Nonprofits are the applicant type federal grants were largely built for. That makes this the one category where the money is genuinely abundant — and where the constraint is research and capacity rather than eligibility.
Open programs in the OpenGrants database open nationally, from federal agencies. Refreshed on every site build.
Most of the guides on this site spend their opening paragraphs explaining that a category is smaller than it looks. This one is the exception.
Federal grant programs name nonprofits as eligible applicants across an enormous range of fields. Private foundations fund 501(c)(3) organizations almost exclusively. State, county and city agencies both grant to and contract with nonprofits routinely. Where a small business searching for grants is mostly finding out it does not qualify, a nonprofit’s problem is the opposite: too many plausible options and not enough capacity to pursue them.
So the constraint here is research and capacity, not eligibility. Which changes what good advice looks like.
The highest-leverage habit in nonprofit fundraising is reading 990 filings.
Every private foundation files one, and it lists the grants actually made — recipient, amount, often purpose. That is evidence. A foundation’s website states priorities, which are aspirational and frequently out of date.
The gap between the two is routinely large. A foundation whose site describes broad national interests may turn out to have given almost entirely within one county, at a consistent $25,000, to organizations with budgets under $2 million. That tells you whether to approach it, what to ask for, and whether you are the right size — none of which the website would have told you.
ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer makes this free. It is a better prospect research tool than most paid databases, and it is the reason paying for a grant list is rarely necessary.
The 2024 Uniform Guidance revision raised the de minimis indirect cost rate from 10% to 15% of modified total direct costs. No negotiation, no justification, no rate agreement required.
A great many nonprofits are still budgeting at 10%, or at zero, out of a sector culture that treats overhead as something shameful. It is not. Rent, accounting, insurance and administration are real costs of delivering the program, and an organization that systematically declines to recover them is funding the government’s work from its own reserves.
Claim the 15%. It is the single easiest budget improvement available.
Pass-through funding. A large share of federal money reaches small nonprofits as subawards through state agencies or larger intermediaries. Competing for a state subaward against a handful of local organizations is a much better proposition than competing nationally against everyone.
Government contracts. Nonprofits deliver public services under contract constantly, and that revenue is often larger and more stable than grants. It is a purchasing relationship, not a competition for support — and it uses the same SAM.gov registration.
Organizations without 501(c)(3) status or a fiscal sponsor. Most private foundations require it. Fiscal sponsorship is a legitimate, well-established route while you build.
Small organizations chasing large federal awards. Federal compliance is real work — financial reporting, procurement standards, and a Single Audit past $1 million in annual federal expenditure. An award you cannot administer is a liability. Start with foundation and pass-through funding and grow the back office alongside.
Anyone hoping to skip the research. There is no list that substitutes for reading filings and NOFOs. That is the work, and it is the part that compounds.
SAM.gov registration and a UEI are required for any federal award and take weeks the first time. Doing this before you need it removes the most common cause of missed deadlines.
A foundation's 990 or 990-PF lists what it actually gave and to whom. Stated priorities are aspirational; the filing is evidence. This single habit outperforms any purchased grant list.
Find the federal Assistance Listing covering your field. It identifies which agency owns that funding stream and what its authorizing statute permits — answering the eligibility question before you invest in an application.
Much federal money reaches small nonprofits as state subawards. Competing against a handful of local organizations is a better proposition than competing nationally.
The de minimis rate is now 15% of modified total direct costs, up from 10%, with no negotiation required. Declining to claim overhead is not virtuous; it is how organizations quietly decapitalize themselves.
Expending $1 million or more in federal funds in a year triggers a Single Audit, with real cost and staff time attached.
