Resources
Reference material for nonprofits that receive grants. Written to be useful on its own terms — sourced, dated, and honest about what we don't know.
Template · 2026-10-25
Free federal grant budget template and de minimis calculator
An Excel budget in the SF-424A categories that works out modified total direct costs and indirect costs under the current rules: up to 15% de minimis, $50,000 per subaward, $10,000 equipment.
Template · 2026-10-25
Free grant deadline calendar template
Every deadline in one list with overdue colors, a year at a glance, and a tab that saves as a file Google Calendar imports. No email needed, no macros.
Template · 2026-10-25
Free grant tracking spreadsheet template
An Excel and Google Sheets grant tracker with grants, deadlines that turn red when overdue, budget vs actual and a summary. No email needed, no macros.
Template · 2026-10-25
Free time and effort certification template
An Excel template for documenting staff effort on federal awards under 2 CFR 200.430(g): actual effort by award, a 100% check, signatures and a salary charge check.
Guide · prices checked 2026-10-25
How much does grant management software cost?
Published prices for FundMesa, Instrumentl, Grantable and funder research tools, what drives the price, and what free options really cost.
Guide · figures queried 2026-10-14
Community foundations vs private foundations
Tax form, payout, who decides and where they give, with figures from IRS filings, and how to read a community foundation’s 990 when small grants and donor-advised grants are mixed in.
Guide · counts from 2026-10-14
Grants.gov for small nonprofits: what's actually open to you
How many open federal opportunities list nonprofits as eligible, how much is NIH research, how to read the Others and Unrestricted codes, and what to register first.
Guide · 2026-10-14
How to read a foundation's Form 990-PF
The grants list, how to apply, size and payout, and who runs it, with part numbers for current and pre-2021 returns and figures from our IRS data.
Guide · 2026-10-14
Tracking grant expenses in QuickBooks Online
Class, location, project or customer: which plans have each, which can split a bill across grants, and the tagging mistakes that throw off grant reports.
Guide · figures queried 2026-10-14
How to find foundation grants for a small nonprofit
What IRS 990-PF filings say about grant sizes, foundation sizes, home-state giving and the preselected-only checkbox, and where that points a small nonprofit.
Data · queried 2026-10-14
New private foundations since late 2023
About 10,000 grantmaking foundations the IRS approved since October 2023 that have not filed a 990-PF yet: by year, state and field, and how to approach one.
Guide · 2026-08-26
What is grant management software?
What these tools do, why grant-seeker products differ from grantmaker products, when spreadsheets stop working, and a vendor-neutral evaluation checklist.
Reference · verified 2026-08-26
Free grant data sources
The public datasets behind prospecting — IRS Form 990 bulk data, the free Grants.gov search API, USAspending, Candid at libraries — with cost and update frequency verified against each publisher.