|
| ||
|
From the President's Office, May 20, 2005
On June 1, we will launch the next generation of the GuideStar Web site, GuideStar 3.0. In designing our new site, we met with lots of you, found what we are doing right, what we could do better, and what you expect when you come to GuideStar. The launch of GuideStar 3.0 is the result of your feedback. We've kept a bit of the old, added some new, and, I hope you will agree, generally enhanced your experience. Here are a few of the highlights of our new site: More Nonprofit Organizations. You told us that you wanted to be able to research all tax-exempt nonprofits on GuideStar, not just 501(c)(3)s, so we are adding more than 340,000 more organizations to our database. All nonprofits listed in the IRS Business Master File will now appear on GuideStar, bringing the total number of organizations in the database to more than 1.5 million. These additions include membership organizations, civic leagues, political groups, and more. More Nonprofit Information. Nonprofit managers told us they wanted to post their 990s on GuideStar as soon as they submit them to the IRS. Grantmakers and other users asked us to make letters of determination, applications for exemption, and other documents available on GuideStar. So we've created GuideStar eDocs, a new service that enables any organization in the database to upload documents to GuideStar to be included in a nonprofit's GuideStar Report. Better Search and New Sort Options. Finally, you told us that one size does not fit all of your needs. Those who use GuideStar in their daily work wanted more professional search and sort functionality as well as the ability to save organizations and searches. On the other hand, some wanted a very simple search. Still others wanted more search fields. So we created three levels of access to the database. GuideStar Basic features a simple keyword or four-field advanced search and most of the information you find on GuideStar today—including the three most current 990s we have received from the IRS for an organization. GuideStar Select and GuideStar Premium give you everything you find in GuideStar Basic and more—more search fields, more at-a-glance data in the search results, more information in nonprofits' GuideStar Reports. GuideStar Select and GuideStar Premium also feature sortable search results, and GuideStar Premium allows you to save search criteria, add nonprofits to a list, and view all 990s we have received from the IRS. We are offering GuideStar Select for $30 a month or $300 a year. GuideStar Premium will cost $100 a month or $1,000 a year. Thanks to the generosity of our funders, we are still able to make GuideStar Basic and a tremendous amount of nonprofit information available at no charge to our users, and organizations will still be able to update their GuideStar Reports at no charge. Thanks to your feedback and the creativity and hard work of GuideStar's staff, we are able to offer new tools that will enable users to obtain the level of nonprofit data they need quickly, easily, and efficiently. I am excited about GuideStar 3.0 and hope that you will be, too. If you would like more details about the new site, I invite you to use the links below. Please take advantage of the feedback link (it will also appear on the new site) to let us know what you think. Sincerely, Bob Ottenhoff General Information New GuideStar Services What GuideStar 3.0 Means for: Feedback |
Dear Friend: