St. Charles City-County Library

Just like researching a business, to get a well rounded picture of a Nonprofit Organization or Foundation, it is good to look at the institution's financials, funding, and programming.

First use databases and directories to gather basic information on the target Foundation or Organization:

BBB Give.org:
The Better Business Bureau Analyzes the financials of many charities and organizations.
http://www.give.org
http://search.bbb.org/ (National Charities)
http://stlouis.bbb.org/ (St. Louis Charities)

Economic Research Institute (ERI)
Gives brief financial snapshots of many Foundation and gives access to their 990 filings.
http://www.eri-nonprofit-salaries.com

Encyclopedia of associations: regional, state, and local organizations.
In Library Use Only: Call # R061.3 Encyclopedia ("On Display SP Ready Reference")

Foundation Directory Online Professional (In Library Use Only)
The Foundation Directory Online Professional provides access to an unprecedented wealth of timely, comprehensive information on grantmakers and their grants. Included is a database of over 92,000 foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities in the U.S.; a database of nearly 3,600 sponsoring companies, offering a quick pathway to corporate funders; a database of over 1.3 million recently awarded grants; and a keyword-searchable database of over 527,000 recently filed IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF.
http://www.youranswerplace.org/business-and-nonprofit

The Foundation Directory
In Library Use Only: Call# NR 061 Foundation (at Spencer Road Branch)

Foundation 1000
In Library Use Only: Call# NR 061 Foundation (at Spencer Road Branch)
In-depth profiles of the largest 1000 U.S. Foundations

Guidestar: Gives a brief overview of nonprofit organizations, including 990 access, financial information, and programs. Also, the Grants Explorer feature allows you to search for Foundations and shows which organizations it supports.
http://www.guidestar.org

Guide to U.S. Foundations, Their Trustees, Officers, and Donors
In Library Use Only: Call # NR 361.7632 Guide (at Spencer Road Branch)

NonProfit Times Top 100:
The Top 100 Nonprofits are analyzed in this article by the Nonprofit Times
http://www.nptimes.com/Nov05/sr_npt100.html

990 Forms

What's a 990? A 990 is a form that nonprofits have to file with the IRS. This file is a good way to see where a nonprofit is getting its funding from and what the Organization is spending it on. One can also use the 990 to find contact information for the organizations' board members. One thing to note is that Organizations that make less than $9,000 do not have to file a 990 with the IRS, and therefore may not be listed.

For more information read "How to Read the 990 form" by the Nonprofit Coordinating committee of New York http://www.npccny.org/Form_990/990.htm
To get the 990 file search by Organization or Foundation name in the following databases:

Economic Research Institute (ERI)
Gives brief financial snapshots of many Foundation and gives access to their 990 filings.
http://www.eri-nonprofit-salaries.com

Foundation Center:
http://www.fdncenter.org

Guidestar
http://www.guidestar.org

JustGive.Org
http://www.justgive.org

NOZA Search: A Database of Charitable Donations (In Library Use Only)
http://www.youranswerplace.org/business-and-nonprofit

Secretary of State Database:
http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-secretary-state.cfm (National)
https://www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity/soskb/csearch.asp (Missouri)

Check local newspapers for events or other information related to the Organization:

Lexis-Nexis: Library Edition
This source can be used to find news articles, contact information, and credit ratings on the target organization.
http://www.youranswerplace.org/business-and-nonprofit

St. Louis Business Journal: (Available on Proquest)
http://www.youranswerplace.org/business-and-nonprofit

St. Louis Commerce Magazine:
http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/search/index.asp
Also Available on Proquest (Full Text 1990 - Current)
http://www.youranswerplace.org/business-and-nonprofit

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: (Available through the Library's Database)
http://www.youranswerplace.org/magazines-and-newspapers

Bizjournal: Search business journals of many major cities
http://www.bizjournals.com/search.html

Check the Nonprofit trade journals for any mentions and for industry trends:
Search by entering your nonprofit's name in the keyword search to find articles that mention your desired organization

Charity Navigator News:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.start#site

Capital Research Center:
Search CRC's Searchlight database for online resources on corporate giving to non-profit organizations.
http://www.capitalresearch.org

Foundation News:
http://www.foundationnews.org/cme/searchform.cfm

On Philanthropy News:
http://www.onphilanthropy.com/

Philanthropy News:
http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/

Philanthropy News Network:
http://www.pnnonline.org/

Check the Web

Google:
http://www.google.com
When using the search engine, enter the organizations name and the state it is located in to narrow down the search.
(i.e. Spencer Road Branch AND Missouri)
Also, try typing in the name of the target organization with the limiter "SITE: org" to retrieve only WebPages that are supported by an organization and have the tag ".org".
(i.e. Spencer Road Branch SITE: org)