Grant professionals often consider a grant database when faced with these challenges:
Manually searching across scattered information is extremely time-consuming, requiring hours of sifting through various sources.
Frequent changes in grant deadlines and requirements necessitate constant monitoring to stay updated.
Understanding and interpreting eligibility requirements for each grant can be confusing and time-consuming.
Limited access to comprehensive data makes it difficult to evaluate which grants have the highest likelihood of success.
Grant listings often lack detailed information about funding priorities, historical giving patterns, and specific application guidelines.
Keeping track of multiple applications, deadlines, and funder communications without a centralized system leads to inefficiencies and errors.
Without effective toolsto collaborate, teams can’t share updates and manage tasks efficiently.
For grant professionals struggling with the above challenges, the best next step is a comprehensive grant management platform that offers an extensive grant database, tailored recommendations, advanced search filters, detailed grant information, automated alerts, and collaboration tools.
In this post, we’ll provide an overview of Instrumentl’s grant database and review all the factors you should consider when deciding on a grant management tool for your nonprofit.
Note: Instrumentl was built to solve all of the pain points identified above. You can read about it in detail below or start a free trial if you want to see exactly how it can help improve your grant prospecting and management.
Key Feature 1: Extensive and Comprehensive Database for Broader Grant Access
Combing through Google results or grant announcements in newsletters are traditional ways to research grants, and you can certainly find great opportunities these ways. However, these methods are incredibly time-consuming and often lead to missing out on good-fit funding opportunities.
This is why grants databases were invented. And while many nonprofit grant databases exist, not all are created equal.
Some databases provide a broad range of foundation grants, but lack local funding opportunities. Others might only showcase local, state, and federal funding without listing foundation and corporate opportunities.
Instrumentl’s grants database is incredibly comprehensive, pulling opportunities from:
Victoria Flynn, Founder and Consultant at Victoria Flynn Consulting, shared with us how having access to an extensive grants database has impacted her business:
“I get to say ‘yes’ to new clients because I can fit a good amount of research into a smaller amount of time, deliver quickly, and get some really targeted results with Instrumentl.”
Having a centralized and regularly updated database reduces the likelihood of missing out on quality grant opportunities, making grant research more efficient and effective.
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Key Feature 2: Custom Recommendations for Targeted Grant Matches
Lots of grant databases allow you to search for grants, but Instrumentl actually finds them for you.
Using a Smart Matching algorithm to provide tailored recommendations based on your organization’s specific needs and project parameters, this personalized approach ensures that you receive the most relevant grant opportunities without the tedious manual search.
To match you with the best grants, Instrumentl will need some project details like:
Applicant type (i.e., nonprofit, university, government entity, etc.)
Locations of the project/populations served
Field of work (2-5 search terms relevant to your project)
Minimum and maximum size of grants
What the funds will be used for (i.e., capital project, project/program, training/capacity building, general operating, or education/outreach)
Instrumentl then uses this information to analyze its entire database and deliver a curated list of the best-fitting grants for your needs.
By providing custom recommendations and even dropping new grants into your inbox each week, Instrumentl saves time and enhances the efficiency of your grant-seeking process, ultimately building capacity within your organization.
Key Feature 3: Advanced Search Filters for Efficient Grant Discovery
As mentioned above, traditional grant searching often involves sifting through numerous irrelevant opportunities, which can be time-consuming and, quite honestly, overwhelming. Basic search functions may not allow for the precise filtering needed to quickly find the best matches.
This is why Instrumentl offers advanced search filters and sorting capabilities that allow you to refine your list of grant matches.
You can filter by:
Field of work
Location
Funder type
Past giving
And more
And then you can sort your matches by:
Deadline
Amount
New opportunities
Best match
Just like using filters on Airbnb to ease your search for the perfect place to stay, using advanced search filters for grant discovery makes the process much more efficient. When you have specific requirements, such as only wanting to see foundation funding opportunities with upcoming deadlines, this streamlined search process ensures you spend less time searching and more time preparing successful applications.
Key Feature 4: Detailed Grant Information for Informed Decision-Making
It’s never a great feeling spending time on an application but feeling like you’re “going in blind”, nor is it a strong strategy for winning grant funding.
To solve this, Instrumentl provides in-depth profiles and funder insights with information pulled directly from 990 reports.
Considering the easiest way to predict future giving is past giving, Instrumentl’s 990 Snapshots can be incredibly helpful for viewing who past grantees were, how much they were awarded, for what purpose, and where they were located.
These funder insights also include:
Openness to new grantees
Average award amounts
Top giving per NTEE code
Key people
And more
All of this data is displayed in a digestible fashion with charts and tables so that users can easily make an informed decision about whether a specific opportunity is worth pursuing further.
Within each funder profile, you can also store contact details and maintain a running history of past interactions and notes, ensuring that critical insights are easily accessible and preserved. A deep understanding of a funder’s preferences and history with your organization can significantly impact your chances of securing funding.
These features enable new team members to quickly get up to speed, ensuring continuity and enhancing your ability to craft successful applications. By keeping all critical information in one place, Instrumentl helps you make informed decisions about pursuing grant opportunities with the highest potential return on investment (ROI).
Key Feature 5: Automated Alerts and Updates to Stay Ahead of Deadlines
Meeting deadlines is crucial for winning funding, and even the most organized grant writers have had grant deadlines sneak up on them.
Traditionally, tracking deadlines involves manually updating calendars and setting personal reminders, which can easily be overlooked. While most dedicated nonprofit professionals and grant writers will willingly pull an all-nighter to get an application to the finish line in time, the stress of a looming deadline can lead to rushed, less polished work.
Thankfully, Instrumentl provides a solution.
For all of your saved grants, Instrumentl will send you automatic deadline reminders so you can stay on top of important dates without constant manual tracking. You’ll even be automatically notified should the funder change a deadline or their priorities shift.
These automated alerts and updates help take the stress out of staying on top of deadlines. With these timely reminders, you’ll have the breathing room to focus on each proposal, making sure your submissions are as polished as possible.
Key Feature 6: Collaboration and Tracking Tools for Team Efficiency
In nonprofit or grant consulting teams, effective communication is vital—but it can be challenging. Traditionally, team members rely on email threads and separate documents, which can lead to miscommunication and difficulty in tracking the progress of grant applications.
Fortunately, Instrumentl’s collaboration features and application tracking tools enhance team efficiency and organization by allowing teams to easily collaborate in real time.
Within Instrumentl’s platform you can:
Invite team members to collaborate
Share projects
Assign Tasks
Store documents
Keeping everyone on the same page has never been easier. Effective collaboration tools ensure continuity and efficiency, even when different team members handle tasks at different times.
When team members work on the same project, they can access up-to-date information and contribute seamlessly, even during the research stage. For instance, if one person conducts grant research in May and another in August, all the previous notes and research findings are preserved and accessible.
Check out what Eloise Casdorph, Nonprofit Strategist at Nonprofit Navigators, had to say about her team’s transition to managing their grants with Instrumentl:
“Previously, we relied on separate Excel spreadsheets to manage our grant schedules and to keep a status report of all the grants that we have applied for, were received, or denied. Now with Instrumentl, we do all of that in one place.”
By maintaining a shared, real-time workspace, Instrumentl ensures that everyone is informed and can contribute effectively, leading to better coordination and successful grant applications.
A Checklist for Assessing the Best Grant Database
When it comes to securing funding for your nonprofit, finding the right grants can make all the difference. However, with countless grant databases available—each offering a variety of features—it can be overwhelming to choose the one that best fits your organization’s needs.
To simplify this process, we've compiled a comprehensive checklist that guides you through the factors to consider when selecting a grant database. This should help ensure that you not only find a platform that aligns with your goals but also one that enhances your grant-seeking efficiency and success:
What are the types of grants listed?
Local
State
Federal
Foundations
Research institutes
Invite-only
What are the features offered?
Custom grant search criteria
Funder histories
Grant tracking
Deadline alerts
Grant compliance tools
Team collaboration capabilities
How is the support quality?
Access to webinars and guides
Real-time, reliable customer support
Help center
Ready to Try Instrumentl?
We hope that it’s clear by now how Instrumentl can transform your approach to grant seeking and management.
If you’re ready to try it out, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial—no string attached. Get matched with good-fit grants and explore detailed funder insights, efficient grant tracking, and seamless team collaboration all in one place.
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