FundFit
The funding your researchers would never have found
FundFit reads what each researcher actually works on and matches it against federal, foundation, and corporate sponsors — then explains every match, screens the eligibility, and tells you who should be on the team.
- 33,000+opportunities tracked
- $68B+in available funding
- 1.1Mresearcher profiles
How it works
A match you can argue with
Anyone can rank opportunities. The reason FundFit gets used is that a research development officer can open any match and read exactly why it scored what it scored — then take that reasoning to the PI.
What's in it
Built for AI from the first line
Search that thinks the way you ask
Type “STEM grants over $1.5M for new investigators” and get results, not a syntax error. FundFit reads the intent behind the question, not just the keywords in it.
Matching that shows its work
Every match carries a score and the written reason behind it — which parts of the researcher's profile drove it, and where the gaps are. A score you cannot interrogate is a score nobody acts on.
Eligibility screened before it reaches anyone
Institution type, citizenship advisories, and sponsor restrictions are checked against the opportunity, so a researcher does not spend a week on something they were never eligible for.
Profiles built from ORCID, not from forms
Link ORCID and the publication record builds the profile. No onboarding project, no faculty being asked to fill in a questionnaire about their own career.
Reverse match: the team, not just the grant
Point FundFit at an opportunity and it proposes the researcher line-up that fits it — including collaborators at other institutions who were never on your radar.
Your own history, in the mix
Internal awards and past proposals feed the matching, so recommendations land in the context of what your institution has actually won before.
Notifications
Matches go where the work already happens
A funding opportunity nobody reads is worth nothing. FundFit pushes each researcher's matches into the tools they already have open, on the cadence they choose.
I check it first thing in the morning, and within seconds, I see AI-matched opportunities that pair well with my research areas… FundFit is a huge time saver and gives me an edge in pursuing and winning funding.
Jonathan LawsonSenior Director, Data Sciences PlatformBroad Institute of MIT & Harvard- SlackCurated matches arrive in the channel the research team already lives in.
- Microsoft TeamsThe same alerts and collaboration prompts inside your Teams environment.
- Email digestA tailored digest per researcher — not a mass newsletter everyone learns to ignore.
Also included
HERD benchmarking, at no extra cost
Every FundFit institutional subscription includes the HERD Visualizer PRO dashboard. Forward-looking funding discovery and backward-looking competitive intelligence end up in the same place, which is where they were always more useful.
See what HERD Visualizer does →The funders use it too
The Science Philanthropy Alliance runs on FundFit
SPA is a consortium of philanthropic foundations with more than $26B in available funding and 40+ member foundations — among the largest science and research funders in the world. They use FundFit to find researchers, which means member foundations can reach out to FundFit institutions about opportunities that were never posted publicly.
FundFit is helping our Advisees to discover researchers outside of their usual networks to pinpoint the institutions they may want to invite to non-public opportunities. It is truly unique and impressive in its capabilities.
Sue MerrileesSenior Director, Philanthropic AdvisingScience Philanthropy AllianceCustomers
What it changed, in their words
FundFit has genuinely made research development work easier at NMSU with its AI capabilities. I’ve seen firsthand how challenging the funding landscape can be, especially lately. Supporting faculty in finding funding beyond federal sources is often hit-or-miss, but this tool has changed that. At its core, FundFit’s AI-driven matching capability is designed to help us win research funding. Significantly, FundFit goes to the next level with its ability to build best-fit teams and custom notifications. It feels like we finally have a smart, reliable partner that helps us connect the dots between our researchers’ work and matched funding opportunities. A major benefit of FundFit is how personalized it is. The recommendations are relevant, timely, and tailored to researchers’ strengths and priorities. It’s made a real difference in helping teams stay proactive and competitive, and that’s a win.
Alisha GironAVP, Research AdministrationNew Mexico State UniversityFundFit transformed how our office approaches funding, it’s now an essential part of how we manage institutional research development at CUSM. The onboarding was fast and intuitive; our faculty, staff, and now students were up and running within days. Almost immediately, the platform surfaced private and less-visible funders we had been missing for years. The reverse-match team-building feature helped us identify complementary collaborators early in the process. With seamless AI-matching notifications and responsive support, FundFit isn’t just a tool it’s like having an extra team member helping us work smarter, not harder.
Leighsa WashingtonExecutive Director, Sponsored Projects & RACalifornia University of Science and MedicineRolling out FundFit felt like getting an operations upgrade for our whole research community at UNCO. Adoption was smooth thanks to effective training and support from the FundFit team. Faculty engagement has been good. We’ve seen quicker response times to new, matched funding opportunities and better visibility into which ones serve institutional investment. For leadership, that means smarter decisions and clearer ROI on our research-development efforts. FundFit didn’t just save time; it brought clarity to how we coordinate funding strategy across campus.
Jeri-Anne Lyons, PhDFmr. AVP for ResearchUniversity of Northern ColoradoQuestions
Before you bring it to your office
How is this different from the funding databases we already pay for?
A database answers the question you knew to ask. FundFit works the other way round: it holds a profile of each researcher and pushes matched opportunities to them, with the reasoning attached. The difference shows up in engagement — searching is something faculty mean to do, and a match landing in Slack is something they read.
Does it only cover federal funding?
No, and the non-federal coverage is the reason most institutions buy it. Federal agencies, state programs, corporate R&D sponsors, foundations, and opportunities that sit in less-visible places are all in scope.
Do researchers have to set up a profile?
They can link ORCID and FundFit builds the profile from their publication record. Anyone who wants to tune it can, but nobody has to fill in a form to get their first matches.
Can we see why something was matched?
Yes — every match opens into a written explanation of what drove the score and where the gaps are. That transparency is deliberate: it is what makes the score usable in a conversation with a PI.
Does it work for early-career researchers, or just established PIs?
Both, and the early-career case is where it earns its keep. Mass funding newsletters reward the people who already know where to look; a matched, explained opportunity surfaces people who would otherwise be overlooked.
What does an institutional subscription include?
Unlimited institutional seats, natural-language search, AI-generated match insights, tailored notifications, suggested collaborators, Slack and Teams integration, and the HERD Visualizer PRO dashboard at no additional cost.