Claude Candid connectorWhat Claude can do in your Candid account.
The Claude Candid connector exposes 6 tools: 4 read, 0 write, 2 undocumented. Claude can search Candid's nonprofit and funder data, link organizations you mention, and draw on Candid's research and taxonomy. Below: what it reads, what nobody documents, and the plan question.
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Why plug Candid into Claude
Grant research usually means juggling a database search, a stack of annual reports and a few articles on sector trends. With the connector, you describe the kind of organization or funder you are looking for in plain words, and Claude searches Candid's data on millions of nonprofits and foundations, then explains what it found in the same conversation.
Funders that match a mission. Ask for foundations in California that fund youth education: search_organizations filters by location, subject and transparency seal, and Claude returns matches with their Candid profile links.
Names turned into profiles. When an article or a list mentions several organizations, identify_mentioned_organizations spots the names and links each one to its official Candid profile.
Expertise on tap. New to grant writing? knowledge_resources searches Candid's research reports, training materials, blog posts and daily news, and taxonomy_terms finds the right Philanthropy Classification System terms for what you describe.
What it won't do: create, edit or apply for anything. The sheet lists no writing tool, and the Claude article says the connector only reaches publicly available nonprofit information. Coverage is strongest for US organizations. Two tools on the sheet have no description anywhere. Nothing runs on its own either: no alert reaches you when a new funder appears. That kind of watch belongs to an automation tool; the Integrations hub covers that side.
The vocabulary in one minute
Five words you will meet while plugging Candid into Claude.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and a service, so Claude can query it while it answers you in the chat.
- Tool
- One named job a connector lets Claude do, like searching organizations. Claude picks what it needs; the directory lists them by name.
- Authorization
- The service's own sign-in screen, where you grant Claude the access it will use. Given once per person, and revocable the same way.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before it goes ahead with something that changes an account, shown in the chat when it matters.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors are built on: it is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to an outside service such as Candid.
Connect Candid to Claude in three steps
- 01
Find Candid in Claude
In Claude's settings, open Customize, then Connectors, and look for Candid. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner adds it for the team first, from the admin connector settings, before members can link it.
- 02
Start the connection
Click Connect on its row and follow the instructions. If the link breaks one day, use Disconnect, then plug it back in; access can also be withdrawn from the service's side.
- 03
Read the authorization screen
If a sign-in screen appears, read it before you accept. It belongs to the service, not Claude, and decides what the access covers. It can sound wider than what Claude does day to day.
The 6 tools, sorted by what they do
Candid gives Claude 6 tools: 4 that read your account, 0 that change something in it, and 2 no official source describes.
Four tools read Candid's data; two have no description in any official source. Names stay in English, exactly as Claude shows them.
- 4 read
- 2 not documented
What Claude reads (4)
4 toolsFour tools that search and look up data without changing anything.
knowledge_resources
Searches Candid's expert knowledge base: research reports, training materials, blog posts and a curated daily news feed, which the article says is updated continuously.
identify_mentioned_organizations
Spots organization names in the conversation and links each one to its official Candid profile, so a list of names becomes a list of checkable records.
search_organizations
Finds nonprofits and foundations by name, mission, location, work area, transparency seal or leadership demographics (women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities), then returns them with profile links.
taxonomy_terms
Turns your plain description into the matching terms of Candid's Philanthropy Classification System, the vocabulary Candid uses to file organizations by subject.
Undocumented (2)
2 toolsThe directory publishes these two names and nothing more. No official text says what they do, and this page won't guess from a name.
identify_locations
This name appears in the directory's tool list, and that is all anyone knows. Neither the Claude article on Candid nor the sheet describes it, so no official source documents what it returns. Like every tool on the sheet, it sits under the general approvals rule set out further down, and nothing more can honestly be said about it.
current_date
Same silence here: the name is listed, and no official source documents it. Better to flag the gap than to fill it with a guess drawn from how the name sounds. The general approvals rule below is the only frame that applies to it.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before any action it takes on an account on your behalf. The four documented tools only search and look up, and no source describes what the two others do.
The Claude article on Candid adds a privacy line: the connector only reaches public information about nonprofits, no personal user data is shared with Candid, and your queries are used only to fetch results. On Team and Enterprise, owners decide whether members can let some actions through without being asked, and they can limit what a connector may do for the whole organization. Claude works with the connected person's rights, nothing more.
Which plans it's available on
Not one of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows plan availability. Connector by connector, Anthropic's directory doesn't publish that answer.
The general rule is public: remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner switches a connector on for the organization before members can link it. For Candid, Anthropic's own article says something narrower, and the limits section sets both texts side by side. To know for sure, check the connector's sheet in the official directory from your account.
Where this connector stops
A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you: no search runs overnight and no new funder is pushed to you.
The Claude article describes the connector as in beta, with core functionality available. A reading-only list is an observed floor rather than a guarantee, since an admin can open actions that no public sheet shows; by default, this sheet exposes reading only. The directory badge isn't a security audit, and Anthropic says on every sheet that it doesn't control a publisher's tools. For a connector with writing tools, compare with the Claude activecampaign connector page.
On which plans can Claude use the Candid connector?
- Claude help center, general connector rule ↗September 2026Remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile; on Team and Enterprise, an Owner must switch each one on first.
- Claude article on the Candid connector ↗read October 2026Available to all paid Claude plan users; basic search is free for all paid Claude plans.
What this page followsBoth texts come from Anthropic and they don't match: the general rule opens remote connectors to all users, the Candid article limits this one to paid plans. Neither is dated as superseded, so neither settles it for your account: check the directory sheet from your own account.
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