Instrumentl: Our Hands-Down Favorite Grant Writing Tool

Let’s be honest—grant research can feel like an endless game of hide and seek. Sifting through never-ending databases to find the most relevant grants. Inconsistent details across different platforms. Outdated information. Sound familiar?

But when you have the right tools in your corner, grant research isn’t nearly so hard. 🛠️🙌

We’re always on the lookout for tools that make grant writing a little less daunting and a lot more effective. We recently wrote about our favorite grant writing resources, but we wanted to shine some light on our hands-down favorite tool. Why? Because we’ve seen firsthand the incredible difference it makes for nonprofit and freelance grant writers alike.

Introducing Instrumentl, our team’s most trusted grant research tool and an official partner of Learn Grant Writing.

What is Instrumentl?

Let’s start with the basics. Instrumentl is an all-in-one platform designed to help you find, track, and manage grants more effectively.

Founded in 2015, Instrumentl has quickly grown to become one of the most popular tools for nonprofits and grant writers, helping them secure over $6.7 billion and counting. Their mission is simple: Make the process of grant seeking faster, more efficient, and less overwhelming.

Whether you're new to grant writing or you’ve been in the game for years, Instrumentl is designed to save you time by bringing all of your grant research and management tasks into one place. It’s like having your own personal assistant, except without the coffee runs.

Learn Grant Writing has partnered with Instrumentl for years to offer our members a discounted first month of access to its tools—an easy way to save some coin while taking Instrumentl’s incredible features for a spin. Read on to learn how to access this deal.

Why Instrumentl?

Instrumentl isn’t just another tool—it’s the tool that takes your grant writing process from “meh” to “wow.” Here’s why we think it stands head and shoulders above the rest:

🎯 Big Takeaways: Comprehensive, Easy to Use, and a Serious Time-Saver

• Comprehensive: Instrumentl brings together an insane amount of funding opportunities. Whether you're looking for federal grants, state grants, or private funding, Instrumentl pulls from a massive database to give you the most relevant results. But it offers so much more than just a database of grants. Instrumentl combines all the tools you need to support the grant writing process—finding, researching, writing, tracking, and managing. Why spend more on multiple tools when one can handle it all?

• Easy to Use: Here’s the thing—grant research doesn’t need to be complicated. With Instrumentl, everything is organized, streamlined, and super easy to navigate. Whether you’re a tech whiz or a complete beginner, you’ll feel right at home. It’s intuitive, user-friendly, and designed to make your life easier. No more endless clicking and searching through clunky websites.

• A Time-Saver: Finding the right grants is time-consuming, and time is something we’re all short on. We love Instrumentl because it truly makes our jobs easier as grant writers. It helps you cut through the noise and find exactly what you need in record time. For example, intelligent matching features instantly highlight your most relevant opportunities, and advanced AI tools help you draft sections of your proposals in seconds. Combined with the platform’s intuitive, collaborative design, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Instrumentl’s Top Features

So, Instrumentl is the most comprehensive and easiest-to-use set of grant research and writing tools out there. How exactly can these tools benefit you?

Here are the top features we can’t get enough of, broken down into a few categories:

• Grant prospecting and research
  • An actively managed database of over 22k grant opportunities
  • Intelligent matching to quickly plug you into the perfect opportunities for your organization or project
  • Funder directory with tons of helpful information to help you find the right partners, including giving patterns, preferences, 990s, and openness to funding new grantees
• Grant writing
  • AI grant writing features to help you draft proposals faster
  • In-app application forms, a game-changer for streamlining logistics and reducing confusion during the writing and submission processes
  • Document libraries and collaboration tools to keep everything organized in one place
• Grant management
  • Intuitive tracking tools to manage active proposals and measure the effectiveness of all your hard work
  • A spend-down tracking feature that lets you manage grant budgets in one accessible place
  • Post-award grant management tools for assigning tasks, setting team reminders, and more

This list only scratches the surface of what Instrumentl offers—check out their overview page to take a closer look at its key features and use cases.

What Our Members are Saying

Industry-leading grant research and writing tools in one intuitive platform—what’s not to love? We could talk all day about how much we enjoy using Instrumentl, but we’d rather let Global Grant Writers Collective members speak for themselves!

Cara loves Instrumentl’s extensive prospecting tools and professional development offerings:

Jordan appreciates the platform’s intuitive design, workflows, and matching features that connect her with funders that were flying under her radar:

Beth has tried all the alternatives, but nothing has beat Instrumentl, which she relies on to manage and grow her grant writing consultancy, Sunflower Grants:

How to Save on Access to Instrumentl

Instrumentl is the real deal—it’s the grant research tool we swear by, and we think every grant writer should give it a try.

Instrumentl offers a free 14-day trial (that doesn’t require saving a credit card). Visit www.instrumentl.com/lgw to create your account and start identifying good-fit funders for your nonprofit in minutes.

Their team recommends that Instrumentl newbies create an account to see the platform for themselves and evaluate whether it’d be a good fit for their organization or clients. Every free account also gets the opportunity to have a strategy consult with an Onboarding Advisor who makes sure you’re set up for success from Day 1.

And to learn more, Instrumentl regularly hosts grant workshops with experts and community partners and posts the replays. These workshops can be helpful ways to get to know more about the company (and learn a new tip or two!) before trying out the tool.

We’ve also published our own rundown of how to use Instrumentl’s grant database and how freelancers can ask clients to help cover the subscription cost—check it out!

We truly believe Instrumentl can change how you research and write grants for the better. It empowers our members to maximize the value of their knowledge every day. Less time, less confusion, more funding, and more impact.

Free Grant Writing Trainings

These how-to videos offer a smattering of webinar replays from our online grant writing training and feature topics such as working remotely, project management, fundraising, and how to utilize the Freedom of Information Act for federal funding.

Access Free Trainings