Grant Resources by Discipline

Exempt organizations must file a tax return called a Form 990 with the IRS each year to comply with federal regulations. There are several versions of Form 990: 

• public charities file a Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N
• private foundations file Form 990-PF (PF stands for Private Foundation).

• GuideStar has both free and premium plans. 
  • Some searching is available without creating a free account but users with an account can access even more information.
• GuideStar is now also part of Candid/FDO, (see above). 

•  Free plan has access to a limited number of search filters, and some data only displays for premium users.

  •  allows users to do basic research on nonprofits and find specific organizations, view detailed organization profiles  and more......

  •  Users with a free account have a helpful but limited search range, with access to only basic descriptive, to Form 990,Form and 990PF information (and returns from very small organizations which use abbreviated Form 990EZ, and Form 990N)
  • Premium Cause IQ plans are also available.
• Site also has an  option for anonymous users- they have 20 included searches each month (and some filters are only available to paid subscribers)

Learn more about potential funders from their IRS annual 990 forms. The form includes a  list of grants awarded, as well as providing financial and other information about the organization.

 More information :

• What is Form 990 or 990-PF? How can I learn about using them? (Candid.org)

• How to Read a Form 990 and Find Good Fit Grant Funders(Instrumentl.com) 

• Navigating the Form 990 to find funding (Candid.org)

• How to find nonprofit grants using the Form 990 (Cause IQ.com

Grantmakers.io's Grants Search tool was developed to allow fundraisers to do basic prospecting by exploring which foundations have previously donated to similar grantees. The dataset is from electronically filed IRS 990 PF forms. which private foundations are required to file.

• Foundation Profile Search - Search by foundation name to view its profile and list of funded grants

• Grants Search - Find foundations that fund similar organizations to yours by searching by recipient /grantee's name and/or location.

• Limitations of dataset: (Currently, approximately 50-60% of private foundations electronically file, meaning Grantmakers.io covers approximately half of all private foundations. However, new legislation requires all tax-exempt organizations to file electronically from 2020 forward, so current and forward coverage of private foundations will be more comprehensive as the COVID-related delays in publication are resolved. Also, datasets only include Form 990 PF- some community foundations file using another 990 form.)

• TIP: When Searching by recipient/grantee- remember the names of recipients/grantees are not standardized. They are listed as each grantmaker listed them in the 990. 

  • For example, one grantmaker may use "Univ" while another uses "University" in the recipient/grantee's name. Also, if the name includes a hyphen, one entry may have a hyphen, while another 990 does not.
  • So, you may want to use as few words as possible when searching by the organization's name. You can then filter by state and/or city, among other filters displayed on the screen's left side.