How to Find Foundation Grants for Your Nonprofit (2026 Guide)

Searching for grants often feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. You know the funding is out there—over $519 billion was given by foundations last year alone—but finding the right funder for your specific mission is the hard part.

Most nonprofits make the mistake of searching Google for "grants for [mission]." This usually leads to outdated lists, dead links, and stiff competition.

In this guide, we'll show you the three professional methods for finding grants that actually lead to checks in the mail.

1. The "Paper Trail" Method: Search IRS Form 990s

Every private foundation in the US is required by law to file a Form 990-PF. Inside these tax forms is a goldmine of data: a list of every single grant they made that year.

If you want to know if a foundation will fund your local after-school program, don't look at their mission statement—look at their last 990.

2. The "Mirror" Method: See Who Funds Your Peers

The fastest way to find a "hot" prospect is to see who is already funding organizations that look exactly like yours.

3. The "Efficiency" Method: Use an Affordable Database

The first two methods are free, but they take hours. If you value your time, you need a database that indexes those 990 forms for you.

For years, the only option was Candid (formerly Foundation Directory Online), which now costs $1,199 per year for nonprofits ($3,499 for funders and consultants). For most small nonprofits, that's still more than the grant they're trying to win.

That's why we built GrantLedger.