Look up grantmaking organizations by name, topic, or location. This tool searches 174K+ grantmaking organizations from IRS data using organization names plus grant-purpose/topic signals. Use it when you know the funder's name, want aligned funders for a cause area, or want to browse by location/s...
Risk signalsAccepts freeform code/query input (query) · High parameter count (12 properties)
Part of the Foundation Discovery server.
Free to start. No card required.
AI agents call search_funders to retrieve information from Foundation Discovery without modifying any data. This is common in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows where the agent needs context before taking action. Because read operations don't change state, they are generally safe to allow without restrictions -- but you may still want rate limits to control API costs.
Even though search_funders only reads data, uncontrolled read access can leak sensitive information or rack up API costs. An agent caught in a retry loop could make thousands of calls per minute. A rate limit gives you a safety net without blocking legitimate use.
Read-only tools are safe to allow by default. No rate limit needed unless you want to control costs.
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"search_funders": {}
}
}See the full Foundation Discovery policy for all 10 tools.
These attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access search_funders gives an agent. Each links to the full case and the policy that stops it:
Other read tools across the catalogue. The same approach applies to each: allow, with a rate cap to control cost.
Look up grantmaking organizations by name, topic, or location. This tool searches 174K+ grantmaking organizations from IRS data using organization names plus grant-purpose/topic signals. Use it when you know the funder's name, want aligned funders for a cause area, or want to browse by location/size/NTEE code. Multi-word searches are ranked by relevance; simple browse/name fallback results are ordered by total assets. IMPORTANT: Use search_open_grants when the user needs active grant programs or RFPs. search_funders is for finding aligned grantmakers, including ones that may fund by relationship, LOI, or annual cycle rather than a live call. Args: query: Search term for a funder name or cause-area phrase. Example: "Ford Foundation", "global health", "community foundation" Topic searches work best with 2+ words. state: Two-letter US state code to filter by funder HQ location. Example: "CA", "NY", "TX" city: City name to filter by (case-insensitive). Example: "San Francisco", "New York" ntee_code: NTEE classification code to filter by. Example: "A20" (Arts Organizations), "B" (Education), "E" (Health) min_assets: Minimum total assets filter in dollars. Example: 10000000 (foundations with $10M+ assets) max_assets: Maximum total assets filter in dollars. Example: 100000000 (foundations with up to $100M assets) has_er_grants: Filter to foundations that make expenditure responsibility grants (grants to non-501(c)(3) entities like PBCs, for-profits, and foreign orgs). Set to True to find only ER-active funders. funder_type: Optional canonical funder_type to include. Examples: "community_foundation", "family_foundation", "corporate_foundation", "private_operating", "operating_nonprofit", "independent_foundation". Use this to narrow to a specific kind of grantmaker. exclude_funder_types: Optional list of canonical funder_type codes to exclude from results. Useful for hiding operating nonprofits that surface with large "annual_grants" but are not actually grantmakers — e.g., exclude_funder_types=["operating_nonprofit"] hides PATH and similar operating organizations. grantee_country_codes: Optional list of FIPS 10-4 country codes (e.g., "UK" for United Kingdom, "IN" for India, "KE" for Kenya, "SF" for South Africa) to restrict to funders whose grantees are located in those countries. Use this when the user is asking for funders that move money into a specific non-US geography. Country here is the grantee's HQ country, derived from foundation_grants. When set, the search is forced through the hybrid path; the ILIKE-only name-match path cannot filter by country. Distinct from state, which filters by the funder's own US HQ. country: Optional HQ country name (or list of names) to restrict to funders headquartered in those countries (e.g., "Germany", ["United States", "Canada"]). Distinct from grantee_country_codes (where the funder's grants land) and from state (US state of HQ). Use when the user asks for funders based in a specific country — e.g. "European-headquartered foundations" → country=["Germany","Spain","United Kingdom", "Switzerland","Netherlands","France"]. US foundations are included only when "United States" (or "USA") is in the list, or when the param is omitted. limit: Maximum number of results to return. Default: 20, Maximum: 50 Returns: Dictionary containing: - results: List of matching foundations with ein, name, city, state, total_assets, annual_grants, website_url, has_er_grants, has_pris, funder_type (when populated), topic_match_count (when query takes the hybrid topic-search path — see below) - total_returned: Number of results returned - query_params: The search parameters used - note: Helpful context about the results topic_match_count is the number of distinct grant-purpose strings under this funder that matched the FTS query. It surfaces only on topical searches (multi-word queries that route to the hybrid path) and only for 990-filer rows; ILIKE-only and non-990 rows omit the field. Rule of thumb: - topic_match_count == 1 → single tangential grant, often noise (e.g. a credit-union foundation surfacing for "telemedicine" because of one passing-mention grant) - topic_match_count >= 3 → substantive topical coverage Examples: search_funders(query="community foundation", state="CA") search_funders(query="global health", min_assets=100000000) search_funders(ntee_code="E", min_assets=50000000) search_funders(state="NY", city="New York", limit=10) search_funders(has_er_grants=True, state="CA") search_funders(funder_type="community_foundation", state="CA") search_funders(query="PATH", exclude_funder_types=["operating_nonprofit"]) search_funders(query="global health", grantee_country_codes=["IN"]) search_funders(query="climate resilience", grantee_country_codes=["KE", "SF"]) search_funders(query="youth education", country="Germany") search_funders(country=["Germany","Spain","Netherlands"]). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Foundation Discovery MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Foundation Discovery MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_funders: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Foundation Discovery. Nothing to install.
search_funders is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the search_funders rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for search_funders. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
search_funders is provided by the Foundation Discovery MCP server (https://kindora-mcp.azurewebsites.net/mcp/). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Deterministic rules across all 10 Foundation Discovery tools. Per-identity grants. Full audit log. Live in minutes. Nothing to install.
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