Research Guides: PADM 6240: Management of Non-Profit Organizations: Background info on Non-Profits

Nonprofit Profiles

IRS 990 and Nonprofits

Charitable Organizations and Nonprofits are required to file Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. Many databases and websites use these publicly available forms to examine and rate these organizations and inform the public about them. On this page you will find many different resources for researching specific nonprofits both through library databases and on the web.

For more on Form 990, please refer to the Foundation Center's Demystifying the 990-PF, the Internal Revenue Service's About Form 990 (IRS)

For additional information regarding information regarding tax information for nonprofits, please refer to Tax Information for Charities & Other Non-Profits on the IRS website

Library Resources

National Directory of Non-Profits
Use pull-down menu to select: National Directory of Nonprofit Associations

Foundation Directory Online Professional This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive database of grantmakers and grants. Search 990s allows searching across the text of the entire database for private foundations, community foundations, and grantmaking public charities.
Hoover's Company Profiles This link opens in a new window
Information for over 40,000 companies, including company overview, industry information, leadership and historical financials.
IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Information for over 40,000 companies, including company overview, industry information, leadership and historical financials. There are multiple industry reports for various types of nonprofits organized by NAICS codes, including 81321-Donations, Grants and Endowments in the U.S.; 81311-Religious Organizations; and 81321- Donations, Grants & Endowment in the US.

Websites with Nonprofit Information

Better Business Bureau for Charities and Donors
Rates and grades charity organizations based on performance, a history of complaints against the organization
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator has become the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. They have examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents. and used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 9,000 of America's best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.
National Center for Charitable Statistics Data Archive
The data produced by NCCS are intended for use by researchers and policy-makers in their quantitative analyses, and as a springboard for more in-depth survey or case study research.
GuideStar
Includes background of organization, mission statement, impact statement, financials from IRS 990.