Frequently Asked Questions

GrantSonar is your AI grant team — an AI-native grants platform built for nonprofits and SLED (state, local, and education) organizations. We aggregate thousands of federal and foundation grant opportunities, score them against your organization's profile, and alert you when new matching grants are posted — so you spend less time searching and more time winning funding. Prefer it done for you? The Concierge Grant Sprint delivers a verified pipeline and a submission-ready draft.

GrantSonar is designed for 501(c)(3) nonprofits, SLED organizations (state agencies, local governments, school districts, and higher education institutions), and independent grant consultants who manage funding pipelines for multiple clients.

Click "Get started" in the top navigation or visit grantsonar.com/auth/signup. You can create an account with your email address. No credit card is required to start on the free plan.

Yes. The Free plan includes grant browsing, your top matches, and a weekly digest at no cost. Solo and Team include a 14-day no-card in-app trial. If you're ready to buy, Subscribe now starts checkout immediately.

Just your email address and a few minutes to fill out your organization profile — including your mission, focus areas, geographic scope, and eligibility type. The more detail you provide, the better your grant matches will be.

We continuously monitor federal sources like Grants.gov, SAM.gov, NSF, and NIH, as well as state grant portals and foundation databases. Our system ingests new opportunities daily, classifies them, and scores them against your organization's profile.

Our grant database is updated daily. We scan all monitored sources every 24 hours to catch new postings, deadline changes, and amendments. When we detect a change to a grant you're tracking, we notify you.

We currently index grants from Grants.gov, SAM.gov, NSF, NIH, state grant portals, and select foundation databases. We're continuously adding new sources — if there's a specific source you need, let us know at [email protected].

Yes. You can filter grants by award amount range, application deadline, eligibility type (nonprofit, government, education, tribal, etc.), CFDA number, funding agency, and geographic scope. Filters can be combined to narrow results to exactly what you're looking for.

A match score is a relevance rating (0–100) that shows how well a specific grant aligns with your organization's profile. It's calculated by comparing your mission statement, focus areas, geographic scope, eligibility type, and org size against each grant's requirements and stated objectives. The score is consistent and auditable — the same profile evaluated against the same grant will produce the same result. Higher scores mean a stronger fit on the criteria we measure.

Complete your organization profile as thoroughly as possible. Add a detailed mission statement, select all relevant focus areas, specify your geographic service area, and upload any supporting documents like your most recent annual report or strategic plan. The more context GrantSonar has, the better it can match you.

Federal grants come from U.S. government agencies (like HHS, DOE, NSF) and are posted on Grants.gov or SAM.gov. They tend to be larger, more competitive, and have stricter reporting requirements. Foundation grants come from private or community foundations and are typically smaller, more flexible, and may have simpler application processes. GrantSonar covers both.

We offer three plans plus Enterprise: Free ($0), Solo ($89/mo or $74/mo billed annually), Team ($179/mo or $149/mo billed annually, unlimited team members under fair use), and Enterprise (custom). A limited founding-member offer currently locks Solo at $49/mo and Team at $119/mo, billed month-to-month, for life while subscribed. Solo and Team can be billed monthly or annually.

The Free plan includes browsing the full grant database, up to 20 personalized matches, one program, and a weekly email digest. It's a great way to explore what's available without any commitment.

Yes, absolutely. All paid plans are month-to-month (or annual) with no long-term contracts. You can cancel from your account settings at any time. If you cancel, you'll retain access through the end of your current billing period.

Our pricing is already designed to be accessible for nonprofits — that's who we built this for. The free plan gives you a solid starting point, and annual billing on any paid plan saves up to 17%. For organizations with budget constraints, reach out to us and we'll work with you.

Team includes unlimited team members (fair use) and 15 programs with shared pipeline and collaboration — a fit for small teams and consultants managing several programs. Dedicated multi-client consultant workspaces are on our roadmap.

Award Intelligence lets you explore the history of funded grants — who received them, how much they got, and from which agencies. It's invaluable for understanding the competitive landscape, benchmarking award amounts, and identifying potential collaboration partners. Available on Solo and above.

The AI Fit Assessment analyzes a specific grant opportunity against your organization's profile and provides a detailed competitive positioning analysis. It highlights your strengths, identifies gaps, and suggests ways to strengthen your application. Think of it as a pre-application reality check. Available on Solo and above.

The Application Tracker is a built-in grant pipeline management tool. You can track the status of each grant you're pursuing (researching, drafting, submitted, awarded, etc.), set deadline reminders, add notes, and manage your entire grant portfolio in one place.

GrantSonar provides AI-assisted grant writing tools on the Solo plan and above. You get an application workspace with AI draft generation, per-section review, and structured templates. It's a collaborative tool — you bring the knowledge of your organization, and the AI helps you articulate it effectively. Final review and submission are always in your hands.

Yes. Free includes 1 program, Solo includes 5, and Team includes 15. Within your programs you can save and track grants with notes and status management.

Yes. Solo and above can export grant summaries in plain text; Team adds additional export options for application drafts.

CFDA stands for Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. It's a unique identifier assigned to each federal assistance program (now called the Assistance Listing Number or ALN). You can use CFDA/ALN numbers to filter grants in GrantSonar and track specific federal programs.

SAM.gov (System for Award Management) is the federal government's official registration system for organizations that want to receive grants. If you plan to apply for federal grants, you'll need to register in SAM.gov and obtain a UEI (Unique Entity ID). GrantSonar helps you find the grants — SAM.gov is where you register to receive them.

USASpending.gov is the official source for spending data on federal awards, including grants. GrantSonar uses USASpending data to power our Award Intelligence features, giving you insight into who has received federal funding and how much.

Our grant database is refreshed daily. We pull from all monitored sources every 24 hours. That said, we always recommend verifying deadlines and eligibility directly with the funding agency before submitting an application — grant details can change without notice.

Yes, we cover grants from select state portals and are expanding our state-level coverage continuously. Check our sources page or contact us to ask about specific states.

Yes. In addition to federal and state grants, we index opportunities from private and community foundations. Foundation coverage is growing as we add more data sources.

Yes. GrantSonar uses industry-standard security practices including encrypted data transmission (TLS), encrypted data at rest, and secure authentication through Supabase. We never store payment information directly — all billing is handled through Stripe. Your organization data is only used to provide you with grant matching services.

No. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal or organizational information with third parties. Your data is used solely to provide grant matching and related services within GrantSonar. See our privacy policy for full details.

Yes. You can request account deletion from your account settings page. When you delete your account, we remove your organization profile, saved grants, and personal information. Account deletion is processed within 30 days of your request.