Why the 990 Is a Fundraiser's Gold Mine
The Internal Revenue Service Form 990, which all US tax-exempt foundations are required to file annually, is perhaps the most underutilized research tool available to non-profit grant writers. The 990 provides detailed, publicly accessible information about a foundation's financial position, grant-making activity, governance, investment strategy, and organizational priorities — information that is invaluable for making informed, targeted funding approaches. GuideStar (now Candid) and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer provide free access to 990 filings for virtually all US foundations, making this research available to any organization with an internet connection. The time investment required to read a foundation's 990 carefully — typically one to two hours for a first reading — is one of the highest-return research investments a grant writer can make, providing the specific knowledge of a foundation's real (as opposed to stated) funding priorities that transforms generic proposals into precisely targeted ones. Non-profits that routinely analyze the 990s of foundations they're approaching make qualitatively more informed funding approaches than those that rely exclusively on foundation websites and grant databases.
Key Sections to Review in a Foundation 990
A strategic 990 review focuses on several key sections that reveal the most actionable information about a foundation's funding behavior. Part I provides financial summary information: total assets, total grants paid, investment income, and administrative expenses. The ratio of grants paid to total assets indicates whether the foundation is meeting the 5% minimum distribution requirement, whether it is growing or drawing down its asset base, and whether its giving level has been stable or variable in recent years. Part IV (checklist of required schedules) reveals important governance characteristics including whether the foundation has made grants to related parties, whether it has conducted business transactions with disqualified persons, and whether it is subject to excess business holdings restrictions. Schedule I provides the complete list of grants made during the year, including grantee names, amounts, grant purposes, and in some cases geographic designations — this is the most valuable section for understanding actual grant-making patterns in specific program areas and geographic regions.
Analyzing Grant-Making Patterns
Systematic analysis of a foundation's grant list over three to five years — available through multiple years of 990 filings — reveals the actual funding patterns that define the foundation's real priorities, which sometimes differ significantly from what is stated on the foundation's website. Key analytical questions include: What is the typical grant size range, and how does this compare to the amount you're considering requesting? What is the average grant duration (single-year versus multi-year), and does the foundation make renewal grants to the same organizations repeatedly? What percentage of grants go to organizations in the same geographic area as your non-profit versus organizations doing similar work in other regions? Are there specific program areas or populations that appear consistently across multiple years' grant lists, suggesting deep, sustained commitment versus areas that appear once and disappear? Are there organizational characteristics of grantees — budget size range, organizational age, geographic scope — that suggest the foundation's preference for certain types of partners? This pattern analysis transforms the foundation's 990 from a list of facts into a predictive model of funding behavior that enables much more precise and confident funding approaches.
Using 990 Data for Relationship Development
990 data is not just useful for initial prospect research — it is valuable throughout the donor relationship development process. Understanding a foundation's total grant-making budget, typical grant sizes, and grant-making pace helps non-profits set realistic expectations for the amount and timing of potential funding. Identifying overlapping grantees — organizations that are already funded by the foundation and that your non-profit has relationships with — reveals potential introduction pathways more valuable than cold outreach. Understanding a foundation's investment portfolio (disclosed in Schedule D) sometimes reveals business interests that create natural alignment with or constraints on certain types of programmatic funding. Board member names (Part VII) combined with LinkedIn research can reveal foundation leadership's professional backgrounds, board service on other organizations, and personal philanthropic interests that inform relationship cultivation strategy. The 990 is not a substitute for direct funder relationship engagement — it is the research foundation that makes that engagement informed, targeted, and productive rather than generic and opportunistic.
