Northwest Research

Some inexpensive resources for researchers in the greater Seattle Area

maryrose — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:58:29 +0000

Here are some easy to use resources for people doing prospect research in the Greater Seattle Area:

Library Resources

http://www.kcls.org/databases/a_z.cfm

The King County Library has many resources you can use from home. I would recommend using the Biography Resource Center, ABI Inform Trade and Industry, General One File. Factiva, Proquest for Washington State Newspapers, Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Database and Reference USA. If you use these you will find basic biographic, business and financial information. If you use the Washington State Newspaper Database, you won’t need to use Seattle PI or Seattle Times sites.

Seattle Public Library, has Foundation Directory Online available only in the library

KCLS has a number of nonprofit resources at their nonprofit resource center

http://www.kcls.org/philanthropy/

For property information

King County IMAP can provide you with property values.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/gis/Maps/iMAP.aspx

KNOWX will provide “pay per view” property record information

http://www.knowx.com

For Large Corporations

Insider trading information can be found here

http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/insiders.asp

Marketwatch or Google Finance, Yahoo Finance can also provide you with biographies and salary information for publicly traded companies.

For Philanthropic Information

Free Foundation Giving Information can be found at Nozasearch

https://www.nozasearch.com/

But you must have an annual subscription for individual donors. If you can afford it, try

http://www.donoryes.com/

DonorYes.com is a free prospect research tool, allowing researchers to locate previous gifts that your prospective donor has given. This tool only searches .org and .edu domains – where most charitable gifts can be found.

http://www2.guidestar.org/

Guidestar provides 990s for foundations and other nonprofit organizations

http://www.opensecrets.org/

Open Secrets provides political giving information

For Donor Connections

Zoominfo has biographies that often include current and past civic and philanthropic involvement

http://www.zoominfo.com/

and of course our planetary database

http://www.google.com

What are your favorite sources for searching in Seattle?

Northwest Research at NDOA Conference

maryrose — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:14:40 +0000

I’ll be an exhibitor at the Northwest Development Officers Association conference on January 28th. If you are an established client or have an interest in learning more about donor research, please stop by.

Noza’s 990 database

maryrose — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Noza’s 990 database is available, for free at:

http://www.noza990pf.com/

I’m finding it more useful than Guidestar for historical foundation information. Guidestar only provides the last 3 years of 990 for a foundation, but I’ve found information since 1999 on Noza’s 990 database.

"How Harvard Lost All that Money"

maryrose — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:34:00 +0000

There is a very interesting post about Harvard’s endowment by the Boston Globe. Although the article has a focus on the personalities involved, it provides some insight on how some investors (and possible donors) were thinking during the boom years.

Thanks to Planet Money for pointing out the article.

Major Gift News from Donor Search

maryrose — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Hi all–

I found this great new blog, supported by DonorSearch. It is called “New Major Gift Research” and it can be found at http://www.donorsearch.net/new-articles/

This blog provides a summary of known new major gifts over the previous week, and it even has an RSS Feed. It looks like a great place to look when someone asks about recent gifts.

Peer Screening for Beginners Presentation

maryrose — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:22:00 +0000

This is the Peer Screening presentation from the APRA-Mo/Kan Annual Conference.

Microsoft Power Point Peer Screening

View more presentations from Maryrose11.

APRA MO-KAN PROSPECT RESEARCH TRAINING

maryrose — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:54:00 +0000

I had the great pleasure of teaching at the 2009 APRA Missouri/Kansas Chapter Conference last week. Here is my Beginning Prospect Research training powerpoint. Enjoy!

Microsoft Power Point Prospect Research Training 3/2009

View more presentations from Maryrose11.

Presenting on Prospect Research Basics and Peer Screening

maryrose — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:01:00 +0000

I’m Presenting on Prospect Research Basics and Peer Screening at the APRA-MO/KAN Chapter Conference on March 26th and March 27th. If you are in the area, there is still time to sign up and join us.

http://www.apramokan.org/events.html

I Hope to see you there.

Great Article About the "Deep Web" in the New York Times

maryrose — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:57:00 +0000

Here is a terrific article about the deep web. I have always heard that Google only reaches 35% of the web. It is great that some of the newer search engines, like Kosmix and DeepPeep are addressing some of Google’s deficiencies.

DeepPeep looks especially promising, since so much biographic information is behind search boxes. At this point, DeepPeep is limited to a few topics, but I’m looking forward to its expansion.

Multnomah County Library now has National Newspapers

maryrose — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:32:00 +0000

The Multnomah County Library has now subscribed to a Newsbank Online Portal that includes a variety of national papers and news sources. You can see the complete source list here