Santa Barbara-based Internet search company NOZA Inc., provider of the world’s largest database of charitable gifts, has announced a new free service for nonprofit fund-raisers and prospect researchers: the NOZA 990-PF Database beta release.
The launch marks NOZA’s introduction of a second major online service providing free foundation grant data with no registration required. The company also offers free foundation grant searching, in addition to its flagship database with more than 30 million records of individual and corporate charitable donations. The NOZA database made its debut at the recent Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in San Diego.
The 990-PF (private foundation) Database was created and maintained by GrantSmart.org since 1999, as a resource for nonprofit organizations to research private charitable foundations. NOZA, 1409 Firestone Road, stepped up to carry on this work when GrantSmart was seeking the right organization to assume stewardship of the database. As NOZA relaunches its beta version of the service, the database now contains 679,474 tax returns filed by 107,543 private foundations. The data is supplied to NOZA in raw form by the IRS and is updated on a continuing basis. All private foundations must file the form 990-PF and are required to make their Forms 990-PF available for inspection by the general public.
“We are proud to continue the good work of GrantSmart to facilitate communication between grant makers and grant seekers by keeping this vital resource available free to nonprofits,” said Craig Harris, NOZA founder and CEO.
“In bringing the 990-PF Database into NOZA’s family of resources, we are able to offer an even more valuable destination for first-time and seasoned fund-raisers to quickly identify the donors and support they need to achieve their organizations’ missions.”
Foundation grant making, as reported in Giving USA, a publication of Giving USA Foundation, totaled $36.5 billion in 2006, the most recent year reported, which represented more than 12 percent of the total estimated $295 billion in total annual charitable giving in the United States.
Each 990-PF tax return includes key information for each foundation, including the total value of all assets, the investments held by the foundation, as well as complete listings of gifts, contributions and grants paid to nonprofit organizations during the tax year, and grants that have been approved for future payment. Fund-raisers and nonprofit researchers also use 990-PF tax returns to research which individuals or corporations are supporting the foundation, and information about the foundation’s officers, directors, trustees, managers and contractors, their compensation, and grant application criteria, deadlines and geographical relationships. The actual returns, which NOZA users can download in PDF format, range from around 30 pages to well over 200 pages for the largest foundations.
NOZA’s suite of free and paid online services is used by nonprofit groups and others to research the philanthropic history of prospective donors. A NOZA account provides immediate access to more than 30 million individual, corporate and foundation donations to nonprofits in more than 3,000 U.S. cities. Nonprofit organizations, universities, hospitals, libraries and research professionals can quickly search, download and save philanthropic history by donor name, nonprofit cause, geographic region, gift type or amount.
The NOZA 990-PF Database beta release rounds out NOZA’s existing services, the company’s core database of individual and corporate giving, and its free foundation grant searching that provides access to more than 1 million foundation grant records. NOZA also offers a free prospect research workbook with information and tools for new and experienced prospect researchers and fund-raisers.
“NOZA’s founding philosophy is that all nonprofits should have affordable access to advanced prospect research fund-raising technology,” said Harris. “With the addition of the 990-PF Database, we are adding another dimension to the data our search technology has brought to the fingertips of nonprofits.”
Juliana Minsky is a partner in SurfMedia Communications.