Collect new AI grant listings each morning, check if they fit your company, store key details in Airtable, and send a clear email digest through Gmail. Built for teams that track funding or research programs and want a daily shortlist that is easy to read. The goal is less manual review and faster decisions.

Each day at 8:30am a schedule searches the Grants.gov API and returns recent opportunities. The list is split into single items, a duplicate filter that remembers past runs removes items already seen, and fresh grants are enriched with full details. OpenAI then creates a short summary and pulls simple eligibility signals. Both AI results are merged and written to an Airtable tracker with links, notes, and tags. At 9:00am a second schedule reads the newest eligible rows, builds an HTML newsletter, fetches subscriber emails from Airtable, and sends it through Gmail.

You need Airtable, OpenAI, and Gmail set up. Copy or map your Airtable tables for grants and subscribers, confirm the unique ID used for duplicate filtering, and adjust the schedule times. Expect to cut daily scanning from about two hours to ten minutes while covering many more listings across agencies. This fits grant writers, startup ops teams, and research groups that want reliable, daily funding updates.

• Two daily schedules run at 8:30am and 9:00am to separate data collection and email sending.
• HTTP requests pull recent AI opportunities and detailed records from the Grants.gov API.
• List splitting turns the search results into single items for clean downstream processing.
• Cross run duplicate filtering blocks already seen grant IDs from alerting again.
• OpenAI generates a plain language summary and extracts simple eligibility factors.
• Merged AI outputs and source fields are saved to Airtable with direct links and notes.
• HTML template builds a formatted newsletter from the newest eligible rows.
• Airtable holds the subscriber list and Gmail sends the email digest to each contact.

• Reduce manual review from about 2 hours to 10 minutes each morning
• Automate up to 80 percent of grant screening with AI summaries and eligibility checks
• Eliminate duplicate alerts across days by tracking each grant ID
• Handle a much larger volume of listings without adding headcount
• Connect OpenAI, Airtable, Gmail, and Grants.gov in one flow
• Deliver a clean daily digest so teams act faster on relevant grants

1. Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
2. You'll need accounts with Airtable, Gmail, OpenAI and Grants.gov. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
3. In Airtable, create or copy a base with a grants table and a subscribers table. Match column names to the fields used in the Save to Tracker and Get Subscribers nodes.
4. In the n8n credentials manager, create an Airtable Personal Access Token credential. Give it access to the base you will use. Attach it to the Save to Tracker, Get New Eligible Grants Today, and Get Subscribers nodes.
5. Get your OpenAI API key from the OpenAI website. In n8n, create an OpenAI credential and link it to both OpenAI Chat Model nodes used by the summary and eligibility extractor.
6. Connect Gmail in n8n using the Gmail OAuth2 credential. Grant send mail permission and select the correct From address. Attach it to the Send Subscriber Email node.
7. Open the HTTP Request nodes for Grants.gov search and details. Keep the provided URLs and POST settings. Click Execute Node to confirm you receive sample data.
8. Check the Remove Duplicates node. Ensure the unique value field matches the grant ID and that cross execution memory is enabled.
9. Review the HTML node. Adjust the template text and field mappings to match your Airtable columns, then preview with Execute Node to confirm the newsletter layout.
10. Update both Schedule Trigger nodes to your local time. You can run them once manually to test end to end before letting them run on a schedule.
11. Verify Airtable writes by running the first half: search, detail, AI, and save. Confirm new rows appear with the URL, summary, and eligibility notes.
12. Troubleshoot common issues: if OpenAI fails, check the API key and rate limits; if Airtable errors, confirm token scope and exact column names; if Gmail blocks sends, verify OAuth consent and sender address; if duplicates show up, confirm the ID field and that the dedupe node runs before saving.