What a 990 Filing Actually Tells You About a Funder (And What Most Nonprofits Miss)

Late one night in my Oakland home office, I was staring at a database that had just finished loading. 174,129 rows. Every active private foundation in the United States — their assets, their grants, the names of their officers, how much they gave last year.

All of it public. All of it free. Pulled straight from IRS Form 990 filings.

I’d spent the previous decade on the other side of this equation, deploying over $700 million in corporate philanthropy at Google.org. I’d read thousands of proposals. And I’d watched, again and again, as talented fundraisers pitched us blind — asking for the wrong amounts, targeting the wrong priorities, sometimes addressing their letters to a “Google Foundation” that didn’t exist.

The data they needed was right there. They just didn’t know where to look.

The Map Nobody Uses

Here’s the uncomfortable math. There are over 174,000 active private foundations in the U.S., holding a combined $6.8 trillion in assets and giving out $831 billion a year. Every single one files a public tax return with the IRS — the Form 990-PF.

These filings are the topographic map of American philanthropy. They show you the terrain: who has money, where it flows, and whether it’s growing or shrinking.

Most nonprofits navigate without this map. They rely on word of mouth, board connections, and Google searches that surface the same ten mega-foundations everyone already knows — Gates, Ford, MacArthur. That’s like planning a cross-country hike using only the Wikipedia entry for the Appalachian Trail.

The real landscape is far more interesting.

What’s Actually in a 990-PF

A foundation’s 990-PF is a financial portrait. Not a glossy brochure — a portrait. Warts and all.

Total assets. The Ford Foundation holds $17.5 billion. The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan holds $4 billion. The Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore holds $2.3 billion. But there are 29,286 foundations giving between $1 million and $10 million annually. Most fundraisers have never heard of them.

Annual grants paid. This is the number that matters most. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation distributed $1.15 billion last year. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund distributed $178 million. These aren’t pledges or intentions — these are checks that cleared.

A list of every grant made. Part XV of the 990-PF includes the name of every grantee, the amount, and the purpose. If you want to know whether a foundation funds organizations like yours, stop reading their website. Read their grant list.

Officer and trustee compensation. You’ll see who runs the foundation, what they’re paid, and sometimes their titles tell you everything about where decisions get made. A foundation with a “Director of Programs” is a different animal than one where the founder’s daughter is the sole trustee.

Investment income and expenses. This tells you whether the foundation is growing or spending down. A foundation with declining assets and rising grants is on a clock. A foundation with assets that doubled in five years probably has room to increase giving.

The Signals Most Fundraisers Miss

The raw numbers help. But I learned more from the patterns.

Grant size consistency. If a foundation’s last 50 grants range from $25,000 to $75,000, don’t ask them for $500,000. Sounds obvious. I watched it happen constantly.

Geographic concentration. Many foundations give almost exclusively in their home state or city. The 990 tells you exactly where the money goes. A $10 million foundation in Cleveland that sends 90% of its grants to Cuyahoga County nonprofits isn’t going to fund your program in Phoenix. Don’t waste their time or yours.

Giving trajectory. Compare this year’s grants paid to three years ago. A foundation that gave $3 million in 2021 and $8 million in 2024 is expanding. That’s a different conversation than one that’s flat or declining.

New grantees vs. renewals. This is the signal most people miss entirely. If the same 15 organizations show up in a foundation’s grant list year after year, they may not be actively accepting new proposals. If you see fresh names each year, the door is open.

The Part XV purpose descriptions. These short descriptions — usually one line — tell you what the foundation thinks it’s funding. “General operating support for youth development in Detroit.” “Program support for climate adaptation research.” Read enough of these and you’ll hear the foundation’s actual voice. Not the PR copy.

Working the Map

A 990 is a starting point, not a destination.

Start with fit, not fame. The 41,407 foundations giving between $50,000 and $250,000 annually are the most approachable funders in the country. Most accept proposals. Many don’t have program officers screening you out. Their 990s will tell you if your cause area, geography, and ask size are in range. If they are, you’re already ahead of 90% of applicants who never checked.

Build a prospect list from grant lists. When you find one foundation that funds organizations like yours, pull their full grant list from the 990. Then look up those peer grantees. What other foundations fund them? Follow the money laterally, and you’ll uncover funders you’d never find through a keyword search alone.

Time your approach. A foundation’s fiscal year end is right there on the 990. That tells you when their grantmaking cycle probably resets. An LOI submitted six months before their fiscal year closes has a different trajectory than one that arrives after the budget is set.

Know the person across the table. The 990 lists every trustee and officer. Cross-reference those names with your board’s network. A warm introduction from someone who knows a foundation’s trustee is worth more than fifty cold proposals. We built Kindora’s network discovery tools for exactly this.

We also built a free 990 Finder tool so you can look up any foundation’s filing instantly — just type in a name or EIN. No login required.

What 990s Won’t Tell You

The 990 has real limitations. Worth naming them.

The data is 1-2 years old by the time it’s public. Priorities may have shifted. Use the 990 as a starting point, then check the foundation’s website and any published guidelines.

The 990-PF doesn’t include a foundation’s strategic plan, theory of change, or current funding focus. It tells you what they did, not what they want to do next. Some foundations are actively trying to shift their portfolios.

And for the roughly 7,543 foundations giving over $10 million annually, competition is fierce regardless of how much homework you do. The 990 gives you an edge. It doesn’t guarantee anything.

The $244,617 Median

Here’s the number I keep coming back to. The median annual giving across all active foundations in our database is $244,617.

Half of all foundations in America give less than a quarter million per year. These are small family foundations, community trusts, donor-designated endowments. They don’t have websites. They don’t have program officers. They don’t attend conferences.

But they file 990s. And many of them are looking for exactly the kind of work your organization does.

It’s not a handful of billion-dollar foundations surrounded by nothing. It’s 174,000 data points on the map, most of them invisible if you only look at the biggest names.

The map exists. It’s public. It’s free.

Who’s actually reading it?

FAQ

What is IRS Form 990-PF?

Form 990-PF is the annual tax return that every private foundation in the United States must file with the IRS. It includes the foundation’s financial statements, officer compensation, investment details, and a complete list of every grant awarded during the fiscal year. Unlike the standard 990 filed by public charities, the 990-PF includes specific private foundation reporting requirements around minimum distribution rules, excise taxes, and disqualified persons. All 990-PF filings are public records.

Where can I find a foundation’s 990 filing for free?

You can look up any foundation’s 990 through Kindora’s free 990 Finder tool, which lets you search by foundation name or EIN. The IRS also publishes filings through its Tax Exempt Organization Search portal. Other sources include ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and Candid’s Foundation Directory Online. Kindora cross-references 990 data with our database of over 174,000 foundations so you can see filing data alongside program details and giving patterns in one place.

What should I look for first in a 990 when researching a funder?

Start with grants paid — not total assets, which can be misleading since some foundations sit on large endowments but give modestly. Then look at the Part XV grant list to see who they actually fund, paying attention to geography, cause area, and grant sizes. Compare grants over 2-3 years to spot trends. Finally, note the officers and trustees — a name your board recognizes could be your way in.

How old is 990 data, and does that matter?

There’s typically a 1-2 year lag between a foundation’s fiscal year end and when its 990 becomes publicly available. A 2024-dated filing reflects activity from the 2023 or 2024 fiscal year. This matters because priorities can shift. But giving patterns tend to hold — geographic focus, cause areas, grant sizes don’t usually change fast. Use 990 data as your research baseline, then verify current priorities through direct outreach.

Can small nonprofits compete for foundation grants found through 990 research?

Yes — and 990 data actually favors smaller organizations. The 41,000+ foundations giving between $50,000 and $250,000 annually are far more accessible than mega-foundations. Many of these funders don’t have formal application portals or dedicated screening staff. A well-researched, targeted approach based on 990 data can put a small nonprofit ahead of larger organizations that blast generic proposals to every foundation on their list.