How will foundations find nonprofits in the future?
Step three: funders find you
By Wesley Stevens, Founder of Quillify. October 3, 2026.
How will foundations find nonprofits in the future?
By reading what organizations already publish. Roughly seven in ten private foundations already choose grantees themselves instead of taking applications. As software makes it cheap to read every tax filing, report and published result in a field, more funders will build their own shortlists. Being findable becomes part of fundraising: an accurate 990, a plain description of your work, published results, and board connections a funder can see.
Most foundations already work this way
Roughly seven in ten private foundations say on their own tax returns that they fund only organizations they choose. They do not read unsolicited proposals. They find grantees through their trustees and staff, through other funders, and through what they read about organizations doing the work.
The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project asks funders to go further and "do the homework": to research prospective grantees themselves so nonprofits spend less time proving who they are. Until recently, that homework was slow. A program officer could read a few dozen filings and site reports a month.
What changes when reading is cheap
Most US nonprofits file a public tax return describing their programs and finances, and every private foundation's return lists the grants it paid and to whom. Software can now read all of it, every week, and surface the organizations doing the work a funder wants to fund.
That turns discovery around. The funder builds the shortlist, and the open call becomes the exception. A small organization with a clear public record can appear on a funder's list without ever knowing the funder was looking.
Being findable becomes fundraising
An accurate tax filing. The program section of your 990 is often the first thing a funder reads. Describe each program plainly, with who it serves and what it achieved. Small organizations that file the 990-N postcard have no program section, so their website and published results carry more of the weight.
A plain public description. Your website should say what you do, where, for whom, and with what results, in words a stranger understands.
Published results. Outcomes you can show publicly are evidence a funder can find without asking.
Visible connections. Funders still trust people. Board members who know foundation trustees are the warmest path in, and they are easier to find than most organizations realize.
What you can do now
Work both directions. Make your own record easy to read, and look for the funders already close to you. Quillify shows which foundations fund organizations like yours, and checks your board list against the officers and trustees of every foundation on file, so you can ask for an introduction instead of waiting to be found.
What you can do today
- Reaching a foundation that does not take applications
- How your board can help you win grants
- Working backwards from funders
More in this series: How will AI change philanthropy? The future of grantmaking, Will AI replace grant writers?, Will there ever be one grant application for every funder?, What will replace the grant proposal?, What will grantmaking look like without applications?, What are the risks of AI in philanthropy?.
Start on the steps that are possible today.
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