THE BEST (FREE) PLACES TO SEARCH FOR GRANT FUNDING

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THE BEST
(FREE) PLACES
TO SEARCH
FOR GRANT
FUNDING

The Best (Free) Places to Search for
Grant Funding
Originally published: May 17, 2018
last updated February 2021

Knowing where to look for new grant opportunities is of central importance if
your organization depends on grant money to survive. If your budget is large
enough, you can subscribe to services that will send you alerts about new
opportunities. If you are a small nonprofit, or your budget is tight, a subscription
service may not be feasible.

Fortunately, there are many free resources you can use to find open
opportunities, some of which will even send you alerts. Below is a selection of
resources you can use to learn about funders and open grant opportunities.
While Google is often used for grant research, grant research using Google can
be hit or miss (often many hits, many misses), so it has not been included as a
resource.

If you know of other free resources for grant research, please share your
knowledge by submitting a comment below.

Not ready to read the list now, but interested in referring to it later? You can find
a downloadable PDF of this resource list at the end of the post. Additionally,
you can find a variety of resources related to finding funding on our general
resources page. If you are interested in grants specifically related to COVID-19,
please see our COVID-19 resource page.

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Foundations

To find foundation funding, you can do several things. If you have the name of a
foundation, and the foundation maintains a website, you can visit the website to
learn about the foundation’s programs and application guidelines. If you do not
have a specific foundation in mind, one or all of the resources below can help
you generate a list of potential leads:

•   Foundation Center: 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. Having free access to
    FDO is a considerable cost saving: A subscription to the FDO begins at
    $49.99/month through the FDO Essential plan.
•   Guidestar: Guidestar and the Foundation Center recently merged to form
    Candid. Although they’ve merged, they are currently still maintaining two
    separate websites. One of the free resources you’ll find on both sites is a
    database of form 990s. 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.
•   GrantStation: GrantStation is a funder database. The company produces two
    free newsletters, one that lists recent US-based grant opportunities (weekly)
    and one that lists international grant opportunities (monthly). Although
    GrantStation is a subscription service, you can access the database for free

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through other services. For example, if you have a subscription to the
    Chronicle of Philanthropy ($86/year), as part of your subscription, you
    also receive free access to the GrantStation. The Chronicle of Philanthropy is
    just one partnership GrantStation has in place. You can also access
    GrantStation for free if you are a member of the Grant Professionals
    Association.
•   FundsforNGOs: FundsforNGOs offers both free and paid content. On the
    FundsforNGOs website, you can find information about recently released
    opportunities, organized by category. FundsforNGOs also distributes a free
    newsletter of newly released calls for proposals. If you purchase a
    subscription to FundsforNGOs ($49/year), in addition to access to their funder
    database, you will also receive free access to webinars and other training
    materials.
•   Grant Gopher: Grant Gopher is a funding opportunity database that offers US-
    based organizations free basic searches and access to the details of their first
    five search results. With your free registration, you'll receive a newsletter that
    includes a selection of open grant opportunities. In addition, you’ll have the
    option to download up to five sample grant proposals under each funding
    category. An annual subscription ($99/year) is required to access all
    opportunity listings.
•   Grantmakers.io: Grantmakers.io is perhaps the holy grail of free resources and
    represents a generous gift to nonprofits, particularly smaller organizations that
    cannot afford a grant database subscription and lack access to a database
    through a community center such as a public library. Grantmakers.io makes the
    machine-readable IRS 990 dataset usable for nonprofit professionals. The
    person behind the database is Chad Kruse, who

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originally created it for a friend. When he saw how useful it could be, he
    opened the database up to the public. Grantmakers.io is an example of Free
    and Open Source Software (FOSS). Using this database, which allows you to
    see 4.8 million grants contained in the public IRS 990-PF dataset, you can
    see the names of the organizations foundations are funding, what they are
    giving money for (e.g., general support), and grant amounts.
•   Philanthropy News Digest (PND): PND is a service of the Foundation
    Center. On the PND website, you’ll find request for proposals (RFPs) listed
    by category. You can sign up for the PND newsletter to have RFP
    announcements delivered to your inbox. The site also includes philanthropy
    news and job postings. The website materials, newsletters, and RFP
    announcements are all accessible free of charge.
•   Terra Viva Grants Directory: Terra Viva is a resource for grant
    opportunities for projects in developing countries related to agriculture,
    energy, environment, and natural resources. On the Terra Viva website, you
    can access funder profiles and lists of recent grant opportunities for free. For
    the very affordable price of $12/year, you can receive email alerts about
    funding opportunities and access a searchable database of funding
    opportunities.
•   Community Foundations: Community foundations are a significant source of
    funding for US-based nonprofits. You can find a list of community
    foundations on the Council on Foundations website, organized by state.
    You can also find community foundation listings on the Peak Proposals
    website.
•   Corporate Foundations: Many companies, multinational and local, have
    grant programs or provide in-kind donations. If you have access to a funder
    database, such as one of the ones mentioned above or listed on the Peak
    Proposals general resources page, corporate philanthropy programs are
    usually included as part of the database. If you do not have access to a
    funder database, one of the best (and free) ways to uncover corporate giving
    programs is to visit the websites of companies based in, or serving, yo ur
    local community. Except for some multinational corporations, most

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corporate giving programs restrict their giving to communities where the
    company has a physical presence. You can learn about company giving
    programs (also known as corporate social responsibility or CSR programs)
    in your area through reading your local paper, reviewing local and regional
    business journals, and by noting sponsorships of local events. For more
    information about corporate giving, check out our post “Beginner’s Guide
    to Corporate Philanthropy.”

Instrumentl is another grant database to explore. You can use it to discover,
track, and manage your grants through an all-in-one platform. Instrumentl offers
a free 14-day trial. Use the code PEAK2MOANNUAL to receive 2 months free if
you upgrade to an annual plan.

Government Sites
US Government (USG)

The single best resource to learn about USG grant opportunities is
www.grants.gov, which is a free service of the USG. On grants.gov you will find
opportunities posted by 26 federal agencies and 12 independent federal
agencies, executive branch offices, and commissions.

To discover new opportunities, you have several options. You can visit
grants.gov and search by agency, you can subscribe to the grants.gov RSS feed,
or you can download the mobile app recently released by grants.gov for IOS and
Android.

If your organization is based outside the US, grants.gov is still relevant. Many
federal agencies post grant opportunities that are open to organizations based
outside of the US. To find out whether an opportunity is open to you, check the
eligibility section of the opportunity listing.

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Federal Agencies and Other USG Grant-Making Agencies and Offices that Post Opportunities on
Grants.gov

Federal Agencies
       •   U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
       •   Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)
       •   U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
       •   U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)
       •   U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
       •   U.S. Department of Education (ED)
       •   U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
       •   U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
       •   U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
       •   U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
       •   U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)
       •   U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
       •   U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

Other USG Grant-Making Agencies and Offices

       •   Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Grants
       •   Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Grants
       •   Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) Grants
       •   Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (GCERC) Grants
       •   Inter-American Foundation (IAF) Grants
       •   James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation (JMMFF)
           Fellowships
       •   U.S. Department of State (DOS)

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•   U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
      •   U.S. Department of the Treasury (TREAS)
      •   U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
      •   Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
      •   Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
      •   National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
      •   National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
      •   National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
      •   National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
      •   National Science Foundation (NSF)
      •   Small Business Administration (SBA)
      •   Social Security Administration (SSA)
      •   Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) Grants
      •   Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) Grants
      •   Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Contracts and Grants
      •   National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Grants and Loans
      •   Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Grants
      •   Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS)
          Fellowships and Grants

A Note about USG Contracts

This blog post is focused on resources for identifying grant opportunities. If your
organization is interested and able to pursue federal contracts, fbo.gov is the
place to go. After you create an account on fbo.gov, you can set up alerts to learn
about new postings related to specific opportunities.

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State Governments (US)

State government opportunities can be a little harder to track down. Some state-
sponsored opportunities will appear in funder databases, just like federally
sponsored opportunities. As many state-based opportunities are actually
federally funded, you will find them posted on grants.gov. One of the most
reliable routes to find state-level opportunities is to visit the website of the
state-level department that oversees your program area. For example, if you
work in domestic violence, you would visit the website of your state’s health and
human services department to look for listings of funding opportunity
announcements.

Government Resources Outside of the US

For government resources for projects based in countries other than the US, you
can find grant opportunity listings through government-sponsored websites and
the websites of regional and multinational organizations.

Few national governments maintain a resource like grants.gov, which posts all
government agency grants in a single location. If your organization is based
outside of the US and you seek a grant for a project based within your country,
you should first visit the website of the government agency (local, regional, or
national) that oversees or regulates the program area most closely related t o
your organization’s mission. Second, you should check the websites of the
embassies or foreign aid offices located in your country, particularly if your
organization is located in a developing country. Embassies and foreign aid
offices will sometimes post funding opportunity announcements for local,
community-based organizations. To find a list of the embassies located in your
country, you can do a search on websites such as embassyworld.com or world
embassy page.

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International Aid

Federal aid agencies fund the majority of international development work
conducted around the world. In the US, the lead agency for international aid is
the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID's grant
opportunities are posted on grants.gov, and its contract opportunities are
posted on fbo.gov. For forecasted opportunities (contracts and grants), there’s a
very helpful database called the USAID Business Forecast.

Other governments also have foreign aid agencies and departments that offer
grants and contracts. Some agencies only fund nongovernmental organizations
based in their home country, while others fund both domestic and foreign
organizations to carry out international development and humanitarian projects.
All the major national aid agencies have websites where they provide
programmatic updates and list open opportunities.

You can find a partial list of foreign aid agencies on the Governmental Donors
and Intergovernmental Agencies resource page of our website. A
comprehensive list of foreign aid agencies can also be found on Wikipedia.

Another site you may want to bookmark is Bond, the UK network for
organizations working in international development. While many opportunities
are limited to UK-based organizations, others are open to organizations located
in other countries.

Lastly, you can find some information about international development
opportunities on the site Devex. While you won’t be able to see the full
opportunity posting for free, you can often see just enough information to be
able to track down the full listing on the relevant funder’s public -facing website.

Regional and Global Bodies

Regional bodies and multilateral organizations such as development b anks and
UN agencies can also be a source of funding and contract work, particularly for

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larger or more well-established organizations. The sites listed below all have
searchable databases of new opportunities on their websites (note: some
require registration before accessing the database, but registration is free).

Examples include:

Regional Organizations

      •   Asian Development Bank
      •   African Development Bank
      •   European Union
      •   Inter-American Development Bank

Global Organizations

The UN includes affiliated programs, funds, and specialized agencies, all of
which have their own operating budgets, and many of which support grant and
contract opportunities. To learn about new opportunities, visit the website of
the UN agency that works in the area most closely related to your organization’s
mission. Examples of UN agencies include the United Nations Development
Fund, World Health Organization, and the World Bank. You can find a list of
UN agencies on the UN website.

Other multilateral organizations are listed on the Governmental Donors and
Intergovernmental Agencies resource page.

Other Resources

In addition to the resources above, you can also track down potential funders
and funding opportunities by subscribing to newsletters distributed by
individual foundations and philanthropy news outlets. While some philanthropy
news outlets require a paid subscription, like the Chronicle of Philanthropy,
others, such as the Nonprofit Quarterly, allow access to the full text of at least

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some of their content without a subscription. Finally, to get the latest updates
about specific funding opportunities, foundations, and government agencies of
interest to you, you can set up a Google alert to receive an email when new
content related to your topic shows up in a Google search.

Another free resource, especially relevant to organizations based in the UK, is
Charity Excellence Framework (CEF). CEF offers a variety of resources,
including a free funder database. Although primarily directed toward UK-based
charities, some resources are applicable to nonprofits globally.

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