Where Our Data Comes From
A fair question to ask before you trust a recommendation: when the agent says a funder writes $40,000 checks and has backed organizations like yours, what is that based on?
Many datasets, one subscription
GrantLoop draws on multiple funding datasets rather than a single source, and that set keeps growing. Some of it is public tax-filing data from private foundations and other grantmakers — the record of who they've actually funded, and for how much. Alongside that, the agent researches funders live on the web while it works.
The practical value is consolidation. Most grant tools sit on one dataset and sell you a subscription to it; if you want a second angle, you buy a second subscription and check it separately. Here the agent works across everything it has access to in one place, and whatever we add next is simply available to you — no upgrade, no migration, nothing to re-learn.
How current it is
There are two speeds, and it's worth knowing which is which.
Live research happens when you ask. Deadlines, whether a program is currently open, application questions, who works there — the agent goes and looks at the time of the request.
Historical giving data moves more slowly, because the underlying public records are published on their own schedule, generally a year or more after the giving happened. That's a property of the source, not of us, and it's true of every tool built on this kind of data.
So use the two for what each is good at, which is exactly what the agent does: giving history tells you who a funder backs and how much they write; live research tells you what's open right now. Our datasets update as new records are released.
Coverage
Coverage is strongest for US funders and US-based recipients, which follows from the public record being strongest there.
Organizations doing international work are well served if they have a US 501(c)(3) — many do, through a US fundraising arm — because the funders in scope give to US-registered entities. With no US entity at all, expect thinner giving-history coverage and more reliance on live research.
What it won't tell you
- Individual donors. This is grant fundraising; it has nothing to say about your major-donor pipeline.
- Anything a funder keeps private. Invitation-only funders may show a giving history with no way to apply. The agent will say so rather than invent a process.