FundFinchA foundation's website tells you what it says it funds. Its tax return tells you what it actually funded: every grant, the recipient, the purpose and the amount. For small nonprofits, that's the most useful free research tool there is, and it takes about ten minutes per funder once you know where to look.
This walkthrough uses ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, a free site where you can browse annual returns filed by tax-exempt organizations, search by organization or person, and search the full text of filings.
First, which form are you looking at?
- Form 990-PF is filed by private foundations, including most family foundations. It lists the grants the foundation paid during the year.
- Form 990 is filed by public charities. When a public charity, such as a community foundation or United Way, makes grants of more than $5,000 to an organization, it lists them on Schedule I (see the IRS Schedule I instructions).
Most of this article is about the 990-PF, since private foundations are where 990 research pays off most. The IRS instructions for Form 990-PF are the authoritative reference for every line mentioned below.
Step 1: Find the foundation on ProPublica
Type the foundation's name into the Nonprofit Explorer search box. Foundations often file under a slightly different legal name than the one on their website (a trust name, for example), so if nothing comes up, try a shorter version of the name or search by a trustee's name.
On the organization's page you'll see its EIN, its tax-exempt category, and a section called "Tax Filings by Year." Each year shows some extracted financial data (revenue, expenses, net assets, and for private foundations, charitable disbursements), the officers and key employees, and document links to view the filing or download the PDF.
Step 2: Open the most recent full filing
Click "View Filing" or "PDF" for the newest year. Expect a lag: foundations file months after their fiscal year ends, and extensions are common. For example, the Roundhouse Foundation's 990-PF for the fiscal year ending December 2024 shows a filing date of September 23, 2025 on its ProPublica page. So the "latest" grants list is often a year or more old. That's fine for spotting patterns; just confirm current priorities on the funder's site.
Step 3: Read the grants list (Part XIV, line 3)
In the current 990-PF, the grants list is in Part XIV, "Supplementary Information," line 3: Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment. Line 3a is grants paid during the year; line 3b is grants approved for future payment. Many foundations attach the list as a separate statement, so if line 3 says "see attached," scroll to the schedules at the end of the PDF.
Each row typically shows:
- Recipient name and address (city and state tell you a lot about geography)
- Foundation status of recipient, a code such as "PC" (public charity) or "GOV" (government)
- Purpose of the grant, sometimes just "general support," sometimes a specific program
- Amount
Note: Part XIV only has to be completed by foundations that had at least $5,000 in assets at some point during the year, so very tiny foundations may leave it blank. Older filings (before the form was renumbered) put this list in a differently numbered part, so look for the "Supplementary Information" heading.
Step 4: Check whether they accept applications (Part XIV, line 2)
Just above the grants list, line 2 is where a foundation describes its grant programs: who to contact, the form applications should take, deadlines, and any restrictions by geography, field, type of recipient or dollar amount. It also has a checkbox. Per the IRS instructions, a foundation checks it if it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications."
If that box is checked, don't send an unsolicited proposal. The foundation has told the IRS it doesn't want one. Move it to a "relationship" list instead: if someone on your board knows a trustee, that's the only realistic path.
Step 5: Look at the people and the size
- Officers, directors and trustees are listed in Part VII and summarized on the ProPublica page. Share the list with your board and ask: "Does anyone know these people?"
- Total grants paid appear in Part I, line 25 ("Contributions, gifts, grants paid"), and total assets in the balance sheet (Part II). A foundation that pays out $40,000 a year is a very different prospect from one that pays out $4 million.
Step 6: Turn the list into a decision
With the grants list open, answer five questions:
- Geography: are most grants in your state, county or city?
- Cause: do purposes or recipients look like your work?
- Size: what's the typical grant? Look at the middle of the list, not the biggest. If most grants are $1,000 to $5,000, ask for something in that range.
- Newcomers: compare two or three years. If the same recipients appear every year with few new names, the foundation may rarely fund new organizations.
- Organizations like yours: are any recipients similar in size to you, or are they all hospitals and universities?
If the answers mostly point your way, read the foundation's website for current guidelines, then run it through our 5-minute fit check.
The reverse search: who funds your peers?
Here's the trick that turns 990s from a lookup tool into a discovery tool. A charity's own Form 990 usually won't name its individual donors publicly, but foundations must list the charities they gave to. So search the other way: use Nonprofit Explorer's full-text search for the exact name of a similar nonprofit in your region. Foundation filings that mention it are prospects that already fund your kind of work, in your area.
You can also search a town name plus a cause word, such as "Pendleton" "library," to surface foundations whose grant lists include local organizations.
Other free places to find 990s
- The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search has copies of filed returns and confirms exempt status.
- Candid offers a free 990 Finder, and free access to its full foundation database at partner locations such as libraries.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating old filings as current. Priorities and staff change. A 990 is evidence of past behavior; the website is the rulebook.
- Ignoring the "preselected" box. It's the fastest way to save yourself a wasted proposal.
- Asking for the biggest grant on the list. Large grants usually go to long-time grantees.
- Confusing the funder with a similarly named one. Check the EIN and city.
Put it to work
Pick three foundations this week and read their grants lists. Then add the good ones to your calendar using our guide to planning a year of grant deadlines. For the bigger picture, see how to find grants for a small nonprofit. And if you'd rather start from grants that are open right now, our free lists are a shortcut: all open grants, rural Oregon grants, South Dakota grants and grants under $10,000.
FundFinch is a grant research service for small nonprofits. We check every fact in our articles against the linked sources; funders change their rules, so always confirm on the funder's own site. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@fundfinch.com.