Design 21: Social Design Network

Programs

Revolutionizing the Nonprofit Sector

In 1994, GuideStar began as a new venture with a bold vision: to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice with information. We became a 501(c)(3) public charity in 1996.

In our journey to create a more transparent and accountable nonprofit community, we are reshaping the infrastructure of the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits embrace this practice of transparency and accountability when they share information about their mission, programs, and finances with the public. Accurate information is a powerful tool, and our users have responded with better-informed, more effective giving decisions. A Well-Informed Community of Giving

When we began, we envisioned GuideStar as a resource that would connect people and organizations with valuable information to improve the world around them. Today, GuideStar is the leader in providing comprehensive data on more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations, connecting them with donors, foundations, businesses, and governing agencies in a nationwide community of giving.

Each day, about 20,000 people find answers using GuideStar. The information we provide contains searchable data from IRS Forms 990 and the IRS Business Master File, including comprehensive facts on employee compensation and grant activity. With our new eDocs service, nonprofits can add their annual reports, audited financial statements, letters of determination, and other documents to our growing store of information, making GuideStar a more powerful tool than ever. The Backbone of a More Effective Sector

GuideStar's marketplace of information is the backbone of an effective, efficient and well-informed nonprofit sector. Using GuideStar, anyone with an interest in nonprofits can quickly find the answers they are looking for—certain in the knowledge that the information is the most comprehensive, current and accurate available—anywhere.

No other outlet offers the breadth of information, the powerful searchability, and the value-added tools and services that GuideStar provides.

History

The name GuideStar was taken from modern telescope technology and refers to the role we strive to play in the nonprofit sector. A telescope in orbit stores the positions of guide stars in its database in order to calculate its own position. The GuideStar Web site and database serve that purpose in the vast nonprofit universe.

Before GuideStar was founded, information on for-profit companies was readily available, but conducting research on nonprofit organizations was difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes costly for the researcher as well as the nonprofits. GuideStar was created to support charitable entities through the free flow of information in a public forum, to enable supporters and nonprofit managers to research and benchmark organizations' missions, programs, and performance.