Announcing a new US Foundation Database Online

One of the essentials of cross border fundraising is access to information about grantmaking organizations in other countries.  You will have to pay for high quality information.  If you have the time you can Google and find the names of some of the grantmaking organizations.  But what you won’t find the detailed analysis will enable you to differentiate your key potential funders from other possible funders.  This analysis saves you time and resources because you prepare fewer applications and can expect more positive responses.

Chapel & York looks for the best available information.  Some we publish ourselves.  For example we publish directories (plus cds and pdf downloads) on grantmaking organizations in Europe, Asia Pacific and in the USA.  But we also look for other sources of information and our most recent find is a new US online database which we demonstrated to around 30 invited charities in London last Wednesday. 

It was the first time we had presented it in public so it was nerve wracking particularly for Peter Haley, our Head of Research, who devised the demonstration and answered many of the questions.  Peter did a great job and the presentation went pretty smoothly.  We asked for feedback and Peter is calling up the charities that attended to get their comments. 

Our view is that FoundationSearch is the best database on the market, significantly better than any of its competitors.  We haven’t been involved in its development - but we do have rights to market it outside the USA and Canada.  It was developed in Canada and currently it has the complete database of American and Canadian funders, with UK and Australian databases under construction.  Significantly, perhaps because it was developed outside the USA, it is has the same level of information about American funders’ international grants, grantees and grantors, as it has about domestic American grants.  Of course this is exactly what our clients outside the USA are looking for.

The statistics of the database are impressive.  It has been 6 years under development and contains more than 4 million pages of searchable information on over 90,000 US grantmaking foundations.  It’s updated with new information daily.  It provides a facility to search Form 990PFs, the tax return filed annually by US grantmaking foundations.  It provides direct links to application information on the foundations’ websites.  And it provides detailed financial analysis of grants made, including geographical interests and preferences outside the USA. Further information is available at: 
www.chapel-york.com/services/usfoundationdatabase.html

Immediately after the presentation on Wednesday and since then there have been some very encouraging indications of interest in the database from the charities which were there.  In addition several that were unable to attend have had a telephone presentation.  We are planning another presentation on Tuesday 16 October in London and if you are interested please contact Peter Haley on +44 1342 871914 peter.haley@chapel-york.com  Or Peter can give you a demo over the telephone where you have internet access, or call or email with any questions.

 And I will keep you posted on reactions to the new database.