A look at non-profit information websites
Jinfo Blog

By Joann M. Wleklinski

Abstract

If you need to research the non-profit sector then the GuideStar websites are great places to start. Covering the US, UK, Belgium, Israel and India, these websites provide information about the sector’s organisations with some details available for free, more once you are registered, and yet more if you subscribe.

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If you work in the non-profit world, you may find the information on the websites for GuideStar and GuideStar International useful. The GuideStar websites provide authoritative information about all sorts of non-profits for a variety of purposes – financial as well as administrative. The GuideStar websites are easily searchable, and provide detailed information to help those in the non-profit sector strategically position themselves in these difficult economic times.

GuideStar gathers and makes available information about US non-profit organisations, and claims to have comprehensive, up-to-date information on more than 1.8 million IRS-recognised non-profits. The information presented in GuideStar’s Nonprofit Reports can come from IRS Forms 990, or from the non-profit itself. GuideStar, begun in 1994, is a 501(c)(3) charity itself, supported by grants from foundations, corporations and individuals.

Visitors to the GuideStar website can access information for free. Register at the website (also free) and you get a bit more information. Pay for a subscription (monthly or yearly), or purchase a report individually, and you get a lot more information.

What sort of information might one find on GuideStar?

Unregistered access gives you at-a-glance information, such as mission and background statements, programmes and results, CEO name, top three funders and news.

Free registration adds to that: contact information, current year financials, up to three years’ worth of Forms 990 provided by the IRS and/or the organisation, annual reports, board chair and board members.

Paid access adds to that: EIN, IRS subsection code, revenue and expense charts, and up to five years’ worth of financials, Form 990s, officers, directors, key employees, and the highest-paid employee and their compensation.

The GuideStar Exchange programme was developed as an incentive to keep directory information up-to-date. GuideStar Exchange members receive financial discounts to the service for keeping their listed non-profit reports current.

A report created from free registration GuideStar can include the following sections:

• General information (contacts, mission, impact).
• Financials (revenue and expenses, balance sheet).
• Documents (forms 990, financial statements, annual reports, formation documents).
• Programmes and Help (programmes the charity runs, funding and volunteer needs, and request for in-kind donations).
• People (number of employees and volunteers, CEO, board chair and members).
• News.

How does GuideStar work?

Searching on the Bill Clinton Foundatoin (purposely mistyped), GuideStar found 0 results, but asked if I meant the Bill Clinton Foundation. Selecting the corrected link, GuideStar still returned 0 hits (suggesting that the link merely corrected my typing; it didn’t direct me to a corrected information link). Searching on Bill Clinton returned 19 results, but none of them was the one I sought. I searched anew on simply Clinton. Not surprisingly, 4,812 results appeared. However, these search results now included selectable categories. I refined my results by selecting Greater than $10M in the income field and Arkansas in the State field. The filtered search returned three results, the first one being The William J. Clinton Foundation, my intended target.

From the details listed with GuideStar’s returned entry about the foundation, I learned the formal name of the foundation, its income, its location and its category. Also from the entry I was presented with links to read and write a review, and to donate to the foundation.

Selecting the Read More link, GuideStar presented information in a multi-tabbed format – as well as jump-to links for specific information – about the Clinton Foundation. Up-front, I got contact information and a Mission Statement about the Clinton Foundation; further in, I could access information via the tabbed sections. However, I preferred the Printer-Friendly Report format (linked above the tabs).

GuideStar’s Printer-Friendly Report link generated a full report from the previous screen’s tabbed format, which could then be saved in either PDF or Word. The Foundation’s Programme Initiatives were spelled out in full. The other sections that were accessible with GuideStar’s free registration format included: Contact information, Mission statement, Forms 990, Annual reports, Programme initiatives (including budget and category), number of employees, CEO, board chair and board members.

GuideStar continually presents the following paragraph on its website:

“Institutional funders should note that an organization’s inclusion on guidestar.org does not satisfy IRS Rev. Proc. 2011-33 for verifying charitable status and identifying supporting organizations.”

To help with charitable status verification, GuideStar created GuideStar Charity Check which documents the required due diligence process by including IRS Publication 78 (charity deductibility status), IRS Business Master File information, and nonfiler revocation data into one report. GuideStar claims that its Charity Check is fully compliant with IRS guidelines for verifying supporting organisation status in accordance with the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

GuideStar also provides a Directory of Charities and Non-profit Organisations on its website (linked at the very bottom of the web page). The directory lists the nine categories that GuideStar uses to classify its entries, and further explains which classifications would be included in each category. Categories are assigned from the information provided to GuideStar by either the IRS or the non-profit itself, and are based on the type of work the non-profit does.

The GuideStar website also presents helpful material on how to choose a charity, plus a donor’s bill of rights, and listings of charities working on disaster relief in countries such as Chile, Haiti and Japan. The organisation also hosts – and maintains an archive of – non-profit-focused webinars on its website.

GuideStar gives a user some good, actionable, free information in an easy-to-understand format. From its website, a user could find information about a specific charity, or benchmark his/her own charity against others, or research a specific non-profit sector. In addition, the GuideStar website also helps to educate about the non-profit world.

What about non-US information?

GuideStar International, a UK-registered non-profit created in 2002, exists in alliance with GuideStar.com and partners with non-profits, or civil society organisations, in the UK, Israel, India and Belgium.

GuideStar UK, launched in 2005, contains information on all registered non-profits in England and Wales. GuideStar UK presents information rather similarly to GuideStar.com – providing contact information, programme updates, details of board membership, and the like. GuideStar UK information is collected from the Charity Commission or provided by the non-profits themselves.

The GuideStar UK website has an almost Google-like sparse homepage with a simple Search box. Beneath the box, expand on Advanced Search and a drop-down opens to reveal fields for Charity name, Charity registration number, Total income, Address and Grant maker.

Searching on Tony Blair in Charity name in the Advanced option returned three items: Tony Blair Governance Initiative, Tony Blair Faith Initiative and Tony Blair Sports Initiative. The results of the first listing, the Governance Initiative, included such information as Registration Number, Classification, website, Organisation status, and Summary (the first few lines of it, at least).

Selecting the Tony Blair Governance Initiative opens the full entry which lists the full Summary of the non-profit’s purpose, Registration number, primary address (including mapped location), an email address and the full web address.

Under Organisation, the entry is divided into three tabs: Classification of the non-profit; Activity Type of work the non-profit does; and Charity Beneficiaries, who benefit from the work the non-profit does.

Next, GuideStar UK lists the Income and Expenditure figures for the non-profit. And lastly, the non-profit’s contact is listed by name and postal address.

GuideStar Israel, launched in 2010, was developed as an initiative between the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC Israel), the Justice Ministry, and Yad Hanadiv, a Rothschild family philanthropic foundation in Israel. Click on the appropriate link and GuideStar Israel’s website can be presented in Hebrew, Arabic or English. GuideStar Israel contains the non-profits registered with the national Registrar of Non-profit Organisations in Israel. Supplemental information is provided by the non-profits themselves. GuideStar Israel claims to promote transparency in the conduct of non-profit organisations in Israel.

If you do not speak/read Hebrew or Arabic, you can still effectively search in GuideStar Israel. Some Hebrew will filter through in the returned search results, but enough English is there to get the gist of the message – and what isn’t in English can be run through an online translation website for further effectiveness. Be aware, however, that attached documents such as PDFs will often be scanned documents written fully in Hebrew – difficult to run a scanned image through an online translation.

GuideStar Israel search options include a simple Search box or an Advanced Search page. Advanced Search fields allow for organisation name, registered number, address, activity, goals, location, audience, classification, plus the option to include recruiting, volunteering, and whether or not the organisation awards grants.

GuideStar India exists in collaboration with Civil Society Information Services, a registered trust in India, and GuideStar International. GuideStar India contains the non-profits registered as a Trust Society Sec 25 Company in India.

GuideStar in Belgium is known as Philanthropy.be. Its website is presented in French or Dutch only, with no option for English translation.

Online access to information around the globe has seemingly made the world a smaller place. No sector has benefited from that easy access more so than the philanthropic sector. The information made available through GuideStar.com and GuideStar International’s affiliates is but one shining example.

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