Start from the funder, not the opportunity
How do I find funders who would actually fund my organization?
Look at who already funds organizations like yours. Foundations file every grant they make on their tax return, so peer organizations' funders are a matter of public record. Build a list of ten to twenty organizations genuinely similar to you in field, size and geography, find the funders who gave to them, and remove the ones already giving to you. What remains is a prospect list built on demonstrated behavior, not on stated priorities, and behavior is the better predictor.
Last reviewed 6 August 2026.
Why this beats searching
Searching a database of opportunities finds funders who are advertising. Working backwards finds funders who are giving, which is a much larger group, because most foundation money moves without an announcement anywhere.
It also filters on the thing that predicts a yes. A funder's stated priorities describe what they would like to fund. Their grant list describes what they did fund, and the two differ more often than anyone admits.
How to do it
Build the peer list honestly
Ten to twenty organizations similar in field, budget size and geography. The temptation is to list aspirational peers three times your size, and that produces a prospect list of funders who will not fund you.
The useful test: Would a stranger reading both descriptions think you do roughly the same kind of work at roughly the same scale?
Find who funded them
Foundation tax returns list every grant with the recipient and the amount. Public and searchable, though tedious at any scale by hand, which is what makes this a good thing to automate.
Subtract your existing funders
The list you want is the gap: funders backing organizations like yours who have not backed you. Quillify produces exactly this list, from 2,000,000+ organizations in the IRS registry.
Filter for who is actually open
Roughly seven in ten private foundations state on their own return that they only fund organizations they select. A gap list including those is a list with seventy percent noise in it, and filtering on the box is what makes the exercise pay.
Size the ask from their filings
The same return shows what they typically give. Asking for three times their largest recent grant announces that you did not look.
How confident to be in a match
This matters and almost nobody explains it. A grant listed on a funder's Schedule I carries the recipient's tax identification number, so the match to a specific organization is exact. A grant listed on a 990-PF carries no tax ID at all, only a name, so the best anyone can do is match on the name.
Name matching is genuinely useful and it is not certain. Common names collide, chapters of national organizations look identical in a list, and a merged or renamed organization appears twice.
So Quillify displays which kind of match you are looking at, instead of presenting both as the same thing. A tool that shows you only a confident-looking list is hiding the difference, not missing it.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
- Reading a foundation's tax returnWhat can I learn from a foundation's 990-PF?
- Most foundations will never read your proposalDo foundations accept unsolicited grant proposals?
- Foundation funding, and who is open to youHow do foundation grants work and how do I get one?
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