Instead of having to comb through 990 data yourself, Advanced Funder Insights does all the data analysis for you. Now you can easily spot big picture trends about funders to save even more time when prospecting.

Advanced Funder Insights are available on the Standard Plan and above.

Evaluate how much a funder gave to New Grantees vs. Repeat Grantees over the years, so you can prioritize which funders should be at the top of your focus list.

See the breakdown of total awards that were given to New vs. Repeat Grantees over time. In the example above, the Ford Foundation gave 19% of awards to New Grantees over the last 3 years.

Hover over each bar to see that 24.24% of awards were given to New Grantees vs 75.76% of awards given to Repeat Grantees in 2023. If we were to find another foundation where the % given to New Grantees was even higher, we may consider prioritizing that opportunity first.

Use the Grant Amounts to estimate how much you should ask for as a new applicant. As seen above, both New Grantees and Repeat Grantees were awarded a median of $110,000 by the Ford Foundation in 2023.

The breakdown of funding between New vs. Repeat Grantees can also help you assess the ROI of building a relationship with this funder. The Ford Foundation’s median giving amount of $110,000 to Repeat Grantees in 2023 can be used as an indicator of the potential funding from a long term relationship with this funder.

Returning applicants can determine if they should ask current funders for more money next year based on the median grant size to Returning Grantees. In the chart above, Repeat Grantees were awarded a median of $110,000 in 2023.

When looking at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, their Foundation's giving median has stabilized around $500k from 2027-2023. This may influence future applicants to hover around that same grant amount to follow past trends.

Now you can browse through all of the individual past grantees in the "All-time" tab. Click on the individual year tabs (i.e 2023) to see the column "New Grantee?" appear. A check mark under the "New Grantee?" column signifies that organization was a first time applicant.

In the example below, 516 Arts was a first time grantee of the Ford Foundation in 2023.

You can even use the search bar to parse through the Grant Purpose descriptions. In the example above, searching for "art" pulls up organizations whose grant purposes contain the word "art." Use the columns Amount, Purpose, Location, and New Grantee to see if this funder has funded similar organizations in your area, and how much was awarded.

The Past Grantee list can even give you ideas for organizations you can reach out to for tips or advice on how to build a relationship with the funder. You might even ask them for an introduction!

By using the IRS’ classification codes of nonprofits, spot trends like giving by category to understand what cause areas a funder likes funding most.

In the example below, see how Community Improvement & Capacity Building, along with Education are the Kresge Foundation's two most funded areas of giving.

Dig deeper into subclassifications, such as comparing Economic Development grant amounts to Community Service Clubs grant amounts to see what those subcategories Mode and Median Grant amounts are.

The faster you can identify patterns, the faster you can prioritize the best fit funders and start focusing on building those funder relationships. Interested in seeing how you stack up against your peers? Read more about Peer Prospecting here.

Reach out to our friendly support team if you have any questions about Advanced Funder Insights. Message us via the chat bubble when you're logged in, or email us at hello@instrumentl.com.