Candidvs
GuideStar
GuideStar: The nonprofit profile and transparency side of Candid, if that is all you need
Candid
Funder and nonprofit data subscriptions from the organisation formed by Foundation Center and GuideStar
As of 31 August 2026, Candid starts at $219/month. Candid sells the underlying data most grant prospecting tools resell: Foundation Directory for grantseekers, Nonprofit Profiles and charity check data for funders. Softwr lists it under Nonprofits. Candid is available on Web, API.
Overview
What Candid does
Candid was formed in 2019 by the merger of Foundation Center and GuideStar. Commercially it sells three things: Foundation Directory, a searchable database of US grantmakers built from Form 990 filings and grant records; Nonprofit Profiles and the associated seals of transparency, which nonprofits maintain themselves; and data products including charity check and bulk data feeds licensed by funders, banks and software vendors. The distinguishing fact is that Candid is the source rather than an aggregator. A large share of grant research and due diligence tooling in the US sector, including features inside donor CRMs and grants systems, is powered by licensed Candid data. Buying direct removes a layer, but it also means you get a research database rather than a workflow tool: Foundation Directory tells you who funds what, and nothing about managing your own pipeline. Buyers split into two groups. Grantseeking nonprofits subscribe to Foundation Directory, in Essential or Professional tiers, to build a prospect list. Funders, financial institutions and software vendors license the data via API or bulk feed for due diligence and product features. The trade-off for the first group is that the data is drawn largely from 990 filings, so it is historically accurate and up to eighteen months behind current funder priorities.
What people use it for
- A development director building a list of foundations that have actually funded organisations of your size, sector and geography in the past three years
- A funder verifying US tax exempt status before releasing a grant payment
- A software vendor embedding nonprofit organisation data and charity verification into its own product
- A nonprofit maintaining a transparency seal on its public profile because institutional funders check it before giving
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Candid.
- Grant records derive largely from Form 990 filings, which are published with a lag, so the database describes what a funder did up to eighteen months ago rather than what it intends to fund now.
- Foundation Directory is a research database, not a pipeline tool: there is no proposal tracking, deadline management or task assignment, so most teams pay for a grants tracker alongside it.
- Monthly pricing is high relative to the budget of a small nonprofit, and the same database is available free in person through partner libraries in the Funding Information Network, which makes the subscription hard to justify for occasional research.
- Coverage is US-centric and built on the US tax filing system, so it is of limited use to organisations seeking funding from UK, EU or Commonwealth foundations.
- Many funders do not accept unsolicited proposals at all, and the database cannot reliably tell you which, so prospect lists built from it still require manual qualification before outreach.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Candid
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
Pricing
What Candid costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Foundation Directory Essential
$219 /mo
- Search US grantmakers and grant records
- Saved searches and prospect lists
- Single user
- Annual commitment available at a lower monthly rate
Foundation Directory Professional
$1,499 /mo
- Full grantmaker, grant and recipient search
- Trustee and key staff search
- Advanced filters and larger exports
- Multiple user options
Data licensing
On request
- API and bulk data feeds
- Charity check and organisation verification
- Priced by volume and use case, quoted
Capabilities
Features
Foundation Directory
Searchable database of US grantmakers, their grants, trustees and giving patterns
990 based grant records
Historical grants extracted from funder tax filings with recipient, amount and purpose
Nonprofit Profiles
Organisation profiles maintained by nonprofits themselves, with transparency seals
Charity check
Verification of US tax exempt status for pre-grant due diligence
Data APIs and bulk feeds
Licensed nonprofit and funder data for software vendors and financial institutions
Candid Learning
Training courses and templates for grantseekers
Funding Information Network
Free in-person access to Foundation Directory at partner libraries
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Candid the same as GuideStar?
GuideStar is now part of Candid, merged with Foundation Center in 2019. GuideStar nonprofit profiles continue under the Candid brand.
Can I use Foundation Directory for free?
Yes, in person. Hundreds of partner libraries and nonprofit resource centres in the Funding Information Network provide free access, which is a genuine alternative to a subscription for occasional research.
How current is the grant data?
It is drawn largely from Form 990 filings and lags real time by roughly a year to eighteen months. Treat it as evidence of past funding behaviour, not current priorities.
Does Candid help outside the United States?
Only marginally. The data model is built on US tax filings and US registered organisations.
Keep looking
Where to go from Candid
- Candid alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Candid pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Candid badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Nonprofits softwareThe full category
- Best Nonprofits softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Nonprofits software for
Compare Candid with
- Instrumentl
- GrantStation
- Submittable
- Foundant Technologies
- GiveSmart
- OpenGrants
- Wild Apricot
- Give Lively
- Keela
- Constant Contact
- CharityEngine
- Handbid
- Little Green Light
- OneCause
- Qgiv
- Instrumentl
- GrantStation
- MemberClicks
Other Nonprofits software
Grant prospecting and pipeline tracking for nonprofits, priced per organisation with published tiers
From $299/mo12 researched notesA low-cost grant opportunity database sold on annual membership, usually at a heavy standing discount
From $199/yr11 researched notesApplication, review and grant management for funders running open calls at volume
Pricing on request12 researched notesGrant lifecycle management for foundations, with public subscription bands and a two-year term
Pricing on request11 researched notesMobile bidding and event fundraising for charity auctions and galas
Pricing on request12 researched notesLow-cost grant search across federal, state and private funders, with a paid consultant marketplace alongside
Free, then $9/mo10 researched notesFundraising software given free to nonprofits, funded by its founders rather than by fees
Free plan12 researched notesNonprofit CRM and fundraising platform with Canadian tax receipting built in
Pricing on request12 researched notesNonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway
Pricing on request12 researched notesAffordable donor management for small nonprofits
Free, then $45/mo13 researched notesEvent management and auction fundraising platform, now part of Bonterra
Pricing on request8 researched notesGrant prospecting and pipeline tracking for nonprofits, priced per organisation with published tiers
From $299/mo12 researched notesA low-cost grant opportunity database sold on annual membership, usually at a heavy standing discount
From $199/yr11 researched notesAssociation management for professional bodies and trade associations
Pricing on request13 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Candid, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Candid
Candid alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Candid pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Candid
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Candid badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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