Foundation Grants Finder: IRS 990-PF Funders, Grants Paid & How to Apply

Find private foundations that already fund work like yours, see exactly who they gave money to, and learn how to apply. This Actor reads the IRS's own Form 990-PF e-file data and turns it into two clean tables: funder profiles (assets, total giving, application contact, deadlines, restrictions, invite-only flag) and individual grants (recipient, city, state, purpose, amount).

No login, no API key, no third-party database subscription. The source is public US government data, straight from the IRS.

Who uses it

• Nonprofit development teams and grant writers building a prospect list: "Which Colorado foundations gave to youth mentoring programs in Colorado last year, and how big were the grants?"
• Grant consultants and fundraising agencies researching funders for many clients at once.
• Researchers and journalists analyzing philanthropic flows by state, cause or funder.
• CRM and prospect-research tools that need fresh, structured funder data through an API.

What data you get

Funder profile (one row per foundation, latest filing):

Field	Example
foundationName, foundationEin, city/state	THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION, 742568941, DENVER CO
website	WWW.COLORADOHEALTH.ORG
fmvAssetsEndOfYear	2,893,236,966
totalGrantsPaid / totalGrantsApprovedFuture	102,222,360 / ...
onlyContributesToPreselected	true = invite-only, don't send unsolicited proposals
applicationDeadlines, applicationRestrictions, applicationFormAndMaterials	"GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINES: FEBRUARY 15, JUNE 15, AND OCTOBER..."
applicationAddress / applicationPhone / applicationEmail	as printed on the return
grantsListedCount, matchingGrantsCount, matchingGrantsTotal, topRecipientStates	for quick fit scoring

Grant row (one row per grant paid or approved for future payment): foundation, recipient name, recipient city/state/zip, recipient foundation status (PC, GOV...), purpose, amount, tax year, and the IRS object ID so every row is traceable to the source filing.

How to use

1. Pick a foundation state (e.g. CO), and/or name keywords, and/or specific EINs.
2. Optionally filter grants by recipient state, purpose keywords (e.g. YOUTH, FOOD BANK, ARTS) and minimum amount.
3. Choose output: funder profiles, grants, or both. Run. Export to CSV, Excel, JSON, or connect via API, Zapier, Make or Google Sheets.

Foundations are processed largest first (by assets on the IRS Business Master File), so a small maxFoundations still gets you the biggest funders.

Example input

{
  "foundationStates": ["CO"],
  "recipientStates": ["CO"],
  "purposeKeywords": ["YOUTH", "MENTOR"],
  "outputType": "both",
  "maxFoundations": 50,
  "skipPreselectedOnlyFunders": true
}

Example output (grant row)

{
  "recordType": "grant",
  "foundationName": "THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION",
  "foundationWebsite": "WWW.COLORADOHEALTH.ORG",
  "taxYear": "2024",
  "grantStatus": "approvedFuture",
  "recipientName": "WOMEN'S FOUNDATION OF COLORADO",
  "recipientCity": "DENVER",
  "recipientState": "CO",
  "recipientFoundationStatus": "PC",
  "purpose": "COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS",
  "amount": 8500000,
  "irsObjectId": "202533219349107083"
}

Why this Actor is different

• Direct from the IRS e-file XML, not scraped from a third-party site. We read individual returns out of the IRS's 100 MB-1 GB monthly ZIP batches with HTTP range requests, so runs are fast (a 15-foundation state run took about 30 seconds in our tests) and cheap.
• How-to-apply data included: deadlines, restrictions, required materials and the invite-only flag, the fields grant seekers actually need.
• Privacy by default: grants that appear to go to private individuals (e.g. scholarships listed by student name) are excluded unless you opt in, and person names of application contacts are omitted unless you opt in.
• Handles IRS quirks automatically: split batches the index mislabels, Deflate64-compressed archives, and "see attached" grant lists (flagged as grantsListedInAttachment).

Pricing

Pay per result: you pay for each funder profile and each grant row delivered (see the Pricing tab for current prices). No subscription. Filters run before you are charged, so you only pay for rows that match.

Limitations

• The IRS publishes e-filed returns with a lag; the latest filing per foundation is usually for the tax year one to two years back.
• Some large foundations attach their grant list as a PDF instead of itemizing it in the XML. For those you get the funder profile and totals, flagged with grantsListedInAttachment: true.
• Paper-filed returns are not in the IRS e-file dataset.
• Data is reproduced as filed. Always confirm current guidelines on the funder's website before applying.

Is this legal?

Form 990-PF returns are public by law (26 U.S.C. 6104) and the IRS publishes the e-file data for bulk download. This Actor uses only that public government data and excludes data about private individuals by default.

FAQ

Can I search by cause? Yes: use purposeKeywords, which match the grant purpose text and recipient name.

Can I get every foundation in a state? Yes, raise maxFoundations. Colorado has about 2,300 private foundations on the IRS Business Master File.

Does it include public charities or community foundations? No. This Actor covers private foundations (Form 990-PF), which are the main source of foundation grants.