Background
What is MCP?
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external data sources and tools. Instead of copying and pasting grant information into your chat, MCP lets your AI assistant query Granted directly — searching grants, pulling funder profiles, and checking deadlines in real time as part of your conversation.
Setup
Connect in under a minute
Two ways to connect: add Granted as a custom connector on claude.ai (nothing to install), or drop a snippet into your MCP client's config file. No API key, no account required.
Option A · claude.ai — no install
Open Settings → Connectors
On claude.ai/settings/connectors, scroll to the bottom and click Add custom connector.
Paste the Granted endpoint
Name it Granted and use this URL (leave the OAuth fields blank — no authentication is needed):
https://grantedai.com/api/mcp/mcpEnable it in your chat
Click Add, then in any conversation open the search-and-tools menu (the sliders icon in the prompt box) and make sure Granted is toggled on. Ask away — Claude will search grants and research funders mid-conversation.
Custom connectors are available on Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans (Team/Enterprise admins may need to add it org-wide). The same flow works in Claude Desktop under Settings → Connectors.
Option B · Config file (Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP clients)
Add the config
Add this to claude_desktop_config.json (or your client's MCP config):
{
"mcpServers": {
"granted": {
"type": "url",
"url": "https://grantedai.com/api/mcp/mcp"
}
}
}Restart your client
After restarting, you should see Granted listed as an available MCP server. Claude can now search grants, look up funders, and check deadlines directly in your conversation.
Start asking questions
Try something like: “Find NIH grants for neuroscience research closing in the next 60 days.” Claude will use the Granted tools to search and return results.
Capabilities
5 tools, zero configuration
Every tool uses the same AI-powered discovery pipeline that runs on grantedai.com — including live web search, 15-feature scoring, and access to 133K foundation profiles.
search_grants
Search grants by keyword, topic, funder, or eligibility
get_grant
Get full details for any grant by slug
search_funders
Search 133K+ foundations by name, state, or giving
get_funder
Full foundation profile with financials and recent grants
get_past_winners
Federal grant recipients and competitive intel
Also available: 4 resources
granted://coverage/statesUS states with active grant coveragegranted://coverage/sourcesSource providers with countsgranted://taxonomy/categoriesGrant category taxonomygranted://taxonomy/org-typesOrganization type taxonomyTry It
Ask your AI assistant anything about grants
Once connected, just ask in natural language. Your assistant picks the right Granted tools automatically.
“Find NIH grants for neuroscience research with deadlines in the next 60 days”
“Which foundations in California give more than $1M annually to environmental causes?”
“Show me USDA grants that a small nonprofit in rural Appalachia would be eligible for”
“Who won NSF CAREER awards in computer science last year, and how much did they receive?”
“Search for grants related to maternal health disparities in underserved communities”
Free, no auth required
The MCP server is unauthenticated and free to use. All 5 tools are read-only. No API key, no account creation, no credit card. Just add the connector and start searching.
Fair use: anonymous clients share 200 tool calls and 25 live AI-discovery searches per day. Past the search budget, grant search keeps serving results from our database (no live AI blend); the 200-call cap is a hard daily ceiling that resets within 24 hours. Want dedicated limits? Create a free account, generate a key at Settings → API Keys, and send it as a Bearer token from a client that supports custom headers — Claude Desktop/Code config-file installs, Cursor, or API integrations. (claude.ai's hosted connector UI doesn't support custom headers yet.)