Questions, answered plainly
Frequently asked questions
The short answers, in the same plain words the product uses. Most of these questions come back to two design decisions: seekers never pay, and nothing about a grant — its rules, its eligibility, its decision — is hidden from the people it affects.
What does GrantTitan cost our nonprofit, school, or classroom?
Nothing. Seekers never pay — not to join, not to verify, not to post a need, not to apply, and no percentage of an award is ever taken. Funders pay a flat subscription; that is how the service is funded.
Who can see my profile and my needs?
Your verified profile and the needs you post are shown to funders on GrantTitan, so they can find and fund work like yours — that is the point of the board. You choose whether a need is public to funders on the platform or visible only to funders you apply to. Your documents are different: a document is shared only with a specific application, to the funder you chose to apply to.
How is eligibility decided?
By the funder’s own published rules — never by a black box and never by a score you can’t see. Every grant lists its rules in full before you apply, and your determination cites each rule and the profile fact it was checked against. If one thing is missing, the determination names the thing.
Is our data sold?
Never. Your data is not sold, not rented, and not used for advertising. Funders see what you post and what you send them in an application — nothing behind your back.
What exactly gets verified, and from where?
For a nonprofit: your EIN against the IRS tax-exempt database (legal name, tax-exempt status, deductibility), your Candid profile and transparency status, and that your email belongs to your organization. For a teacher: your school email against the verified school-system record. For a funder: the same checks as a nonprofit. Checks re-run automatically, and if one fails you get the plain reason and a way to fix it.
What happens after we win an award?
The award notice lands in your Notices, and the check-ins the funder asked for appear in one Tasks inbox — every funder, one list. A classroom award is paid to the school, never to a teacher personally, and the close-out is simple: a receipt or a photo of the materials in use, and a short thank-you note.
Where the longer answers live
Three topics deserve more than a short answer. Verification — what is checked, against which named source, what happens when a check fails, and how the checks re-run on their own — is spelled out in full on Trust & Security, including the security practices, the two layers of a profile, and the hard rules that protect students. Eligibility — how a grant’s published rules become a determination that reads “you qualify,” “you don’t qualify,” or “one thing is missing,” each with reasons — is walked through on How eligibility works. And pricing — the funder plans, district plans, the transaction fees a funder pays on top of an award, and the promise that seekers pay $0 with no percentage of any award ever taken — is on the pricing page, in full, with nothing behind a “contact sales” wall except the multi-fund plan, where the honest answer is that it depends on the funds involved.
If your question is really “does this work the way the pages say?” — open GrantTitan and see: four views (nonprofit, teacher, school administrator, funder), grants and needs, working eligibility determinations, application review, billing records, meetings, and messaging with the safety checks on. Nothing in it is a screenshot or a slide.