Free grant-readiness tools for nonprofits
Know what could stop your next grant application—before the donor does.
Use nine free tools to check opportunity fit, organizational readiness, program fundability, evidence, donor alignment, timelines, budgets, proposal risks and award-management capacity.
No account is required for the free tools. When you want to save your work, connect evidence and track improvements over time, continue in Toolkit Pro.
What this Toolkit helps you do
Move from uncertainty to a practical next step.
- Decide whether an opportunity deserves your time.
- Identify readiness and evidence gaps.
- Turn findings into practical actions.
- Reassess after you improve.
Decision-support tools—not donor decisions, audits or funding guarantees.
9
free grant diagnostic tools
70+
organizations assessed through Africads work
Evidence-first
readiness, gaps and next actions—not funding probability
Not sure where to begin?
Choose the situation that sounds most like you.
You do not need to understand all nine tools first. Start with the decision in front of you.
I found a grant.
Check whether the opportunity is worth pursuing before committing staff time.
We want to become more funding ready.
Find the organizational gaps that may be holding your fundraising back.
We are preparing a program or application.
Check program fundability, evidence, timeline, budget and proposal risks.
All nine free tools
One funding-readiness journey. Start anywhere.
Each tool gives you a practical self-check result and a clearer next step. Use the tools individually or combine them as your funding work develops.
Tool 1
Should We Apply? Grant Checker
I found a grant and need to know if it is worth pursuing.
Screen eligibility, strategic fit, evidence position, deadline pressure and award-management concerns.
FREE · Screen eligibility, fit, evidence, award capacity and deadline pressure.
PRO · Save it to an application; connect findings, evidence, actions and reassessments.
Tool 2
Funding Readiness Self-Check
I need to understand whether our organization is ready for funding.
Identify important organizational strengths and gaps before pursuing more demanding opportunities.
FREE · See organizational strengths, readiness gaps, priorities and evidence to prepare.
PRO · Save readiness history; track findings, evidence, actions and improvement over time.
Tool 3
Program Fundability Checker
I need to know whether our program is strong enough to fund.
Review problem evidence, beneficiaries, intervention logic, results, MEL, costs, risk and sustainability.
FREE · Assess whether the programme has strong, fundable foundations.
PRO · Save programme history; connect evidence and gaps and reuse them across applications.
Tool 4
Grant Evidence Inventory
I need to know what we can prove and what is missing.
Identify available, partial and missing evidence and turn gaps into practical evidence requests.
FREE · Identify available, partial, weak or missing evidence—no upload required.
PRO · Upload or link evidence, organize it and reuse it across multiple grants.
Tool 5
Donor Fit Matrix
I need to know whether this donor genuinely fits our work.
Compare mission, geography, beneficiaries, thematic priorities and applicant requirements.
FREE · Assess donor fit across mission, geography, beneficiaries, requirements and timing.
PRO · Save donor/application fit; connect proof, track risks and reassess later.
Tool 6
Grant Application Timeline Builder
I need a realistic plan to get the application submitted on time.
Work backwards from the donor deadline, assign owners and surface dependencies and review points.
FREE · Build a deadline-driven plan with owners, dependencies, approvals and submission buffer.
PRO · Save it to an application and connect tasks with findings and evidence requirements.
Tool 7
Grant Budget Sanity Checker
I need to know whether the budget makes sense before submission.
Check basic budget logic, cost assumptions, activity alignment, reconciliation and narrative consistency.
FREE · Check budget logic, assumptions, alignment, donor-rule fit and explainability.
PRO · Save by application; link rules and financial evidence and track corrections.
Tool 8
Proposal Fatal-Flaw Checker
I need to find serious proposal problems before the donor does.
Look for unanswered requirements, inconsistent figures, missing documents, weak logic and other major submission risks.
FREE · Spot major compliance, logic, figures, budget, MEL and attachment risks.
PRO · Save critical issues, owners and deadlines; rerun and compare what was resolved.
Tool 9
Award Absorption Capacity Check
I need to know whether we can responsibly manage the award.
Review finance, staffing, procurement, MEL, safeguarding, reporting, cash flow and delivery capacity.
FREE · Screen finance, staffing, procurement, MEL, safeguarding, reporting and delivery capacity.
PRO · Save award risks and mitigation actions; connect evidence and reassess before scale-up.
Toolkit Pro
Do not just identify gaps. Work on them.
Toolkit Pro turns separate self-checks into a connected workspace for your organization, applications, evidence, findings, actions and improvement over time.
- Save your organization profile once and reuse relevant information.
- Connect evidence to findings and applications.
- Turn findings into actions with owners and deadlines.
- Reassess and compare improvement, regression and unresolved gaps.
- See readiness progress in one dashboard.
Toolkit Pro is free.
What Pro answers every time you return
- Where are we now?
- What could stop us?
- What should we fix next?
- What should we assess next?
One subscription. All 9 Pro tools. One connected workspace.
Toolkit Pro is free. Use all 9 Pro tools and keep your applications, evidence, findings and actions connected in one workspace.
Free
- ✓9 public diagnostic tools
- ✓Calendar export
- ✓Report/PDF exports
Toolkit Pro
- ✓Toolkit Pro workspace
- ✓Saved assessment history
- ✓Reassessment & comparison over time
- ✓Cross-tool application workspace
- ✓Reuse evidence across applications/tools
- ✓Persistent actions & tasks
- ✓Saved application timelines
From finding grants to becoming more fundable.
The objective is not to encourage you to apply for every available grant. It is to help your organization make better funding decisions and strengthen the foundations behind stronger applications.
Discover funding → Decide whether to apply → Assess readiness → Organize evidence → Resolve gaps → Plan the application → Develop and review the proposal → Assess award capacity
Ready to write?
The Toolkit diagnoses readiness. GrantsWriterAI helps you develop grant documents when you are ready to build the application.
Toolkit Documentation
Learn how the nine free tools and Toolkit Pro work together, where applications and evidence belong, and how to move through the Toolkit.
Important: Results from the free Toolkit and Toolkit Pro are based substantially on information supplied by users and should be treated as decision-support and planning guidance. They do not represent a donor funding decision, funding probability, audit, certification, legal opinion or guarantee of funding. Evidence uploaded or referenced in Toolkit Pro is not automatically independently verified.