Hip hip hooray, it’s time to celebrate National Nonprofit Day! August 17 is, as National Nonprofit Day founder Sherita Herring-Oglesby says, the day “designed to recognize the goals and positive impacts that nonprofits have on communities and the world.”
If you work at a nonprofit organization, have given money or time to a nonprofit organization or have been the beneficiary of a nonprofit’s generosity, you understand the difference nonprofits make in the communities and the people they serve. Celebrate the vital work that nonprofits do every day with these helpful resources and tools!
Foundation Directory Online
Let’s head to the Small Business and Nonprofit Resource Guide on our website, where all good research starts! Our first notable link under “Resources to Get You Started” is the Foundation Directory Online. Foundation Directory Online is a fantastic resource for representatives of nonprofit organizations who are interested in researching potential funding grants. With the professional level access available on-site at your library, you can search through more than 317,000 grantmaker profiles, see what organizations received grants and funds through those grantmakers and identify more than 800,000 key decision-makers for those funding organizations.
Foundation Directory’s simple search bar allows you to enter the specifics of your potential funding grant request, say, “avant-garde puppet theater in New Jersey,” and boils your search request down to its essence – in this case, the more simplified “performing arts in New Jersey.”
From there, Foundation Directory will return a list of possible grantmakers and grants – in this case, over 3,297 grantmakers, and 27,340 grants!
It will also show you a list of grant recipients, giving you a better idea of the kind of organizations these grants are going to, and that will allow you to see if your organization and the potential funder are a good match.
GuideStar
Now we’ll take a look at GuideStar, another stellar resource in the Candid nonprofit universe. GuideStar allows nonprofits, potential donors or volunteers, and community partners to access more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized tax-exempt organizations, and thousands of faith-based nonprofits. Researching nonprofit organizations fostering rabbits in New Jersey? A simple search on GuideStar can get you there – in this case, the House Rabbit Society of New Jersey!
GuideStar also allows nonprofits the opportunity to broadcast their organization’s hard work to the world - and rewards them for it. You might decide that filling out your free GuideStar profile could be an excellent way to draw the world’s attention to your International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, NM. The more information you share, and the greater transparency your organization has on GuideStar, the more Seals of Transparency you earn - and research shows that the more transparent an organization is on GuideStar, the more donations they receive – over 53% more than organizations that aren’t as transparent.
Navigating these new resources might seem overwhelming, but Candid has help for that available as well, with their robust Candid Learning resources. There is a wealth of information available here, including free live online webinars that include topics such as “Introduction to fundraising planning,” “Introduction to proposal writing,” “Fearless leadership for this moment” and more.
There is also a wide selection of on-demand self-paced courses available (both free and fee-based), making it easier to learn at your convenience. Candid Learning also has a robust list of nonprofit startup resources specific to New Jersey available, with information about management/technical assistance providers, legal resources, nonprofit associations, state agencies and start-up guides.
Candid's Nonprofit Resources Digital Collection
The very last resource in this love letter to Candid’s excellent collection of nonprofit tools and resources is its library on Overdrive and on the Libby App. You have access to an impressive collection of digital books and audiobooks specifically curated for nonprofits, with collections such as “Advocacy & Activism,” “Diversity & Inclusion,” “Fundraising,” “Grants & Proposal Writing” and more.
Candid’s Foundation Directory and GuideStar unlock a vast array of resources for better community engagement and countless opportunities for fundraising, learning and growth for nonprofits, grantseekers, potential community partners, volunteers and more. The key? A stop in at any of our branches!
