AI prospect research for Australian charities
An atlas of Australia's philanthropic funders.
The complete guide to Australian Private Ancillary Funds costs $2,699 a year. The data underneath comes from the public ACNC, ABR and ASIC registers, where it costs nothing. PatronAtlas reads that data with AI and writes you a shortlist of funders that fit your cause, in about 30 seconds, for $290 a year.
$11B
Held in Australian PAFs and PuAFs combined
~50%
Of PAFs don't appear on the ACNC register
1,500+
PAFs and PuAFs publicly visible right now
What does PatronAtlas do?
PatronAtlas takes a description of your charity and returns a ranked shortlist of Private and Public Ancillary Funds whose stated funding interests overlap with your cause.
You type in what your charity does, where you operate, and what you need money for. Claude reads the live ACNC charity register, finds the ancillary funds that have given to similar work, and ranks them by overlap. You get the fund name, a short fit reasoning, links to the public source documents, and a draft outreach email. No login for the first three queries each month.
PatronAtlas does the boring research. The relationship work is still on you.
Key terms
- DGR1
- Deductible Gift Recipient, Item 1. The "doing DGR" status that lets your charity receive distributions from PAFs and PuAFs.
- DGR2
- Deductible Gift Recipient, Item 2. The "giving DGR" status that PAFs and PuAFs hold so they can distribute tax-effectively.
- PAF
- Private Ancillary Fund. A trust set up by a single family, individual, or business to make tax-effective philanthropic distributions.
- PuAF
- Public Ancillary Fund. The same idea, but open to public donations and run as a community giving structure.
Where does the data come from?
Every fund profile in PatronAtlas is built from Australian public registers. Nothing is scraped from competitor databases. Nothing is paywalled.
Honesty note. About half of Australian PAFs choose not to appear on the ACNC Charity Register. PatronAtlas does not currently include those. PafGUIDE does, by paying researchers to find them one by one. If your charity needs the dark half too, PafGUIDE at $2,699 a year is still your tool.
What does it cost?
PatronAtlas has one tier. $290 per year, launching mid-2026.
Pro
$290/yr
- Unlimited queries
- Save lists
- Export draft emails
- Email alerts for new funds in your cause area
Launches mid-2026. First 25 buyers get the first year for $190.
You only need one $5,000 grant to clear the year of Pro. PafGUIDE's $2,699 single-user subscription needs an $18,000 grant for the same maths. The smaller cheque is the more honest target.
How is this different from PafGUIDE or Strategic Grants?
PafGUIDE is a deeper database. PatronAtlas is a faster, cheaper, AI-led tool over the half of the data that's public.
| PatronAtlas | PafGUIDE | Strategic Grants GEMS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $290 | $2,699 | ~$500 to $2,000 |
| Funds covered | ~1,500 ACNC-visible | Every PAF and PuAF | All ACNC-visible grants + PAFs |
| AI reasoning per match | Yes | No | No |
| Draft outreach emails | Yes | No | No |
| Founded | 2026 | 2009 | 2010s |
PafGUIDE is the deeper resource. If you have the budget and a major-gifts program big enough to justify $2,699, you should probably have both. PatronAtlas is for the small DGR1 that has $290 a year for prospect research, not $2,699, and wants the AI to do the reading.
Common questions about PAFs and PuAFs
What is a Private Ancillary Fund?
A Private Ancillary Fund is a charitable trust set up by a single family, individual, or business under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Subdivision 30-B) and the PAF Guidelines 2009. It holds DGR Item 2 endorsement, which lets it distribute tax-effectively to DGR Item 1 charities. Each PAF must distribute at least 5% of its net assets every year. Around 2,200 PAFs are registered in Australia, holding billions in assets together.
How is PatronAtlas different from PafGUIDE?
PafGUIDE is the premium prospect-research database for the philanthropy sector, running since 2009, with researchers who individually profile every PAF in Australia, including the half that don't show on ACNC. It costs $2,699 a year. PatronAtlas is cheaper, narrower, faster. We use AI to read the public half of the data and write you a fund-fit shortlist in about 30 seconds for $290 a year. PafGUIDE is the reference work. PatronAtlas is the daily tool.
Where does PatronAtlas get its data?
Four public Australian registers. The ACNC Charity Register, the Australian Business Register (DGR endorsement type), ASIC Connect (corporate trustee), and the ATO's official DGR list. We cross-reference these on ABN, then enrich each fund with whatever the most recent annual report and recent news say. No scraping of subscription databases. No broker shortcuts.
Does my charity need to be a DGR1 to use PatronAtlas?
You need DGR Item 1 endorsement to receive distributions from a PAF or PuAF. That's federal law, not a PatronAtlas rule. Check your status free at ABN Lookup. If you don't have DGR1 you can sometimes receive funding via an auspicing organisation that does (Creative Partnerships Australia for arts, FRRR for community, Schools Plus for education). You can still use the tool to research, but you'll need an auspicor in the loop before you can apply.
How accurate is the AI's fund matching?
Claude reads what the funds have publicly said about their own giving and matches that against your charity description. The matches are good when funds publish clear giving statements. They're weaker when funds publish nothing. Every recommendation includes the public source so you can verify before you reach out. PatronAtlas does not invent giving claims. If a fund's giving history isn't publicly documented, the AI says so. We are upfront about hallucination risk. That's why every claim has a source link.
Join the waitlist
Pro launches mid-2026. The first 25 buyers get the first year for $190 instead of $290. After that, $290 across the board.