Frequently Asked Questions

A program is the work you're raising money for, such as an after-school reading club, a food pantry or a mentoring scheme. You tell Sam about it once: the need, what you'll do, what will change, what the money pays for and your track record. Sam uses those answers for every funder you write to, so each concept note starts from the same facts. You'll find all your programs under My Programs on your dashboard, where you can update the answers at any time.

Your dashboard is home base. Overview shows what you've done so far and links to everything else. My Programs holds each program and its answers. Documents is your library. Impact Analytics summarizes your grant work. Chat with the team reaches a real person. Under Your Organization you keep your organization details, how you write and your writing language. Your account page is just for your login and billing.

Past proposals teach Sam how your organization writes: your tone, the words you use and the ones you avoid. That's what makes Sam's drafts sound like you rather than a template. You can see and adjust what Sam learned under How you write. Sam uses your past proposals for style only and never copies facts from them.

Program documents (a program description, a concept note, a plan) give Sam the facts about a program. If you upload one when you start a funder search, it's kept in your library too.

Impact reports keep your results on hand for when a funder asks what changed. Your documents stay private to your account.

Four folders: Past proposals, Drafts by Sam (every concept note and introduction email Sam wrote for you, showing the latest two versions of each), Program documents and Impact reports.

When a draft is ready, choose Save and submit on the draft page. Your edits are saved, you can copy or download the draft to send, and Sam asks whether to mark it as submitted. Your grant tracker updates on its own. You can also change the status of any application in the grant tracker.

One row for each program and funder, with the status of your application. Everything starts as Not submitted yet and moves through Submitted, Under review and the decision. Total requested adds up what you've asked for across your live applications, by program, so you can see your pipeline and plan ahead.

A quick read on your grant work for board reports and planning: how many proposals you've drafted, how well matched your funders are, and the match score behind each draft. You can export it for a board pack or a funder report.

A real person on the CharityGrantWriter team. We usually reply within a few hours.

You tell Sam, our assistant, about one program you need funding for. Sam shows you up to 10 US foundations you can approach in the next 3 months, each with the past grants that show it funds work like yours. Then Sam drafts a concept note and an introduction email for each funder you choose, written the way your organization writes.

Sam is the assistant inside CharityGrantWriter. Sam asks about your program, runs your funder search and writes your first drafts. When you use Chat with the team on your dashboard, a real person answers.

Three ways: talk it through with the mic, fill in a short form, or upload a program document you already have (PDF, Word or plain text, up to 10 MB). Sam reads back what it heard so you can fix anything before the search runs. If your document leaves something out, Sam asks for it.

US nonprofits looking for foundation funding for a specific program, through the US Beta. Canada and the UK are next. Join the early release list and be first in when we open. Get early access.

From the grants US private foundations report to the IRS on Form 990-PF: 2.28 million grants from about 95,000 foundations. Each grant record shows who received it, how much, the year, and usually what it was for. That's how we can show you the real grants behind every match.

We look at what each foundation has actually funded, not what its mission statement says: whether it has funded work like your program, whether it gives at the size you're asking for, and whether it gives where your program runs. Every match shows the past grants behind it, so you can judge the fit for yourself.

So every match is one you can act on now. Sam lists up to 10 foundations that accept applications in the next 3 months or at any time. When a foundation's dates aren't clear from its filings, the match says so, and it's worth checking with the funder before you write.

Some foundations say in their filings that they don't accept unsolicited applications. Sam lists a few of these separately, because the way in is usually a personal introduction rather than an application. If you know someone connected to one, it can be worth a conversation.

Yes. As new deadlines come into the 3-month window, you can refresh a program's matches. A refresh doesn't use up one of your searches.

Not yet. Matches come from private foundations that file Form 990-PF. Government grants and community foundations aren't included today.

A concept note and an introduction email for each funder you choose. Before the first draft, Sam asks a few questions about your program once: the need, what you'll do, what will change, what the money pays for and your track record. Sam reuses your answers for every funder, and you can update them at any time.

That's the point. Sam writes the way your organization writes: your tone, your words, and the words you never use. Sam learns this from past proposals you add to your document library, or from what you set under How you write. Your voice shapes the style only. Every fact in a draft comes from what you've told Sam.

Sam doesn't make it up. Anything missing is marked in square brackets, like [ADD] for information you need to fill in or [CHECK] for something to confirm. Each draft also shows where its content came from, so you can see which of your answers and which past grants it used.

Yes. Edit it on the draft page and your changes are saved. If you update your answers, Sam can redraft with them, up to 5 times per draft. When it's ready, copy it into your own template or download it as a text file.

No. They're strong first drafts, not finished applications. You review them, fill in anything marked, and decide what gets sent. Funders make their own decisions, and CharityGrantWriter can't promise any outcome.

You get 4 weeks of full access, free, with no card needed. Your 4 weeks start the day we approve your request. We review every request by hand, usually within one business day, and run the beta with 50 places at a time, so if they're all in use we'll let you in as soon as one opens.

You can keep going at the founding price: $75 a month or $750 a year, locked in for as long as you stay subscribed. You choose in your third week, and nothing is charged until your beta ends. If you don't continue, you keep a free account with everything you've made.

The usual price is $149 a month or $1,490 a year. US Beta members who continue pay the founding price instead, for as long as they stay subscribed.

5 program searches and 15 new proposals a month, up to 5 redrafts of each, and 20 detailed funder profiles a month. Editing, copying and downloading are unlimited. The beta includes the same.

Yes. Choose Manage billing on your account page. If you cancel, the founding price ends with your subscription.

Yes. The founding price is $750 a year, two months free compared with paying monthly.

No. Your organization's information is never used to train AI models, ours or anyone else's.

They're private to your account. We never sell your data or share it for advertising or marketing. A small number of service providers help us run CharityGrantWriter (hosting, our database, email, payments, and Anthropic, whose model Sam uses to write). Our Privacy Policy lists them and what each one receives.

Your programs, matches, drafts and documents are kept while your account is open, so you can come back to them, and deleted within 30 days of closing it. A search started without an account is deleted after 12 months without activity. To have anything removed sooner, email privacy@charitygrantwriter.com.

On your account page, choose Delete My Account. You can't log in from that moment, any subscription is cancelled, and all your data is permanently deleted within 30 days. You can also email privacy@charitygrantwriter.com and we'll do it for you.

Every connection uses HTTPS, passwords are stored only as secure hashes, and our database is encrypted at rest. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password that you don't use anywhere else.

Yes. You can ask to access, correct, delete or export your data at any time by emailing privacy@charitygrantwriter.com, and we respond within 30 days. Marketing emails only go to people who have opted in, every one has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribes take effect right away. Our mailing address is CharityGrantWriter, 214-50 Joe Shuster Way, Toronto, M6K 1Y8.

Nonprofits in the United States, through the US Beta. Canada and the UK are next. Join the early release list and be first in when we open. Get early access.

Not yet, but you're next. We're building CharityGrantWriter for Canada and the UK now. Join the early release list and you'll be first in when we open: Get early access.

Not at the moment. Email hello@charitygrantwriter.com to tell us where you're based, and we'll take it into account as we plan what comes next.

You need an approved account. Request access with your email or Google and a few details about your organization. We review every request by hand, usually within one business day, and email you as soon as you're in. Your matches and drafts are saved to your account.

One program in mind: what it does, where it runs and roughly how much you're asking for. A program document helps but isn't needed. It takes a few minutes.

On your dashboard, under Your Organization. Your account page is just for your login and billing.

Emails you need for your account: your beta approval, updates about your beta and your matches, and billing emails. Product updates and funding tips only if you opt in. You can change this any time on your email preferences page.