Background
Private foundations in the United States are required to file Form 990s with the IRS. Form 990s can provide a wealth of information about a funder's assets, key personnel, and giving history, among other things. Instrumentl automatically imports these forms and transforms the data into easily digestible Funder Insights - tables, charts and graphs - so you can:
Quickly analyze giving trends
Make informed decisions about the opportunities you go after
Ensure funder alignment
What is a funder profile (990 report)?
The actual Form 990 filings to the IRS are included as PDFs in 'Funder Profiles'.
Private foundations' profiles are labeled as '990 reports'.
These 990 reports contain funder insights.
Note: Government and corporate funders are not required to file Form 990s with the IRS, so these funders will not have a 990 Report or any Funder Insights. Check if you see '990 Report' written next to 'FUNDER' to determine if we have the funder's 990 data:
vs 
Where are funder insights?
Both Basic and Advanced funder insights are located in the funder profile of a 990 report. There are a few ways to navigate to funder 990 reports:
Your project's Matches tab
Your Tracker
Quick find search bar
From the Matches view
Find funder insights when reviewing both your Opportunity and Funder Matches. For Opportunity Matches, you'll need to navigate to the 'FUNDER 990 Report' tab on the far-right-hand side and scroll down.
You can open up full-screen 990 reports directly from your matches as well!
From the Tracker view
Open up a saved opportunity in your Tracker, and then select Funder Profile from the left side menu:
Select the "expand" button in the top-right-hand corner to view it in full screen:
Via the Quick Find search bar
If you'd like to quickly look up the Form 990 for a specific funder, use Instrumentl's Quick Find search feature to search through all private foundations registered with the IRS.
Locate the Quick Find search bar at the top left of your screen, directly beneath the Instrumentl logo.
Recipient profiles
You can locate a nonprofit recipient of grants either by selecting one of the Past Grantees listed in a funder's 990 report (available on all plans) or via searching for a recipient via Quick Find, i.e., "reverse search" (on the Discover Plan and higher).
At the top of the recipient nonprofit page, you may need to toggle to View Recipient Profile if the nonprofit is both a recipient and a funder.
From here, you can open up funder 990 reports from two different insights:
Past Awards Received
Available on all plans, the Past Awards Received section lists the recipient's awards with the respective funders hyperlinked to their 990 reports.
For nonprofits on the Pre-Award Plan or higher, you can access a recipient profile's 'Funding History', which lists funders that've awarded the recipient in the past, each linked to a 990 report.
Foundation Directory
Setting up a project and reviewing its matches is the best way to find "good fit" grants & funders on our platform. However, we do also have a Foundation Directory where you can see Top Foundations by Total Giving in the USA. You can also browse by State or City, as well as by giving category. When you select a listed foundation, you're taken to its Instrumentl 990 report.
Researching a funder's Form 990 data is a great way to understand giving trends and make informed decisions about opportunities you pursue.
Contact us
Reach out to our friendly Support team if you have any questions about finding funder 990 data. Message us when you're logged in, or email us at hello@instrumentl.com.