Once you've created a project on Instrumentl and received your grant matches, you can continue to narrow down/organize your results further.

Instrumentl has several useful sorting, filtering, & search options to make your match review as effective and efficient as possible.

Follow along with the video above as you begin exploring how to pare down your own matches! Jump to a specific section below to learn more about sorting, filtering, and searching text across your results.

From your Matches tab, select the Best Match drop-down menu at the top left of your matches list. 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 when sorted by "Deadline", opportunities with rolling deadlines will be found at the bottom of your list.

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! Learn how to update your match email preferences here.

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

If your plan includes Peer Prospecting, filtering by peers is a great way to boost your efficiency by focusing on funders that have given to similar nonprofits.

Use this toggle to quickly narrow down your Matches to just those from funders that have previously given to your peers. You can also click on Edit Peer List to easily jump to & review Organization Peers.

*Gives to Peers is a filter option exclusive to nonprofits on the Professional 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 untoggle these top two boxes. Deselecting them will remove any opportunities that were previously saved or hidden across other projects.

With the "Deadlines" filter, you can limit your search to only grants with confirmed deadlines. This will exclude grants where the upcoming cycle dates are still predicted, allowing you to manage your timeline realistically and set concrete application goals that fit your schedule.

If you're deciding whether this filter may be useful for your prospecting purposes, consider learning more about the process Instrumentl uses to generate & update predicted deadlines.

Filter your grants by any funding uses you selected when you created your project. For instance, if you set up your project to search for funding for "Project/Program", "General Operating Expense" and "Training/Capacity Building", these are the options that will appear in your list of filters.

This filter allows you to narrow your grants pool to those intended for particular funding uses. For instance, you could select "General Operating Expense" to only review opportunities from funders who give unrestricted grants.
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If you'd like to see additional funding uses, select the purple Edit Project button at the top right of your screen to add them to your project:

Filter by Field of Work to narrow down your matches based on the specific Fields of Work(s) 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 zero in on grants that apply to your area.
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This filter can 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.

You can review in-depth information about filtering by Location of Project / Location of Residency here.

On our Standard Plan and above, you'll see an additional filter titled "Past Giving."

Applying this filter narrows down your results to funders that have previously given to either your Location of Project or Location of Residency at the county level. This is a great way to prioritize funders who are more likely to give to your area and increase your chance of success!

Read more about filtering by Past Giving here.

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

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

By default, the "Strict location preferences" toggle is automatically selected when you view your matches. This filter automatically removes grants from funders who have a geographic preference for a location of residency or project 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 toggle it off.

Read more about strict location preferences here.

The Matches tab also includes 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.

This is a great way to target explicit, purposeful terms to highlight the grants that could work well with your particular mission, specific focuses, or accommodate your organization type & funder preferences.

Note: You can use the keyword search for any kind of keyword, including locations. However, please 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 the best fits for a given project.

When reviewing your Matches, you can examine a variety of Form 990 Insights on the Funder's page to dissect key statistics. Learn all about Instrumentl's 990 Insights and effectively using these features in our dedicated 990 Insights research collection.

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.