GuideStar

1. What is Candid?

Positioning: Candid, formed by the merger of Foundation Center and GuideStar, is a leading information platform focused on philanthropy and the social sector. It provides comprehensive data on nonprofit organizations, foundations, and grants, serving as a central hub for transparency and insight into the global social sector.

Functional Panorama: Candid’s offerings cover several key modules, including a vast database of nonprofit profiles, search and discovery tools for identifying organizations and funding opportunities, and analytical capabilities for understanding sector trends. It also supports reporting functionalities for nonprofits to share their impact and for researchers to extract data.

2. Candid’s Use Cases

• Donors: Can use Candid’s comprehensive profiles and financial data to research and evaluate nonprofits, ensuring their donations align with their values and are given to credible organizations.
• Nonprofit Organizations: Can claim and update their GuideStar profile to enhance visibility, build trust with funders, and streamline grant application processes by providing transparent information about their operations and impact.
• Grantmakers & Foundations: Utilize Candid’s extensive database to identify potential grantees, perform due diligence, track grantmaking trends, and analyze the performance and impact of their philanthropic investments.
• Researchers & Academics: Access granular data on the nonprofit sector, including financial metrics, program details, and organizational structures, to conduct in-depth studies and develop insights into philanthropic trends and effectiveness.
• Government Agencies & Regulators: Leverage Candid’s data for monitoring compliance, understanding the landscape of the social sector, and informing policy decisions related to nonprofit activity.

3. Candid’s Key Features

• – Comprehensive Nonprofit Profiles: Provides detailed information on over 2.9 million IRS-recognized tax-exempt organizations, including financials, programs, leadership, and impact metrics.
• – Guidestar Seals of Transparency: Nonprofits can earn seals by sharing increasingly detailed information about their organization, including basic information, financial data, goals, strategies, and impact metrics, which enhances credibility for donors and funders.
• – Advanced Search & Filtering: Allows users to search for nonprofits by keyword, location, cause area, revenue size, IRS subsections, and more.
• – Foundation & Grant Data: Integrates with Candid’s broader database to provide insights into active grant opportunities and a directory of foundations.
• – Candid Charting Tools: Enables visual analysis of nonprofit financial data and trends.
• – Enhanced Nonprofit Profile Management: Ongoing enhancements to the nonprofit portal for claiming and updating profiles have been a focus, with recent improvements streamlining the data entry process.
• – Improved Data Integration for API Users: Recent updates in Candid’s API services aim to provide more seamless and robust data access for institutional users and partners, enabling better integration with third-party systems.

4. How to Use Candid?

For Donors/Researchers:
1. Navigate to the Guidestar section of Candid’s website.
2. Use the search bar to enter a nonprofit’s name, EIN, or a keyword related to a cause.
3. Browse the search results and click on an organization’s profile to view its Seal of Transparency, financial data, program details, and board members.
4. Use the “Filter Results” option on the left sidebar to narrow down searches by location, IRS status, revenue, and more.
Pro Tips: Utilize the “Advanced Search” option to combine multiple criteria for highly specific research. For competitive analysis, download the 990 tax forms available on many profiles to compare financials directly. For deeper insights, look for organizations with Platinum Seals, as they provide the most comprehensive data on strategy and impact.

For Nonprofits:
1. Go to www.guidestar.org and click “For Nonprofits” then “Claim Your Profile.”
2. Search for your organization and follow the prompts to claim the profile, verifying your association with the nonprofit.
3. Once claimed, access your dashboard to update information. Start by earning a Bronze Seal by filling out basic organizational details. Progress to Silver, Gold, and Platinum by providing financials, goals, strategies, and impact metrics.
4. Regularly update your profile, especially after major program changes, financial audits, or leadership transitions, to maintain accuracy and transparency.
Pro Tips: Upload your IRS Form 990 and other relevant documents directly to your profile. Include compelling narrative descriptions for your programs and highlight specific achievements to engage potential funders. Participate in Candid’s webinars for nonprofits to learn about best practices for profile management and leveraging the platform for fundraising.

5. Candid’s Pricing & Access

• – Free Tier: Allows basic search for over 2.9 million nonprofit profiles and access to foundational information, including contact details, mission statements, and aggregated financial data. Users can view Guidestar Seals of Transparency and download 990 forms for many organizations.
• – Pro Tier: Offers enhanced search capabilities, more granular financial data, access to detailed program information, the ability to create custom lists, and more robust export options.
• – Premium Tier / Enterprise Solutions: Designed for grantmakers, financial advisors, and large research institutions, providing API access, bulk data downloads, integration with CRM systems, and advanced analytics tools.
• – Web Dynamics: While explicit discounts are not widely advertised, Candid occasionally offers promotional periods or bundles for new users, especially around major sector events or during specific campaigns. Candid also partners with various philanthropic service providers, which might include bundled access.
• – Tier Differences: The primary differentiator across tiers is the depth of data access, advanced search functionality, and data export/integration capabilities, catering from casual users to professional researchers and large-scale data consumers.

6. Candid’s Comprehensive Advantages

• – Data Breadth and Depth: Candid, with Guidestar at its core, holds the largest and most comprehensive database of U.S. nonprofit information. This extensive coverage surpasses many competitors, offering a unified source for organizational, financial, and programmatic data.
• – Transparency Leadership: The GuideStar Seals of Transparency program is an industry benchmark, encouraging nonprofits to share more data and providing a standardized framework for evaluating organizational credibility and impact. This proactive approach to transparency is a key differentiator from purely financial rating agencies like Charity Navigator, which focus primarily on financial health.
• – Integration and Ecosystem: As part of Candid, GuideStar data is seamlessly integrated with Foundation Center’s grant and foundation data, offering a holistic view of the philanthropic ecosystem that few, if any, other platforms can match. This allows users to connect nonprofit profiles with actual funding streams and funder insights.
• – Authoritative Source: Candid is widely recognized as a primary and authoritative source for nonprofit data, frequently cited by researchers, media, and government agencies. Their methodology for data collection and verification is robust, contributing to high data reliability.
• – User Satisfaction: While specific metrics vary by module, user feedback frequently highlights the platform’s utility for due diligence and identifying new funding opportunities, with professional users rating data accessibility and comprehensiveness highly for research purposes.