5 Best Open Grants Alternatives & Competitors [2024]

Are you an OpenGrants user but looking for something a little more robust?

OpenGrants’ database can be a great resource for finding funding opportunities—but what about the rest of the grant lifecycle?

In this article, we are going to explore the limitations of OpenGrants and break down five of its alternatives, including:

• Instrumentl
• GrantStation
• Foundation Directory Online
• GrantWatch
• Grant Gopher

We will evaluate each based on their features, types of funders listed, user-friendliness, and more, helping you make an informed decision about which platform best suits your organization’s needs.

Let’s get started.

OpenGrants is a grants database that uses AI to match organizations with relevant funding opportunities. However, there are a few limitations to this tool that may have you considering an alternative:

Need for More Advanced Features

Open Grants’ database includes over 4000 grant opportunities—but it’s just a database. There are no advanced features for the grant management or post-award phase of the funding lifecycle.

If you’re seeking a more comprehensive and end-to-end solution, with features like grant tracking, collaboration tools, reporting, and more, you’ll need to invest in a platform that provides grant management capabilities.

Enhanced User Experience

OpenGrants’ interface itself can feel a bit simplistic compared to other alternatives. Navigating through the database and obtaining grants that align with your mission may not be as seamless as other platforms with more advanced search and filtering criteria.

For example, detailed grant descriptions, award and contact information, and links to applications and guidelines may not be available.

Superior Customer Support

Open Grants has an AI “Grant Helper” that assists you in navigating through their grant database. While helpful, this tool isn’t as valuable or robust as real customer service representatives and support teams.

A responsive customer support team is a critical asset when dealing with software related to optimizing the grant management process.

Greater Integration Capabilities

Since OpenGrants is simply a grant search database, it doesn’t offer the same integration opportunities as other alternatives, such as financial accounting software, CRM, or calendar integrations.

Other grant discovery and management tools allow for these integrations to ensure the smooth flow of data and reduce manual entry efforts.

In this next section, we will review five alternatives to OpenGrants and evaluate each based on the following criteria:

1. Features
2. Types of funders listed
3. User friendliness
4. Popularity
5. Pricing 

After reviewing these five alternatives, you should have a solid understanding of which platform best aligns with your organization’s fundraising needs.

1. Instrumentl

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Instrumentl has been one of the top grant discovery and management softwares since it was founded in 2014. Unlike OpenGrants, Instrumentl was designed with tools to streamline the entire grant lifecycle—from researching prospects to submitting applications and adhering to reporting and compliance requirements.

Let’s explore it in a bit more detail:

Features

Here are just a few of the features that make Instrumentl stand out as one of the premier OpenGrants alternatives:

• Smart Matching to Active Grants: You tell Instrumentl about your organization, and it will deliver a curated list of active grant matches tailored to your mission and funding needs.
• Advanced Funder Insights: Each funder within Instrumentl’s database comes with detailed 990 snapshots that give insight into funding preferences, award amounts, openness to new grantees, and more. Evaluating funder-fit has never been easier.
• Recipient Profiles/Reverse Search: Look up nonprofits similar to yours to see who funded them.
• Grant Tracking: Track saved grants, organize prospective opportunities, share calendar deadlines, and integrate current spreadsheets with Instrumentl. This helps you manage multiple grant projects seamlessly and in one place.
• Collaboration: You can store notes for yourself and your team to enable seamless collaboration. You can also create and assign tasks to your team so that everyone is on the same page.
• Reporting: You can create easy-to-read reports to share with your development team or board of directors to help capture your work and fundraising efforts.
• Seamless Integration: Streamline your search and management of grants through Instrumentls’ integration with Virtuous CRM, Salesforce, Raiser's Edge NXT, and calendar integrations to keep grant info in sync.
• Customer Support: Instrumentl’s customer support team is committed to high-quality assistance and support of their users. They also offer weekly live trainings, free grant writing courses and workshops, and a Help Center where users can access FAQs and helpful guides to help navigate the platform effectively.

Types of Funders Listed

Instrumentl’s comprehensive database includes in-depth insights on:

• 400,000+ funders
• 15,000+ live RFPs
• 150+ new grants added each week

The database includes opportunities from corporate, private, family, and community foundations, as well as government funding opportunities at the state, local, and federal levels.

User Friendliness

Instrumentl is extremely user-friendly and only takes a few minutes to master. Its features are designed to specifically save you time and streamline your grant seeking, management, and reporting functions.

In fact, there are numerous Instrumentl customers who have shared their success stories, such as Lovel VanArsdale, Grant Administrator at Tucker’s House:
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“I brag about Instrumentl all the time. Before, I was searching in the dark—and we've had a couple of other databases that we had joined, and got memberships for, but they're so random and very limited. With Instrumentl, I’ve never missed a single deadline.”

Popularity

On popular grant management software review websites, Instrumentl users have touted its intuitiveness, user friendliness, and management capabilities. Nonprofits of all sizes praise Instrumentl, as do grant writing consultants juggling multiple nonprofit clients.

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Pricing

Instrumentl offers multiple subscription levels so that nonprofits and consultants can pick the right plan for their needs.

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• Basic plan: $179/month.
• Standard plan: $299/month.
• Pro plan: $499/month.

There are also customized plans available for large nonprofits with many team members or multiple development offices, such as hospitals and universities.

While the pricing for Instrumentl is higher than some other grant databases on this list, remember that the platform supports the entire grant lifecycle. This means you only have to invest in one tool for your pre-award, award, and post-award management needs.

2. GrantStation

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GrantStation provides nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies with potential grant funding sources from all over the world. 

Features

Grantstation provides users with a comprehensive database where they can search for funders and grants based on geographic region and area of interest. However, GrantStation doesn’t have the same advanced features as other grant management platforms.

While their “My Plan” tool allows users to create projects and track basic actions within the system, there are no task management, calendar, or reporting capabilities. The lack of management features means users will need to invest in separate tools to organize their applications and awards if they decide to move forward with a grant opportunity.

Types of Funders Listed

GrantStation provides access to grants from a diverse array of funders, including:

• Charitable foundations
• Government agencies
• Corporate funders
• International opportunities

User Friendliness

GrantStation is designed to be as user-friendly as possible and offers intuitive navigation and easy-to-use tools, such as:

• Search Functionality: Advanced search filters help users quickly identify relevant opportunities.
• User Interface: The platform is structured to be easy to navigate, even to those who are new to grant-seeking or lack technical skills.

Popularity

One of the best ways to learn about a platform is to hear about it from current users. Most users of GrantStation have positive reviews of the software. On their Featured Customers page, they have an overall rating of 4.8/5 stars.

This trend continues on other review pages, including G2:

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However, some users have concerns about the platform's user-friendliness and the database’s lack of comprehensiveness as compared to its competitors.

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Pricing

Currently, GrantStation offers the following pricing plans:

• One year: $699
• Two years: $1,258
• Three years: $1,782
• One quarter: $219

Partner programs are also offered that allow organizations to purchase memberships at a volume discount.

3. Foundation Directory Online

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Foundation Directory Online is one of the oldest funder databases, going back to a print resource in 1956.

Features

Foundation Directory Online offers an impressive funder database that includes access to saved searches, favorites, tags, and alerts.

However, FDO’s emphasis is on its funder search, not necessarily active grants. While they do list some RFPs, users have to manually search for them—unlike other tools that offer advanced matching to good-fit grants.

Their grant management features are also quite limited, meaning users will also need to invest in other solutions to manage awarded grants.

Types of Funders Listed

Foundation Directory Online offers information for the following types of funders:

• Private, family, and independent foundations
• International foundations
• Corporate foundations
• U.S. Federal funding entities
• Public charities

There is also a limited list of open RFPs available, but it can be time-consuming to sort through the results.

User Friendliness

While FDO’s platform is designed to be user-friendly, featuring intuitive search functions and a simple-to-use interface, we did find that some users have complained that funder profiles have not been updated and that the search algorithm can result in conflated search terms.

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Popularity

A major selling point of Foundation Directory Online is its extensive database and comprehensive funder profiles, making it popular among both first time grant writers and seasoned professionals.

Pricing

FDO offers various subscription tiers to meet different needs and budgets:

• Essential Plan: Starts at $54.99/month and provides access to a substantial portion of the database.
• Professional Plan: $219.99/month, offers enhanced search capabilities and additional funder data.
• Enterprise Plan: Tailored for larger organizations—pricing is available only upon request.

4. GrantWatch

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GrantWatch is another grants database designed to help nonprofits discover active funding opportunities.

Features

GrantWatch’s main feature is its extensive database, which offers easy-to-read grant reports that include the following:

• Grant eligibility information
• Geographic focus
• Pre-application and workshop information
• Description of grant program
• Funding amounts and number of awards
• Funding source contact details
• Links to grant applications and documents

While its database is large, GrantWatch doesn’t provide robust grant management tools, such as a document library, tasks, or spend down tracking.

Types of Funders Listed

More than half of the grants listed on GrantWatch—70%—are from private and public foundations, corporations, and charities. The other 30% come from local, state, and federal government opportunities.

User Friendliness

GrantWatch provides an easy-to-use search option. However, GrantWatch doesn’t include in-depth funder profiles, so you will need to do your own research to determine whether a funder is a good fit for your nonprofit organization.

Popularity

GrantWatch has earned a solid reputation in the grant-seeking community. When it comes to user reviews, we found a pattern of positive comments across the web, with users expressing their satisfaction with how easy it is to find grants with this platform.

Pricing

GrantWatch offers a free version (Member) and a paid version (MemberPlus+). You can choose between four options for MemberPlus+:

• $18 per week
• $45 per month
• $90 per quarter
• $199 per year

You’ll need the paid version for complete access to all of GrantWatch’s grant opportunities.

5. Grant Gopher

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Grant Gopher is a grants database that’s targeted to smaller nonprofits and educational institutions located in the United States, and is ideal for beginners in the grant-seeking process.

Features

Grant Gopher’s main feature is its database of more than 8,000 grants from a variety of funding sources. Its search features allow you to tailor your search based on your location, funding type, and grant category.

Grant Gopher also provides tailored alerts so that you’re informed of any new grant opportunities. However, it doesn't provide any grant management or post-award features.

Types of Funders Listed

Grants listed on Grant Gopher are targeted to small nonprofits, schools, and municipalities located in the United States from a variety of funders, including:

• Community foundations
• Private foundations
• Federal, state, city, and county programs
• Corporations
• Local organizations

The database itself, however, may be outdated since some funder records are only reviewed quarterly or even annually.

User Friendliness

The user interface and overall user experience on Grant Gopher can feel outdated or less intuitive compared to more modern alternatives. Navigating the site and extracting the most relevant grant information might not be as seamless, automated, or user-friendly as it is on competing platforms.

Popularity

This site is popular for smaller U.S.-based nonprofits just starting out in grant searching and educational institutions.

Pricing

Grant Gopher offers three pricing plans:

• LITE: A free option that allows you to search the database and filter nationally, by state, or by county.
• PRO: For $9/month, this option adds access to all grantmakers in the database currently accepting applications, grant descriptions, maximum award and contact information, and links directly to the guidelines and application. You can also access saved or passed grants, the full “Proposal Sample Library,” and have same day grant alert emails.

PRO SUCCESS PATH: In addition to all of the benefits of PRO, this option also includes an average of $500/month of in-kind research services donated to each member.

We may be biased, but we believe that Instrumentl is the best choice in grants software, bringing grant discovery, research, and tracking to one place. Here are a few things that set Instrumentl apart:

Automagical Deadline Reminders

Instrumentl sends you “automagical” deadline reminders right into your email inbox. You’ll also be automatically notified if a deadline has changed or if a funder has changed their priorities. Staying on top of important dates has never been easier!

Integrated Information From IRS 990 Forms

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Instrumentl analyzes and distills information from foundations’ IRS 990 forms so you can quickly and easily identify best-match funders for your organization.

Check out what Charlisa Garg, Director of Foundation Relations at NYU Langone Health, had to say about these snapshots:
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"I am a huge advocate of Instrumentl. I can remember when I did this at the beginning of my career, printing out the grantee lists from the 990s and going through with a highlighter. Out of 100 grants, there were only two that were viable. Now It’s all in Instrumentl. So that's been really fantastic."

With these 990 snapshots, you’ll be able to see a funder’s openness to new grantees, average grant amounts, past awards, and more—right at your fingertips.

Intelligent Matching to RFPs and Funders

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Instrumentl uses a Smart Matching system to automatically curate a list of active grants for your nonprofit that align with its mission and funding needs.

These personalized grant recommendations make it easy to find good-fit funders fast so that you don’t waste time sifting through grant opportunities that aren’t a solid match.

Easy Collaboration and Task Management

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Instrumentl’s collaborative tools allow your entire team to work together on proposals, manage current tasks, and keep up with important deadlines. Within the platform, you can share notes and assign tasks to each other to prioritize transparency and help keep your team on track. You can also create comprehensive reports that can be exported into PDF and CSV that the entire team can access.

Find Foundations Open to New Grantees

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Instrumentl’s Openness to New Grantees report shows you the percentage of a foundation’s grants that get awarded to new versus repeat grantees, as well as the average grant award for new versus repeat grantees. These valuable insights will help you determine if pursuing an opportunity is worth your time or if you should move on.

While OpenGrants provides a solid grants database, Instrumentl stands out by offering powerful, unique features that span the entire grant lifecycle. With Instrumentl, you can save time while also streamlining your fundraising efforts. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to try it out yourself!