How to use Grant Radar

Using the search page

1. Say who is looking. Nonprofit includes local governments, schools and tribal entities. Business or entrepreneur includes farms, artists and the self-employed.
2. Type a name. A nonprofit can pick itself from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations, which fills in its county and often its focus areas. A business name only labels the download. Either name stays in your browser.
3. Tick what needs funding. A program shows when it matches any ticked area.
4. Choose a county. Programs that list their counties drop out when yours is not among them. Regional, statewide and national ones stay, and some of those limit their area in words, such as a distance from Asheville or a county tier, that the filter cannot read. Check where each one applies.

What the radar shows

Each dot is a matching program with a published deadline in the next 90 days. Nearer the center means sooner. Every other program is listed but not plotted.

How to read a card

The tab on the left gives the timing.

Closes

The first published deadline you must meet. If a step with no set date, such as a letter of inquiry or an invitation, comes before it, the card says so.

Due

A published deadline, but applications may not be open yet.

Opens

A published opening date. The card gives the closing date, if one is posted.

Any time

No closing date.

Usually

A cycle with no dates posted yet. The months are when deadlines have usually fallen. A tab reading Cycle shows no months.

The card lists the award, who can apply, where and the deadline. Check who and where: the filters are broad. Eligibility, how to apply and contact opens the rest. The Checked line gives the day the card was read against the funder's page, and says so once that is more than 90 days ago.

Save and download

Tick Save to keep a card. The four downloads hold the saved programs, or every match when none are saved: Excel; CSV, a plain table; Calendar, each card's dated deadline and any opening date, with a reminder two weeks before each deadline; and Printable report, for print or PDF.

Grant basics

In the federal government's terms, a grant is a kind of award: money or property given to accomplish a public purpose. It is not a loan. Accepting a federal grant, by signing the agreement or by drawing down funds, legally binds the recipient to its terms and to federal rules, and the work includes reporting progress.

Grants.gov describes a federal grant as a way the government funds ideas and projects to provide public services and stimulate the economy. Broadly, a foundation is a nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust that makes grants for charitable purposes. Companies give through programs run inside the business, or through foundations they fund.

Funders generally care whether your work fits their subject, serves the people they care about and happens where they give. Check eligibility first: Grants.gov warns that applying when you are not eligible wastes time and money.

Words on the cards

501(c)(3)

The part of the tax code under which charities are tax-exempt. Foundations generally give to nonprofits that have it.

Fiscal sponsor

An existing 501(c)(3) public charity that, under a formal arrangement, lets a group without that status ask for grants and tax-deductible donations under its own. Individuals, such as artists, can have one too. The sponsor keeps a fixed amount, typically 5 to 10 percent, for administrative services, and the arrangement is a signed contract.

Letter of inquiry or intent (LOI)

A brief letter describing an organization's work and its request, sent first so the funder can decide whether a full proposal would be appropriate. For many foundations, Candid says, the letter is enough to make a decision.

Match

The part of a project's cost that the grant does not pay. On a federal grant it is the part not paid by federal money, unless a federal statute allows otherwise.

Reimbursement

The funder pays after the money is spent, so the applicant covers the cost first.

General operating support

A grant for an organization's general purpose or work, rather than for a specific purpose or project. It is also called an unrestricted grant.

Rolling and cycle

Rolling: no closing date. Cycle: set windows, such as once a year.

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

The ID from the federal site SAM.gov needed to apply for, receive and report on a federal award.

If you are a business

The Small Business Administration does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business. For businesses the list also carries loans, prizes, fellowships, equity investment and in-kind help, each labeled by type; an accelerator (a coaching program) is labeled by what it gives. The IRS says a government grant to a business is generally taxable, except a grant a federally recognized tribe's government makes to a member to expand an Indian-owned business on or near a reservation. Applying for a federal grant is free. No government agency will contact you to demand payment for one. Programs here that charge an application fee are labeled Fee to apply.

A first application

1. Pick one program whose eligibility you meet in full.
2. Read the funder's instructions on its application page.
3. Gather anything the card lists under Have ready.

Sources: Grants.gov, Candid, Small Business Administration, IRS and Federal Trade Commission.

What this list covers, and what it does not

The list holds funding programs open to applicants in Western North Carolina: the 18 counties named at the foot of the search page, and the Qualla Boundary. That includes statewide and national programs. Where a funder does not say whether it covers the region, the card's Where note says so. A program is listed only if its funder publishes a way to start, such as an application, a letter of inquiry, an inquiry form, a contact to call first, a membership or a nomination. Each card was read on a page published by its funder or by the agency running the program, or an archived copy where the card says so, and names who may apply.

Left out:

• Funders that publish no way to start, such as foundations that take no unsolicited requests.
• Programs that have ended.
• Anything not read on a page the funder publishes, from a whole program to one detail. Where no award is stated, the card says so.

A deadline is shown as a date only when the funder has published it or states a standing yearly rule. Expected or tentative dates are given in words.

This list is not advice. Programs change, and the funder's page is the authority. Confirm details there before applying.

Before you apply

Some applications need a letter, a number or an account that takes days, weeks or longer to get. Quoted times are the sources' own words, read in October 2026.