not access to secret funders — the underlying data is largely public. If you submit fewer than about eight applications a year, the free stack (ProPublica, Candid at a library, grants.gov) plus a spreadsheet is usually enough. If you run a real pipeline, a paid tool's tracking alone can pay for itself; start with the free trial first (verify current pricing and trial terms).