You’ve got a program to fund, a deadline on the horizon, and a to-do list that’s already way too long. The last thing you need is to waste time on wild goose chases for grants that lead absolutely nowhere.
As someone juggling all of that myself, I get it! In fact, I recently had to find funding for an afterschool program at Communities in Schools of Pennsylvania (CISPA), where I am the Chief Executive Officer.
Between expired links, vague eligibility guidelines, and endless filtering, finding good-fit grants to hit my funding goal felt more like guesswork than strategy.
I realized that if I wanted to hit my funding goal for CISPA's afterschool program without the usual headache, I needed a smarter strategy.
- Some people told me ChatGPT was better than Google at finding grants.
- Others told me you needed a grant platform like Instrumentl to match you with relevant grants.
I decided to test both tools to see which one could actually help:
- Instrumentl, an all-in-one grant discovery and management platform, and
- ChatGPT, the AI assistant everyone seems to be turning to and talking about
Both promised to save me time—but only one actually delivered.
Using Instrumentl to Find and Track Grants: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
I started by testing Instrumentl to see how quickly and accurately I could find relevant grant opportunities for my afterschool program.
I’ll cut to the chase here and tell you that Instrumentl was much better. It got me a list of relevant grants that I was actually confident in applying for.
Here was my process:
High Level of How I Used Instrumentl
Here’s a high-level process of how I completed my grant search on Instrumentl. I’ll explain:
- How to set up a project
- Reviewing, sorting, and filtering matches
- Saving opportunities
- Mapping deadlines
- Tracking tasks
I wasn’t digging through a database. I was telling Instrumentl what grants I needed and letting it do the search for me.
Setting Up my Grant Search Project in Instrumentl
After logging into Instrumentl, the first step is to create a new project. Think of a project like a saved search—it tells the platform what you’re looking for, and keeps all your search criteria in one place.
Just click the “+ Project” button to get started.
Enter Basic Project Details
Next, you’ll fill in a few simple fields:
- Project name
- A short description of what you’re raising funds for
From there, Instrumentl generates keyword suggestions based on your description. It’s fast—and surprisingly accurate!
Project Type
After you select your keywords, you’ll enter:
- Project lead name (in this case, it’s me!)
- Project type: either “Matches & Tracking” (which gives you both grant matches and grant tracking) or just “Tracking” if you have a list of grants you want to upload.
Definitely go with “Matches & Tracking”—that’s where the magic happens!
Applicant Type & Faith-Based Filters
Next, Instrumentl asks what kind of applicant you are. I selected:
- Nonprofit
- And under faith-based filters, I checked “no” since our organization is not religiously affiliated.
Define Your Service Area
Then it’s time to get geographic. Instrumentl lets you pinpoint the exact areas your program serves.
First, I selected “Inside the U.S”.
Next, I chose my state—Pennsylvania—then drilled down into Dauphin County and Lebanon County.
Up to this point, the whole setup had taken me less than 3 minutes!!
Funding Details & Use of Funds
Now for the money part! Instrumentl asks:
- Minimum or maximum grant amounts (I left these blank)
- What the funds will be used for (I selected Program/Project Support and General Operating Expenses)
- What types of funders you want to include (I chose them all!)
Once you’ve entered in all that information, you click “Save and Exit”…and wait for the magic to happen!
Project Complete - Let the Matches Begin!
In total, it took me just 4 minutes to fully set up my project.
After I hit “Save and Exit”, Instrumentl generated a list of 468 grant opportunities within less than one minute!
Now, come along with me while I explain how I reviewed these matches and saved the opportunities I decided to pursue. Let’s dig in!
Reviewing Grant Matches
Once Instrumentl generated my full list of (468!) matches, it was time to dive in and start narrowing things down.
The layout instantly felt familiar—like an email inbox:
- On the left, you’ll find a scrollable list of grant opportunity matches.
- On the right, you’ll see full details for whichever opportunity you’ve selected.
Filtering and Sorting to Find the Best Grant Matches
Now, you might be thinking, “468 grants? That’s a lot to sift through!”
And you’d be right. But Instrumentl made it easy with powerful filters and sorting options that helped me quickly surface the most relevant opportunities.
You can sort by:
- Best match
- Deadline
- Grant amount
- Newest to oldest
You can also filter your results by criteria such as:
- Deadline status (e.g., only show grants with confirmed deadlines)
- Funding use (general operating or program/project support)
- Field of work (based off the keywords you entered during project setup)
- Location served
- Funder type
- Past giving activity (if the funder has supported projects similar to yours in the past)
My Filtering Strategy
Since I was working on a tight timeline and wanted to find funding quickly, I sorted my results by soonest deadline so that I could prioritize fast-approaching opportunities.
Saving or Dismissing Opportunities
Next, I began reviewing opportunities one by one.
I started with the Sompo Foundation. In the “Opportunity” tab, I could immediately see:
- Fields of work (based off the keywords selected during project setup)
- Allowable funding uses (e.g., program, general operating expenses)
- Location of project and residency requirements
- Application cycles
- Key contacts
- Where the funder is based
- A brief overview of the funding opportunity itself
At first glance, it looked like a potential fit—so I clicked the “Save” button to add it to my grant tracker.
If it hadn’t been a match, I could have clicked the “Hide from this Project” button, and the opportunity would have disappeared from my results list.
This simple feature helps keep clutter out of your opportunity matches list so you can stay focused and organized. It’s a small touch that makes a big difference when you’re reviewing dozens (or hundreds) of opportunities.
Tracking Grant Deadlines and Staying on Track
Once you’ve added a bunch of opportunities to your grant tracker, Instrumentl makes sure none of your deadlines fall through the cracks. The platform automatically generates a visual grant calendar based on your saved matches—simply click on the “Calendar” tab at the top of your screen.
Your Grant Calendar At-A-Glance
The calendar view lays out all upcoming funder deadlines in a clean, easy-to-read format.
On days where something is due, you’ll see a gray tile that includes:
- The type of task (e.g., “Funder Deadline”)
- The name of the opportunity (e.g., “Sompo Foundation Grant”)
At a glance, you can tell exactly what’s due and when, which makes planning your week (or your month, or your year) a whole lot easier.
And over time, your calendar will start to include more than just application deadlines. You’ll also see:
- Future grant cycles for saved opportunities with predicted deadlines
- Report due dates
- Assigned internal tasks with custom due dates
It’s one of the simplest ways to stay organized without having to build (or manage) a separate spreadsheet or reminder system.
Managing All My Grant Tasks
From the Calendar view, you can click on any task tile to open up the full grant opportunity page.
Click on the “Tasks” tab, and you’ll be able to build a fully customizable, interactive to-do list for yourself and your team—right inside the platform.
Creating a Task
To add a task, just click the “+ Add Task” button.
From there, you can input:
- A task title
- A description (for context or instructions)
- Optional attachments
- The type of task (LOI, full proposal, report, cultivation, or general)
- A due date
- Assignee (the team member it’s assigned to)
- Followers (team members who will receive email reminders as the deadline approaches)
Once you hit “Done”, the task is automatically saved, and now it appears on your project’s calendar as well!
Why This Feature Matters
This kind of built-in task management is a game changer. It keeps your entire team on the same page across every stage of the grant cycle—from research to writing to post-award follow-up.
Right now, my team is using it to:
- Ensure we don’t miss key deadlines
- Track internal reviews and edits before submission
- Stay ahead of final submissions to avoid last-minute tech issues or moments of panic
But honestly, the use cases are endless. Whether you’re coordinating across departments, juggling dozens of deadlines, or just trying to stay sane during grant seasons, these interactive tasks make it easy to stay organized and accountable.
Key Observations
Using Instrumentl gave me a clear sense of how the tool supports every stage of the grant search process—from research to discovery to deadlines. Below are my key takeaways from my experience: what worked well, what stood out, and where I saw the most value added.
- Relevance: Most matches were highly relevant—aligned with my geographic focus, program area, and funding needs. I didn’t have to wade through dozens of off-base results or sift out funders that weren’t a fit.
- Time Saved: What normally would have taken me an entire work day (8 hours)—jumping between foundation databases, search engines, notebooks, and spreadsheets—took me less than an hour with Instrumentl. That includes project setup, reviewing matches, saving opportunities, and assigning an initial batch of tasks. It’s not just about speed; it’s about getting more done with fewer clicks and fewer tools.
- Workflow Improvements: Instrumentl didn’t just help me find grants—it helped me streamline the entire grant search process across my team. The ability to assign tasks to my teammates, set due dates and reminders, and keep everything in one place meant that I could immediately hand off next steps without losing momentum or having to rebuild things in a separate system.
- Organization: Between the calendar, saved grants list, and task tracking, Instrumentl offers a centralized hub for everything grant-related. During the search process, I wasn’t toggling between different documents, email threads, and sticky notes. I had a clean, centralized workspace with everything in one place.
All in all, I found that Instrumentl delivered what I was hoping for: relevant results, an organized workflow, and perhaps best of all—time back in my day.
Using ChatGPT to Find Grants: How Well Does It Work?
After testing Instrumentl, I wanted to see if ChatGPT could help me identify more grant opportunities for the same project.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough of ChatGPT for Grant Searching
To get started, I entered a clear, specific prompt asking for grant opportunities for an afterschool program serving urban middle schools in my specific location in Pennsylvania. I specified that funding was needed for both general operating expenses as well as program costs
My Prompt to ChatGPT for Grant Search
ChatGPT quickly (in less than a minute) responded with a short list of 5 funding opportunities plus a list of suggested next steps. Each included a brief description and what appeared to be a direct link to the funder or grant program.
Check it out:
At first glance, these opportunities and suggestions seemed relevant. But when I clicked the links, none of them actually worked. They didn’t take me to application pages or funder websites; instead, I had to go to Google and search for each one manually.
Once I began doing my own research, the limitations of ChatGPT as a grant search tool quickly became clear.
The Results: What ChatGPT Got Right (and What It Didn’t)
While the initial response looked promising, the deeper I dug, the more limitations surfaced.
- Outdated opportunities
- Ineligible or irrelevant funders
- Broken links
- No tracking or organization tools
Let me explain each in more detail.
Outdated Opportunities
Two of the AI-suggested opportunities were no longer active and had outdated information.
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers application information had not been updated since 2023, and there were no current grant cycles.
- PCCD BOOST grants were also closed to applications with no current or predicted funding cycle listed. The website had last been updated in 2024.
Ineligible or Irrelevant Funders
Some suggestions didn’t apply to my organization or location:
- The PA Farm to School opportunity only funds public school districts—not nonprofits.
- The Buhl Foundation only serves the Pittsburgh area—the complete opposite side of the state from where my project is based.
- One vague suggestion, “PA general operating and program grants (foundation/state)”, didn’t seem to refer to any specific opportunity at all. I couldn’t find any grants tied to that phrase, which led me to suspect ChatGPT was simply recommending general operating and/or program grants offered by foundations or state entities. This isn’t super helpful.
Broken Links
None of the links ChatGPT provided led to an actual grant website. Even after asking ChatGPT specifically to include links in the results—the links were still broken.
I had to manually Google search each of the 5 suggested opportunities to find the website—turning what should have been a time-saver into a time-consuming scavenger hunt.
Why AI Grant Search Still Needs Human Oversight
There’s no built-in way to track or organize your search results in ChatGPT. I had to copy and paste each suggestion into a separate spreadsheet, which quickly became messy and inefficient.
I can only imagine how cumbersome it would have been if any of these opportunities had been worth pursuing, and I had to track deadlines, proposal requirements, and tasks. Yikes!
While ChatGPT offered a quick starting point, it ultimately required a lot of manual verification and didn’t surface any usable, ready-to-apply opportunities for my afterschool program.
ChatGPT vs Instrumentl: Best Tool for AI Grant Searches?
To make the differences clearer, here’s a quick side-by-side look at how Instrumentl and ChatGPT stacked up when it came to grant discovery, relevance, and overall usability. While both tools have their strengths, the experience of actually finding and managing real grant opportunities was very different.
While you could argue that both tools technically answered the prompt, only one gave me exactly what I needed to move forward with confidence. Instrumentl helped me go from idea to action, while ChatGPT pointed me in the general direction but left me to do the heavy lifting on my own.
Should You Use ChatGPT or Instrumentl for Grant Writing and Discovery
At first, ChatGPT felt like a helpful shortcut. But once I started checking the results, the cracks showed quickly.
Most of the grants it listed were outdated, inactive, or simply not applicable to my organization.
- One suggestion wasn’t even a real opportunity—it was just a vague category of funding.
- None of the links led to usable application pages, so I had to manually search for everything and track it all in a spreadsheet just to make sense of it.
Instrumentl, by contrast, gave me:
- A list of current, relevant funding opportunities I could actually apply for
- The tools to manage every step of the process, from deadlines to team assignments
Here’s the difference: ChatGPT gave me a list. Instrumentl gave me momentum.
If you’re serious about securing funding for your programs, don’t gamble on AI-generated lists. Use a purpose-built tool like Instrumentl to get relevant results, stay organized, and make every minute of grant-seeking count. Sign up for your 14-day free trial today!
