A nonprofit's Form 990 is a goldmine for funder research. Learn how to read 990s and 990-PFs to find the data that drives smart funder prospecting.

If you’ve never read a Form 990 closely, you’ve been doing funder research the hard way. Every U.S. tax-exempt organization files one every year, and the document is public. For grant seekers, it’s one of the richest sources of funder intelligence in existence, and it’s free.

The 990 (or 990-PF for private foundations) tells you exactly who a funder gave to last year, how much they gave, what their assets are, who’s on their board, what their stated priorities look like in practice, and how their giving is trending. Mastering it changes how you find and qualify funders.

This guide covers how to read a 990 for funder research.

TL;DR: Quick Answers

What is a Form 990? A public IRS filing tax-exempt organizations submit annually, with detailed financial and operational information.
What’s a 990-PF? A specific version filed by private foundations, with detailed grant lists.
Where do you find them? ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Candid GuideStar, and IRS.gov, all free.
What’s the most useful section for funder research? The list of grants paid, plus governance and financial information.

Three Variants You’ll Encounter

Form 990. Filed by most large public charities (including community foundations and many grantmaking public charities).
Form 990-EZ. A shorter version for smaller charities.
Form 990-PF. Filed exclusively by private foundations, the most useful for funder research because it includes detailed grant lists.

For grant seekers, 990-PFs are the goldmine, but 990s filed by public-charity grantmakers (Schedule I in particular) are also valuable.

Where to Read 990s for Free

Three resources, all free:

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Fast search, downloadable PDFs, and good summaries. Strong default.
Candid (GuideStar). Detailed organizational profiles with 990s attached; some content requires registration or subscription, but core access is free.
IRS.gov Tax Exempt Organization Search. The official source.

Most grant databases also surface 990 data.

What to Look For in a 990-PF

For a private foundation, focus on:

1. Grant list (Part XV). The Holy Grail. Every grant the foundation made, with grantee name, amount, and often purpose. Read this carefully:

Who are they funding now? Which organizations look most like yours?
What award sizes are typical?
What geographies do they fund?
Are there themes that emerge from grantee profiles?
Is there a clear range, or are awards bunched at certain sizes?

2. Assets and giving (Part I). Total assets, total grants paid, and qualifying distributions. Foundations are required to give out roughly 5% of assets annually; this tells you the rough total pool.

3. Directors, officers, and trustees (Part VIII). Who’s on the board? Does anyone overlap with your network? Family-foundation boards often reveal donor priorities.

4. Statement of purpose and program areas. What the foundation says it does, useful but should be cross-checked against the actual grant list (sometimes they diverge).

5. Application instructions or restrictions. Some 990-PFs note whether the foundation accepts unsolicited proposals; others state “does not accept unsolicited applications.”

6. Geographic focus. Look at the locations of grantees; geography often emerges in the data more clearly than in stated guidelines.

What to Look For in a 990 (Public Charity Grantmakers)

For a grantmaking public charity (a community foundation, for example):

1. Schedule I. Lists grants made to U.S. organizations, similar to Part XV of a 990-PF. The most useful section.

2. Schedule G. Fundraising and gaming activities, useful for understanding revenue.

3. Part I. Summary of revenue, expenses, and assets.

4. Part VII. Officers, directors, and key employees.

5. Schedule O. Supplemental information, often used for narrative explanations.

Note that community foundations often distribute money from donor-advised funds, and the Schedule I list mixes funder-directed grants with DAF grants. The funder’s own unrestricted grantmaking is a subset.

How to Use 990 Data in Practice

Build a prospect list. Pull 990 data for foundations that fund organizations like yours, in your geography, at your award size. Rank by alignment.

Confirm fit before approaching. Before drafting a letter of inquiry, confirm via the 990 that the funder actually grants to similar work. Use the funder-fit checklist.

Spot trends. Trace giving across multiple years’ 990s. Is the foundation growing? Shrinking? Shifting toward new priorities?

Map board overlap. Check officer and director lists against your network. A warm introduction shortens the path to a grant.

Estimate your odds. A foundation that gave 150 grants last year, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, with a clear focus on your field, is a more accessible prospect than one with 12 large grants in a different niche.

Common Mistakes With 990 Research

Reading only the stated mission, not the grant list. What a foundation does is more reliable than what it says.
Using outdated 990s. Read the most recent available, but note that there’s typically a lag (current 990s are often 1–2 years behind).
Ignoring governance. Board composition reveals priorities that grant lists may not.
Confusing 990 and 990-PF. Public charities and private foundations follow different rules; check which you’re reading.
Treating the 990 as the whole story. Combine with the funder’s own website, news, and conversation with program officers.

How Grantboost Helps

Reading 990s one foundation at a time is rich but slow. Grantboost automates the discovery process, continuously scanning funding sources (including 990-based foundation data) and scoring opportunities for fit with your mission, geography, and award range, so you start from a ranked, qualified list rather than from scratch.

For deeper relationship-building, the 990 is still your friend. But you don’t have to do the initial screen by hand.

Try Grantboost free and skip the 990 sweep on opportunities Grantboost has already scored.

Reading Form 990 for Funder Research: A Practical Guide