Foundation Directory Online Cost: What Candid Charges in 2026

Anyone checking the Foundation Directory Online cost today is really pricing Candid search, because Candid stopped selling the product that carried the old name. Candid's own subscriber agreement lists Foundation Directory Online among its discontinued services (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Candid's published prices sit behind a Standard and Nonprofit Discounted toggle, the download caps change with the billing period, and some routes cost nothing at all. Each figure carries the date it was read, because the whole product line was rebuilt during 2026 (Candid press release, January 15, 2026).

Quick Answer: What Does Foundation Directory Online Cost?

Candid no longer sells Foundation Directory Online. Its replacement, Candid search, lists Premium at $219 a month or from $1,199 billed annually, and Ultimate from $1,699 billed annually (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Those are the nonprofit-discounted rates, and funders pay a higher Standard rate. A registered free tier and on-site access at partner locations still cost nothing.

Why the Old Price List No Longer Applies

The old Foundation Directory tiers are not on sale any more. Candid's help center now states that Candid search offers two paid subscription plans, Candid Premium and Candid Ultimate (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

The retired ladder ran five deep: Free, then Essential and Professional at one seat each, then Premium and Ultimate at two seats each, as an independent write-up recorded shortly before the change (independent Substack write-up, December 15, 2025). Essential and Professional are gone. Premium and Ultimate survive only as names, so check the date on any renewal quote or budget line before you trust the figure beside a tier name (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

The old top tiers ran to several thousand dollars a year for two seats (independent Substack write-up, December 15, 2025). The current annual plans start at $1,199 for Premium and $1,699 for Ultimate at the nonprofit-discounted rate, with Enterprise quoted separately (Candid pricing page, read September 2026).

Published prices also sit behind a toggle. Candid's pricing page switches between Standard and Nonprofit Discounted pricing, with the discounted rate eligible to all verified non-funding organizations (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Candid's launch release says paid pricing is designed so that nonprofits and others with limited budgets pay lower rates, made possible by higher pricing for corporate clients and foundations (Candid press release, January 15, 2026). A foundation or a corporate buyer should expect a quote above the published nonprofit rates.

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What the Two Paid Plans Cost Today

On the nonprofit-discounted setting, Premium is listed at $219 a month, or $100 a month on the annual plan with a starting price of $1,199 billed annually, and Ultimate annual is listed at $142 a month with a starting price of $1,699 billed annually (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). A third-party price check dated June 18, 2026 recorded the public nonprofit-discounted path as Free, Premium monthly at $219 a month, Premium annual at $1,199 billed annually, Ultimate annual at $1,699 billed annually and Enterprise custom pricing (Grantsights, June 18, 2026).

Nonprofit-discounted prices and plan contents from Candid's pricing page, help center and Go for Gold page (read September 2026).

Both Premium plans include unlimited search results and unlimited access to full profile views (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Downloads are the part that is not unlimited. Premium monthly allows up to 250 grants and 750 profiles a month, and Premium annual allows up to 1,000 grants and 5,000 profiles a month (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). One commenter on Reddit said they were fooled by the unlimited searches feature in the price list (Reddit thread 1vb5ctu, read September 2026).

That gap is the reason to price the year and not the month. The annual plan costs less per month and raises the download ceiling fourfold on grants and nearly sevenfold on profiles (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). A team that runs one research sprint a year can take the monthly plan and cancel; a team that exports prospect lists every month cannot.

Candid's help center lists unlimited 990 downloads as a Premium feature, so reading tax filings is not what consumes the allowance (Candid Learning, read September 2026). Premium includes two user licenses (Candid Learning, read September 2026). A team of three or more should ask Candid how extra users are priced before buying.

Candid describes its fundraising assistant as an AI agent for nonprofit fundraisers that can search funders, grants and Candid's expert knowledge, and draft a letter of inquiry in seconds (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). The plan comparison lists 25 credits a month on Premium and 250 a month on Ultimate, notes that each prompt uses credits, and says credits are restored each month based on the subscription date (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Our walkthrough on building a funder prospect list sets out the research method that sits behind any of these tools.

Candid Ultimate Cost and What the Extra Buys

Ultimate costs $500 more a year than the annual Premium plan at the listed nonprofit-discounted starting prices, $1,699 against $1,199 (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). The gap buys compliance checking, a visualization tool and ten times the AI credits.

Ultimate includes everything in Premium plus instant nonprofit compliance status drawing on 6 federal and state sources, including BMF, Pub78, Automatic Revocations, IRB, OFAC and California AB 488 (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Candid says it monitors all data sources daily to detect any updates not officially announced, and that compliance reports are downloadable (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Candid's help center states that only Ultimate subscribers have access to Compliance Reporting, which includes IRS Publication 78 data, Business Master File data and a downloadable compliance report (Candid help center, read September 2026).

Ultimate also adds Landscapes, which Candid describes as its data visualization tool for funding trends (Candid pricing page, read September 2026).

The test for the higher tier is how often somebody has to prove an organization's tax status. A fundraising team checking its own eligibility a few times a year is paying for monitoring it does not use. A grantmaker, a fiscal sponsor or a united fund clearing dozens of grantees is buying back staff hours and an audit trail it can file.

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Free and Discounted Routes That Cut the Cost to Zero

Three routes bring the cost to zero: the free registered tier, on-site access at partner locations and the Go for Gold promotion. Candid's help center states that it offers two ways to gain free access to its subscription products, in-person access at partner locations and the Go for Gold promotion (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

Registration itself is free. Candid states that Candid search is free for anyone who registers at candid.org (Candid press release, January 15, 2026), and that core information such as nonprofit profiles and IRS Forms 990 remains accessible without registration or subscription (Candid blog, January 20, 2026). The free tier gives one full profile view a month, limited search results, limited personalized dashboards, the ability to claim and update an organization profile and the ability to earn a Seal of Transparency (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). One profile view a month reads a single funder well and builds no prospect list.

Go for Gold is the route that turns a year of fees into nothing. Candid states that if a 501(c)(3) nonprofit's annual revenue or expenses total less than $1M and it earns a Gold Seal of Transparency or higher, it can receive a free year of access to 2 seats of Candid Premium (Candid Learning, read September 2026). The seal has to be earned between January 5 and December 31, 2026, the offer must be claimed by December 31, 2026, and coupons are for new subscribers only, one-time use and non-transferrable (Candid Learning, read September 2026). A credit card is required to process the 100 percent off discount, and organizations filing a 990-N have to email GoforGold@candid.org for the coupon code (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

The seal is cheaper to earn than it sounds. Candid said in 2024 that a nonprofit can earn a Gold Seal of Transparency without sharing an audited financial statement, needing only fiscal year, revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities (Candid blog, March 19, 2024).

Partner locations are the other free route, and access is on-site: Candid said in July 2026 that it offers free access through over 2,180 locations across the United States (Candid blog, July 15, 2026). One commenter on Reddit said "a lot of places have been dropping Candid over the past year or two" (Reddit thread 1p511oo, read September 2026), so call ahead. Our guide to free alternatives to a paid directory compares the no-cost routes.

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How the Price Compares With Other Funder Databases

Candid's annual Premium plan, starting at $1,199 at the nonprofit-discounted rate, sits in the middle of this market, not at the top (Candid pricing page, read September 2026).

Prices from each vendor's own site; Candid rows are nonprofit-discounted starting prices, and the GrantStation figures come from TechSoup's support page, updated August 6, 2026.

Instrumentl's Discover plan is listed at $299 a month paid upfront annually, or $349 paid monthly (Instrumentl pricing page, read September 2026). A price check dated August 7, 2026 recorded annual totals of $3,588, $5,988 and $11,988 across its three published plans, twelve times the listed monthly prices and not figures Instrumentl publishes, with user caps of 3, 5 and 15 (Grantsights, August 7, 2026). The same check reported that Instrumentl's official FAQ says its pricing is already its nonprofit pricing, and that Instrumentl does not publish a second nonprofit discount (Grantsights, August 7, 2026).

Cheaper subscriptions exist. TechSoup says it typically offers a GrantStation promotion twice a year, in spring and fall (TechSoup Support, updated August 6, 2026). GrantWatch states that its pricing is the same for everyone regardless of buyer type (GrantWatch FAQ, read September 2026), and Kindora's four plans carry 1, 2, 3 and 8 seats (Kindora pricing page, read September 2026).

Two research tools publish no price at all. GrantForward states that price is determined by institution size, in terms of both total population and annual research expenditures, and asks buyers to contact support (GrantForward, read September 2026). Pivot-RP publishes no list price and is licensed to institutions, so an individual cannot subscribe alone (Clarivate and CASRAI guide, read September 2026). Foundant's GrantHub is no longer a choice: trade sources report it was discontinued on January 31, 2026, and Foundant never published its price (Grantsights, August 3, 2026; Foundant, read September 2026).

Free tax-filing research changes the arithmetic for a small shop. Grantmakers.io is free and built from public 990s, though it covers Form 990-PF only, so community foundations, which file Form 990, do not appear there (Grantmakers.io, read September 2026). It also limits searches as a free community service (Grantmakers.io, read September 2026). ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer is free and includes summary data plus full Form 990 documents in PDF and digital formats, last updated August 20, 2026 (ProPublica, August 20, 2026). Our guide to grant tracking software options covers the tracking side that funder databases leave out.

Renewal, Refunds and Download Limits That Change the Real Cost

The sticker price is not the whole cost, because the terms decide what happens when plans change. Candid's subscriber agreement states in capitals that all subscriptions are non-refundable (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Accounts renew on their own. The agreement states that all accounts will automatically renew at the then current subscription plan fee upon the next anniversary date of the subscription, and that there is no proration of the charge if a subscriber terminates before the end of the subscription period (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). It also states that the contract renews at its plan level and frequency unless either party gives at least thirty days prior written notice before the expiration of the current term (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Cancelling early stops the next bill and nothing else. Candid's help center explains that cancellation runs through Account, then Manage, then Cancel Subscription, and notes the cancellation is effective on the last date of the plan, not on the day you cancel (Candid Learning, read September 2026). The agreement gives a worked example: a subscriber on an annual plan starting December 15 who cancels the following July 15 has already been billed through December 14 and keeps access until then (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Bulk downloading is barred by contract as well as by plan. The license states that printing or downloading of any search output may not exceed a significant segment of the databases, and that scraping or other technological means of wholesale or material downloading or storing of the databases is strictly prohibited, with excessive downloading justifying immediate suspension or termination of access (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). A subscription buys research access, not a copy of the data.

GrantCue prices discovery and tracking differently from a funder database. Its foundation directory, built from IRS 990-PF public filings, sits beside live federal and state listings, AI fit scoring and a kanban pipeline, and its free personal tier costs $0 with 10 active opportunities and 3 AI summaries a month; paid plans start at Essentials, $49 a month for 3 users (grantcue.com, September 2026). Set those GrantCue plan prices beside the Candid figures above when you build the budget.

FAQ

How Much Does Foundation Directory Online Cost in 2026?

Candid no longer sells Foundation Directory Online logins, and its own terms list the product as discontinued (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). Its replacement, Candid search, lists $219 a month for Premium monthly, from $1,199 billed annually for Premium annual, and from $1,699 billed annually for Ultimate annual at the nonprofit-discounted rate (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). A registered free account and on-site partner access remain at no cost.

What Does Candid Ultimate Include for the Higher Price?

At the nonprofit-discounted rate, Ultimate annual starts at $1,699 billed annually, $500 above the annual Premium plan (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). It adds instant nonprofit compliance status drawn from 6 federal and state sources with downloadable reports, daily monitoring of those sources, Landscapes for funding trends, and 250 fundraising assistant credits a month in place of 25 (Candid pricing page, read September 2026).

Do Paid Plans Include Unlimited Downloads?

No. Both Premium plans include unlimited search results and unlimited access to full profile views, but downloads are capped every month (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Premium monthly allows up to 250 grants and 750 profiles, and Premium annual allows up to 1,000 grants and 5,000 profiles (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). The license separately forbids bulk extraction (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

How Can a Small Nonprofit Pay Nothing for a Year?

The Go for Gold promotion gives a free year of access to 2 seats of Candid Premium to nonprofits whose annual revenue or expenses total less than $1M and that earn a Gold Seal of Transparency or higher (Candid Learning, read September 2026). The seal must be earned between January 5 and December 31, 2026, the coupon claimed by December 31, 2026, and a credit card is required at checkout (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

Which Cheaper Tools Cover Similar Ground?

TechSoup lists a GrantStation one-year membership at $199, with $150 for TechSoup Plus members, against a $699 list price on GrantStation itself (TechSoup Support, updated August 6, 2026). GrantWatch sells weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual access at $22, $49, $100 and $249 (GrantWatch FAQ, read September 2026). GrantLedger Pro is $299 a year (GrantLedger pricing page, read September 2026). Grantmakers.io and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer are free for 990 research (Grantmakers.io, read September 2026; ProPublica, August 20, 2026).

Set Your Candid Budget Before You Pay

Price the year and not the month if anyone exports lists, because the annual plan lifts the ceiling from 250 grants and 750 profiles to 1,000 grants and 5,000 profiles (Candid pricing page, read September 2026). Test Go for Gold eligibility before paying anything, since a Gold Seal earned under the $1M revenue or expense threshold covers two seats for a year (Candid Learning, read September 2026). Then put the renewal date in a shared calendar with a warning a month ahead, because accounts renew automatically at the then current fee and no subscription is refundable (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).