Candid Foundation Directory alternatives in 2026

One request returns the funders that fit the program

On Candid you search, open profiles one at a time and download what the month's cap allows. On SpecStream you write the job once: "Private foundations in Texas that fund food security programs, with total assets, the officers and how to apply", or "Open federal grants for rural health clinics with an award ceiling above $500,000 and a deadline in the next 90 days". SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, then returns one row per funder or grant that meets all of them.

The records are already here

SpecStream holds 1,983,169 US nonprofits registered with the IRS, 1,657,622 of them 501(c)(3) charities, read from the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File as updated on November 9, 2026 and rebuilt every morning: specstream.ai/data/nonprofits. It reads Grants.gov each morning too. On November 9, 2026 that was 1,205 federal funding opportunities open or forecast, 872 of them accepting applications: specstream.ai/data/grants.

For each organization, SpecStream reads the latest Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF and returns total revenue, total assets, the year the return covers and the officers it lists, with their titles and pay. See nonprofits by cause and revenue.

Each figure keeps its filing and its year

Each number on a SpecStream row carries the URL of its return or page and the time it was read, so the board's pipeline shows which year every asset figure comes from. A result that fails one of your conditions is not delivered and not billed.

You pay for funders, and you see the price first

Candid Premium is $219 a month whether the month's search returns 5 funders or 500. SpecStream bills the rows that meet your request: 5¢ for a row with up to 5 facts, 15¢ for up to 15 facts and one set of related records, and $1 for a deep row with no limit. 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45. SpecStream quotes the most the whole run can cost, good for 30 minutes, and nothing runs until you approve it. A run that finds nothing costs nothing.

Reruns follow the grant calendar

Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢. New funders and new deadlines land in Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, Slack or email. Rows you already own are never charged again.

The search behind it leads two public benchmarks

SpecStream scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct), and 64.0 item F1 and 43.4 row F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The Extract API scores 0.908 F1 on WCXB. Scores and method are on benchmarks.

SpecStream

The live web data engine for teams and agents. Every funder, grant or nonprofit that fits your request comes back as a row at 5¢, 15¢ or $1, priced before the run, with $10 of credit on sign-up and no card.

Instrumentl

A grants platform sold by the seat band. Discover costs $299 a month paid upfront annually, or $349 paid monthly, for up to 3 users. Pre-Award is $499 a month for up to 5 users and Full Lifecycle is $999 a month for up to 15. On SpecStream there is no seat price: 300 funders with 15 facts each cost $45, and the whole team reads them.

GrantStation

A membership to a grantmaker database with search tools and writing guides. One quarter costs $219, one year $699 and two years $1,258. On SpecStream you pay for the rows a request returns, and the rows go into your own CRM or sheet.

Grantsights Pro

Foundation funder lists by cause and state. Pro costs $24 a month or $199 a year, with 25 saved grants and up to 3 people on one plan. A SpecStream request carries your program's own conditions, such as the cause, the state and the size of funder, and reruns on your schedule with every change labeled.