Is Foundation Directory Being Discontinued? What Changed and When

Last updated: October 2026

Is Foundation Directory being discontinued? It already has been. Foundation Directory Online, the database grant writers called FDO, is a product Candid's own contract terms now list as discontinued (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). Candid replaced it with a combined platform called Candid search, and any login page, library bookmark or training document that still points at the old product points at something that no longer runs.

The change did not land on a single day. It arrived as a launch announcement in January, a release to library and partner users in April, a retirement notice in July, and a contract document that now marks the old products as discontinued. For a research routine built on the old product, the switch means rebuilding saved work under new export rules.

Quick Answer: Is Foundation Directory Being Discontinued?

Yes. Foundation Directory Online is discontinued, per Candid's own terms (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). Candid search replaced it on January 15, 2026, and reached library and partner users on April 21, 2026, according to library notices. One university library gave July 20, 2026 as the old platform's full retirement date (Rutgers University Libraries, July 20, 2026).

Is Foundation Directory Being Discontinued, or Just Renamed?

Foundation Directory Online is discontinued as a product, and it was not simply renamed. Candid's Subscriber License Agreement lists "Foundation Directory Online (discontinued)" among the services its terms cover, with Foundation Directory Online Quick Start, Grants to Individuals, Foundation Maps, GuideStar Pro and Charity Check marked the same way (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, page dated April 25, 2025, read September 2026).

The replacement is a merge. Candid search combines the Foundation Directory and GuideStar data sets under a single login (Candid blog, January 20, 2026), and in the same post Candid stated it "will begin transitioning legacy Foundation Directory users" to the new platform, naming Foundation Maps and 990 Finder users among those to be moved (Candid blog, January 20, 2026).

Candid is itself the product of an earlier merger. Candid was formed in 2019 when GuideStar and Foundation Center merged (Candid press release, January 15, 2026), so one organization now holds the two data sets the old tools kept apart.

The old web address answers part of the question on its own. The address fconline.foundationcenter.org now serves a Candid page reading "Check out the new Candid search to power your fundraising." (Candid, read September 2026). A renamed product keeps its address and its accounts. This one hands both to something else.

Two details trip people up. First, the tier ladder: the Essential, Professional, Premium and Ultimate lineup is the retired one (independent Substack write-up, December 15, 2025), and Candid now sells two paid plans, Candid Premium and Candid Ultimate, which reuse two of the old names at new prices (Candid Learning, read September 2026). Second, the assumption that only the label above the door changed. The data sets merged, the filters moved, and the products that sat beside Foundation Directory now carry the same discontinued label (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

The FDO to Candid Search Timeline

There is no single shutdown date for Foundation Directory. The product was retired in phases across the year, and each phase left a dated record in a Candid announcement, a library notice, or a catalog entry.

The combined platform reached library and partner users on April 21, 2026, according to the Texas A&M University-Texarkana library guide, which states "Foundation Directory and GuideStar have transitioned to Candid Search, effective April 21, 2026" (Texas A&M University-Texarkana Libraries, August 31, 2026). The Dauphin County Library System wrote that "On April 21, 2026, Candid completed this work and released Candid search" (Dauphin County Library System, June 1, 2026).

The practical end of the old platform falls in the summer. Rutgers University Libraries posted that "The old platform, Foundation Directory, remains available but will be fully retired as of July 20, 2026" (Rutgers University Libraries, July 20, 2026). That is one institution's notice, not a Candid statement. Hedberg Public Library told readers on July 30, 2026 that "Foundation Directory & Guidestar Are Now Candid" and that the databases are "Now combined into one database" (Hedberg Public Library, July 30, 2026).

Library catalogs changed on their own schedules. The University of Delaware library catalog records the change as "Foundation Directory Online - Professional (TITLE CHANGED TO 'CANDID,' JUNE 2026)" (University of Delaware Library, read September 2026). Treat any page that still names Foundation Directory as stale until you have checked it against a Candid page carrying a date.

What Candid Said About the Discontinuation

Candid framed the change as the completion of a plan. Its launch release describes Candid search as "Marking the culmination of the 2019 merger that created Candid" (Candid press release, January 15, 2026).

Months later, Candid's outgoing president and CEO wrote that the integration work "culminated in January, when we launched our new unified, flagship product, Candid search" (Candid blog, June 10, 2026). The same post says "we restructured earlier this year to align our organization and talent with the investments needed", records the CEO's retirement, and says the role passes to an interim president and CEO (Candid blog, June 10, 2026).

In the same post, Candid's CEO described the pressure on the organization: Candid faces "a classic case of the innovator's dilemma" and must "compete with new entrants that have no legacy compatibility issues, lower cost structures, and the ability to move quickly" (Candid blog, June 10, 2026).

Press coverage adds figures. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on February 12, 2026 that Candid "is undergoing a major reorganization and has laid off 42 people, about one-fifth of its work force", discontinued its Philanthropy News Digest newsletter, and terminated its job site, which was folded into Idealist (Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 12, 2026). The same report says Candid "has experienced a decline in revenue over the past several years" and saw a drop in users for products such as Foundation Maps (Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 12, 2026).

That coverage also records a December deal to integrate Candid's data with Anthropic's Claude AI assistant, which Candid's CEO calls an "experiment" (Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 12, 2026). A follow-up on April 3, 2026 reports that "In January, Candid announced it would lay off 42 workers, or about 20 percent of its staff" and that "Two months later" its president announced her retirement (Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 3, 2026).

None of that is a shutdown story. The reported facts are a reorganization, a 42-person layoff, a leadership handover, and a strategy built around data and AI (Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 12, 2026; Candid blog, June 10, 2026). A nonprofit commentary site read the shift as "a strategic pivot away from being an infrastructure backbone and toward becoming a data vendor to AI platforms" (Unfunded List, February 19, 2026).

Which Candid Products Were Discontinued

Foundation Directory Online was not the only product retired. Candid's Subscriber License Agreement marks these legacy services as discontinued, and Candid said 990 Finder users would move into Candid search as well (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026; Candid blog, January 20, 2026).

The Foundation Directory and GuideStar data did not go with them. Candid search holds grants given, grants received, funder guidelines and grant transaction profiles in one place (Candid help center, read September 2026). Its fundraiser tools surface grantmakers "based on funding priorities, geographic focus, issue areas, and populations served using one tool", plus peer benchmarking (Candid blog, January 20, 2026).

Search filters moved into the new interface as well. A university library note records that "The previously available filters in Guidestar and Foundation Directory have been folded into Candid" and warns that "Online help documentation has not yet been updated" (Villanova University Falvey Library, May 6, 2026).

The products are gone, and the Foundation Directory and GuideStar data now sits behind one Candid search login.

What the Discontinuation Means for Research Workflows

A workflow built on FDO exports and saved searches needs a one-time rebuild, and the export rules changed with the platform.

Start with the exports. Candid's legacy Foundation Directory help article tells users to "Choose 'CSV' to export your results as a spreadsheet" and notes "Exports are limited to 100 line items at a time" (Candid Learning, read September 2026). Plan on rebuilding saved searches and prospect lists in the new filter set. Do not assume they carried across.

Download allowances are now monthly and capped. Both Premium plans include unlimited search results and unlimited full profile views, but Premium monthly allows downloads of up to 250 grants and 750 profiles per month, and Premium annual up to 1,000 grants and 5,000 profiles per month (Candid pricing page, read September 2026).

The license draws a hard line on bulk extraction. Candid's Subscriber License Agreement 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 database(s) ... is STRICTLY PROHIBITED" (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, page dated April 25, 2025, read September 2026).

On Reddit, one commenter wrote "I don't need their AI to write an LOI for me, I need to be able to download an excel of past relevant grants" (Reddit thread 1vb5ctu, read September 2026), and another said "it's genuinely easier for me to look through pdf 990s manually than use Candid" (Reddit thread 1wcw9yl, read September 2026). Those are individual opinions, not facts Candid has confirmed.

Grantmakers.io covers one filing type, Form 990-PF, so community foundations, which file Form 990, do not appear there (Grantmakers.io, read September 2026). Free in-person access at Candid partner locations is a separate route with its own rules. Our guide to no-cost foundation research routes covers the options.

Where Foundation Research Stands After the Switch

The data did not disappear. The interface did, and you should not assume your saved work traveled with it.

Rebuild in this order: saved searches, prospect lists, then the exported files you treat as a working set. The paid filter set in Candid search includes zip code and radius, affiliation type, IRS subsection, total revenue, total expenses, total assets, IRS form type, number of employees, total contributions, program service revenue, cash and equivalents, and investments and securities (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

Relearn the steps from the interface itself and keep your own notes as you go, since help pages written for the old product can still describe screens that no longer exist.

Check which access route you actually hold before you build a workflow on it. Candid's help center notes that an individual subscription adds features "not available in public access versions" (Candid help center, read September 2026), and one user reported that "a lot of places have been dropping Candid over the past year or two" (Reddit thread 1p511oo, read September 2026).

GrantCue keeps a foundation directory of its own for lookup work of this kind. Its public foundation profiles cover more than 10,000 private foundations built from IRS 990-PF public filings, and the directory can be filtered by whether a foundation indicates it accepts applications (grantcue.com, September 2026), so a quick check does not need a subscription.

Whatever tool you land on, record what you find while it sits in front of you. A prospect note kept in a spreadsheet grant tracker or a pipeline record survives a platform change in a way that a saved search does not.

FAQ

Is Foundation Directory Being Discontinued?

Yes. Foundation Directory Online is discontinued and Candid search replaced it (Candid press release, January 15, 2026). Candid's Subscriber License Agreement lists "Foundation Directory Online (discontinued)" among the services its terms cover (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). The old web address now serves a Candid page pointing readers at Candid search (Candid, read September 2026).

When Was Foundation Directory Discontinued?

The retirement ran in stages. Candid launched Candid search on January 15, 2026 (Candid press release, January 15, 2026) and released it to library and partner users on April 21, 2026 (Texas A&M University-Texarkana Libraries, August 31, 2026). One university library gave July 20, 2026 as the date the old platform would be fully retired (Rutgers University Libraries, July 20, 2026). Candid's own terms now mark the product as discontinued (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Is GuideStar Also Being Discontinued?

GuideStar Pro is. Candid's Subscriber License Agreement lists "GuideStar Pro (discontinued)" and "Charity Check (discontinued)" among its covered services (Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026). GuideStar's nonprofit data did not disappear: Candid search brings GuideStar and Foundation Directory capabilities onto one platform (Candid blog, January 20, 2026), and one library notice describes the two as "Now combined into one database" (Hedberg Public Library, July 30, 2026).

Why Did Candid Replace Foundation Directory?

Candid describes Candid search as "Marking the culmination of the 2019 merger that created Candid" (Candid press release, January 15, 2026). In a June 2026 post on Candid's future, its CEO wrote that Candid faces "a classic case of the innovator's dilemma" and must "compete with new entrants that have no legacy compatibility issues, lower cost structures, and the ability to move quickly" (Candid blog, June 10, 2026).

Did Foundation Directory Change Its Name to Candid?

Not simply. Some library catalogs record a title change to Candid (University of Delaware Library, read September 2026), but the product merged: Candid search combines Foundation Directory and GuideStar into one platform with a single login (Candid blog, January 20, 2026). Of the old tier names, Essential and Professional are retired, while Premium and Ultimate now name Candid search's two paid plans (Candid Learning, read September 2026).

What Happens to Data I Already Exported From Foundation Directory?

Files you saved before the switch stay on your own drive, and the discontinuation does not reach them. Candid's legacy export help article describes the CSV export and states "Exports are limited to 100 line items at a time" (Candid Learning, read September 2026). For new pulls, Candid's pricing page caps monthly downloads by plan and its license prohibits bulk extraction (Candid pricing page and Candid Subscriber License Agreement, read September 2026).

Run the Next Search on the Current Platform

The transition is finished on Candid's side and the record of it is dated and public. Rebuild saved searches in the new filter set, keep your own notes on each funder, and pull 990s from a free filing source while you decide what to pay for.

Whatever access route you settle on, put its renewal or end date in a shared calendar, so a route that lapses mid-year does not force a second rebuild.

For the search itself, browse grant calls open now, and work through the research method in our funder research guide for nonprofits.