Blog
Grant research tips and nonprofit fundraising strategies.
Who Actually Funds Animal Shelters? One Shelter's 40 Funders
October 13, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Animal groups hear it all the time: there are no grants for us. We pulled one Virginia Beach shelter's funders from filed tax returns. There were 40 of them, and 32 have no animal word anywhere in their name.
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Which Foundations Have Fall Grant Deadlines? We Counted 1,214
October 6, 2026 · Brodie Wells
We read the application-deadline line on 23,251 private foundation tax returns. 1,214 wrote a date in October, November or December, and the most common one is December 31. Here is what that count can and cannot tell you.
The Problem Was Never Finding Grants
September 29, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Grant tools sell discovery. Grant professionals complain about fit. One trial of a matching tool returned 118 well-aligned matches; after a manual review, 3 were realistic. Here is why the search has to start from a different place.
The Foundation That Has Only Ever Funded One Nonprofit
September 22, 2026 · Brodie Wells
One Texas foundation has made six grants since 2020, $18.73 million, every dollar of it to the same organization. Across our whole grant record, 57,880 of 187,547 foundations send 90% or more of their money to a single recipient. Here is how to spot one before you spend a week on the letter.
Why You Cannot Find Your Own Nonprofit in a Foundation's Grant List
September 15, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Nearly 70% of the grants in the 990 record carry no recipient EIN, so the only thing tying a grant to your organization is how somebody typed your name. We ran the check on a Washington nonprofit: searching by EIN found 8 funders. The real number was 21.
"See Attached Schedule": The Grant List a Foundation Filed and Nobody Can Read
September 8, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Across our corpus, $45.6 billion in grants sits behind a placeholder like "SEE ATTACHED SCHEDULE" instead of a list of recipients. About two in five of those lists are sitting in the IRS PDF as an unsearchable scan. For the rest, there is one letter that still gets you the names.
The Median Foundation Makes Four Grants a Year
September 1, 2026 · Brodie Wells
We spent $106 on ads and bought 403 visitors for about 27 cents each. Not one of them became a customer, and the reason is the same reason a 118-result prospect list disappoints you. Here is what our own grant data says about how many grants a foundation actually makes.
Peer Search IS the Geography Filter
August 18, 2026 · Brodie Wells
The most requested GrantSnag feature is a geographic filter. The request comes from a habit learned in directory tools, and that habit is the thing costing you time and money. Here is the direction the search actually runs, and why.
Our Grant Search Was Lying to Users. Here's How We Caught It.
August 11, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Keyword search over 11.7 million grant records was timing out, returning an unstable sample, and reporting 'no results' when there were 57,014. Here is what was actually wrong, what we rebuilt, and what is still broken.
Time Is Your Greatest Challenge: Grant Research for Small Nonprofits
August 4, 2026 · Jason Wells
After eight years leading a nonprofit, I've learned time is your scarcest resource. How fast, affordable grant research gives small nonprofit leaders theirs back.
Stop Chasing Grants: How Proactive Planning Builds Long-Term Funding
July 21, 2026 · Patrick Belcher
Reactive grant-seeking keeps nonprofits perpetually behind. Learn how a grant calendar, funder-priority mapping, and multi-year relationship tracking turn one-time awards into sustainable, renewable funding.
From Scramble to System: Making the Grant Cycle Repeatable
July 14, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Most nonprofits treat grants as a series of emergencies. GrantSnag turns the grant cycle into a repeatable, strategic process, so the next deadline is a step in a system, not a fire drill.
Foundation Giving Is Growing, Is Your Nonprofit Ready?
June 30, 2026 · Patrick Belcher
Foundation giving is now the second-largest source of charitable contributions in the U.S., creating a major opportunity for nonprofits. Learn why grants should be part of your fundraising strategy, and how GrantSnag helps you find funders already supporting organizations like yours.
Moves Management Built Right into the GrantSnag.com Pipeline (Part 2)
June 16, 2026 · Patrick Belcher
With foundations, cultivation often begins through a Letter of Introduction (LOI) or other initial communication.
Moves Management Built Right into the GrantSnag.com Pipeline (Part 1)
June 9, 2026 · Patrick Belcher
While Moves Management is commonly associated with major donor fundraising, the same principles apply to grant funding.
Funding Follows Trust
May 19, 2026 · Patrick Belcher
Grant funding is not just about applications. The nonprofits that consistently win grants year after year are the ones that communicate clearly, build trust, and stay connected to funders between awards.
How to Brief Your Board on Grants You Plan to Pursue
May 14, 2026
A strong board briefing turns that into something clear, strategic, and trackable.
Where Private Foundation Money Actually Flows
May 8, 2026 · Brodie Wells
We analyzed 7.4 million grant records to map which states receive more private foundation money than they send out. The results might change how you think about prospecting.
What to Do After You Find a Grant
May 3, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Once a foundation is in your pipeline, the focus shifts from research to action.
How to Build a Grant Pipeline That Actually Works
May 2, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Most grant research starts the same way. Learn how to do it the right way.
How to Find Grants for Your Nonprofit (Without Guessing)
May 1, 2026 · Brodie Wells
Most nonprofits search for grants by browsing foundation directories. There's a faster way! Start with organizations that have already been funded by the foundations you're targeting.