How to Find Nonprofit Grants Using IRS Form 990
It can take dozens of hours to find grants for your nonprofit. Determining which you have the best chance of winning is even harder.
Our team at Instrumentl has assembled the top 4 tactics used by successful grant recipients to find the most relevant grants. Best part, is that you can implement their advice today by conducting some easy (and free!) background research using IRS Form 990.
Step 1 —The Basics
- What’s a 990? Form 990 is a US IRS form that provides the public with financial information about a nonprofit. It allows the IRS and the public to evaluate an organization and is filed annually.
- Where can I find them? 990s are available for free. Find them by searching Guidestar and ProPublica.
Step 2— Learn who the foundation awarded in the past
Did you know you can easily learn about who a particular foundation awarded in the past? If your organization has commonalities with past awardees, you just might have a good shot of winning the award.
Becca Stievater, Grants Manager at the Wildlife Conservation Network, reviews where past grant recipients are located to identify commonalities and if a grantor is regional or national in its giving. She recommends that if you don’t see nonprofits from your state represented, it might be time to look elsewhere.
Terry Billie, Development Manager at North Carolina Museum of Life and Science said that “when you do identify organizations similar to yours, it’s time to really build the relationship and speak with a program officer for more details.”
David Schneck, Associate Director of Grants at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, tracks trends in a foundation’s giving by comparing an organization’s last three years of 990s. He suggests being on the side the grantor is trending towards, and not the side they are trending away.
Step 3— Find the key decision makers
An established connection can be valuable while trying to stand out in a sea of applications. Vicki Egesdal, Interim Executive Director at Inland NW Land Conservation and Jonathan Spinner, Development Director at the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters looks for any names they recognize. If names aren’t familiar, Jonathan suggests that you can at least identify individuals that you can direct specific questions to and start building a relationship with.
Kris Johns, Director of Philanthropy at Project Chimps adds that your network may be able to put you in contact with the right people. Kris will review the list of Board of Directors and identify those in her network that can help connect her to key stakeholders. In addition, she recommends reviewing the list with your teammates and identify possible connections as a group to increase your chances of connection.
Step 3 —Assess the foundation’s size & sustainability
You can learn a lot about a foundation’s size, their funding capacity, and even what the competition for that grant might be like just by looking at their 990.
From the foundation’s “total net assets” you can “get a sense of the overall size of the organization” says Becca Stievater. “It’s not necessarily indicative of the size of gift the grantor can make to you, but a good place to start.”
More assets also generally means a larger fund and therefore more competition. Competition for funding isn’t always a drawback, but it is helpful to understand upfront before you begin assembling your proposal.
Step 4— Determine how much you should ask for
From our conversations with grantors, they can’t stress enough how important it is to clearly present your costs and identify all use cases for the grant. But how do you determine the right dollar amount to ask for?
You can gain a ton of information around how much foundations are comfortable awarding by reviewing the award sizes for past grants paid.
Terry Billie recommends pitching your ask at the average level of what has been gifted before. This can help you determine a starting budget and you can adjust according to your needs.
In addition, funding amounts may help you identify the best approach to the grant application and help you glean into a grantor’s viability and capacity. Terry has found that outlying, larger figures seem to indicate that a stakeholder was involved or that a close relationship between the grantee and the grantor exist. In contrast, lower figures may indicate a change or phasing out of support for a particular initiative.
Lastly, make sure to take advice from Sara Brody, Director of Development of Keep America Beautiful, if you notice that the amounts awarded in previous years were consistently lowered, take caution because this could mean the foundation isn’t sustainable long-term.
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