So you've created a project on Instrumentl and received your grant matches, but how do you narrow down/organize your results in a way that is most useful?

Instrumentl has several helpful sorting and filtering options to make your match review as effective and efficient as possible.

From your Matches tab, select the Best Match drop-down at the top left of your list of matches. You'll see four options by which you can sort your matches: Best Match, Deadline, Amount and New.

By default, your grants are sorted by "Best Match". This is Instrumentl's proprietary way of ranking your grants that bring opportunities towards the top of your list that have the most in common with your project criteria. 

Sort your grants by "Deadline" if you want to see opportunities with upcoming deadlines first. This gives you a good way to ensure you don't miss out on relevant opportunities with deadlines coming up in the near future. 

Note that opportunities with rolling deadlines will be found at the bottom of your list when sorted by "Deadline".

Sort your grants by "Amount" if you want to see opportunities from funders who give larger amounts at the top of your list. Grants where amounts are unspecified will be found at the bottom of your list when sorted by "Amount".

Sort your grants by "New" if you want to bring grants that have been added to your matches within the last week to the top of the list. Look for the yellow "new" tag to easily identify new grant matches. 

Instrumentl is continuously searching for and building new active grant opportunities. As grants are released by Instrumentl, they will automatically appear in your list of matches if they match your project criteria. Keep an eye out for our Thursday newsletter to be notified of any new grants added to your matches that week.

From your Matches tab, select the Filter dropdown at the top of your list of Matches. You'll see several categories of filtering options: Saved or hidden on other projects, Funding use, Field of Work, Location of Project, Location of Residency, Past Giving*, Funder type and Location. 

*Past Giving is a filter option exclusive to the Standard Plan and above.

By default, Instrumentl will show all matches for a project, even if that grant opportunity has previously appeared in your matches for a different project.

If you would like to generate a list of net new matches that have never been saved or hidden in your other projects, you can de-select these top two boxes. De-selecting them will remove any grants that were previously saved or hidden across other projects.

Filter your grants by any of the funding uses you selected when you created your project. For instance, if you set up your project to search for grants for "Project/Program", "General Operating Expense" and "Training/Capacity Building", these are the options that will appear in your list of filters. If you'd like to see additional funding uses, select the "Edit Project" button at the top right of your screen to add them to your project.

This filter will allow you to hone in on grants for particular funding uses. For instance, you could select "General Operating Expense" to only review the grants from funders who give general operating grants.

Filter by Field of Work to narrow down your matches based on the specific Fields of Work selected when setting up the project. Read more about Field of Work filtering here.

Filter your Matches by Location of Project or Location of Residency to hone in on grants that apply to your area. This will narrow down the results to only those that specifically call out the location at a county level, rather than a national or state level. Selecting more than one location behaves as an "OR" statement rather than an "AND" statement , meaning you'll see results for Location A or Location B. Read more about Location of Project / Location of Residency filtering here.

If you are on our Standard Plan or above, you'll see an additional filter titled "Past Giving." Applying this filter narrows down your results to those that have previously given to either your Location of Project or Location of Residency on the county level. This is an awesome way to prioritize funders who are more likely to give to your area. Read more about Past Giving filtering here.

Instrumentl brings together active opportunities from private foundations and charities, corporations and federal/state government funders. Use this filter to view only grants from a particular kind of funder.

The toggle under this filter, "Strict location preferences" is selected by default when you look at your matches. This filter automatically removes grants from funders who have a preference for a location that is not yours (and therefore is likely to not be a great fit). For instance, if you are based in New York City, it would filter out a grant from a funder who says that they prefer funding organizations in San Francisco, but technically are open to applications from anywhere in the United States. 

If you'd like to browse the grants from funders who have a preference for locations other than yours, simply unselect this checkbox. Read more about strict location preferences here.

Instrumentl also has a keyword search option which allows you to search through the grant text in all your Matches. For instance, if you wanted to bring up any grants that specifically mention the word "police", you could use the keyword search to do so.

Pro tip: You can use the keyword search for any kind of keyword, including locations. That said, keep in mind that a funder may still be a good fit even if they don't mention a specific keyword in their grant description. 

Sorting and filtering your Matches is a great way to trim down your list and prioritize best fits first. Be sure to examine the funder 990 insights when reviewing Matches as well. Learn more about 990 insights here.

Reach out to our friendly support team if you have any questions about sorting or filtering. Message us via the chat bubble when you're logged in, or email us at hello@instrumentl.com.