How to find grants for your nonprofit

Finding grants is mostly a matching problem: your mission, your location and your size against what a funder pays for. These steps keep you from wasting weeks on grants you cannot win.

1. Write down your match profile

Before you search, write one short paragraph: your mission, who you serve, where (city, county, state), your yearly budget, and what you need money for (a program, equipment, staff, a building). Funders sort their giving along exactly these lines.

2. Start close to home

Local funders are the easiest to reach and the most likely to know you. Look first at:

• Your community foundation (most counties and regions have one).
• Local businesses and banks with giving programs.
• Your city or county government, which often passes along state and federal money.
• Service clubs and local family foundations.

3. Search state and federal sources

Your state's grants portal lists programs from state agencies. Federal opportunities are posted on Grants.gov. Read our guide on federal registration before you plan to apply.

4. Look up private foundations

Private foundations file public tax returns (Form 990-PF) that list who they gave to and how much. Free tools such as ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer and the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search let you read them. Funders that gave to organizations like yours, in your area, are the best leads.

5. Check fit before you invest time

Use our guide on reading a grant listing. If you are not eligible, the deadline is too close, or the award does not match your need, skip it. Passing is part of the process.

6. Keep track

Record the funder, deadline, contact, what you asked for and the result. FundLuma's Application tracker is built for this, and the free grant search shows deadlines so nothing slips.

No grant is guaranteed, and nobody can promise you an award. Beware of anyone who charges a fee to "guarantee" funding.