GuideStar Provides All Students, Instructors, and Unfunded Academic Researchers Free Access to Its Full Nonprofit Reports

GuideStar for Education Program's Revamped Interface Allows Easier Application and Status Updates

Release date: January 24, 2013

Washington, D.C.—GuideStar, the leading source of nonprofit information, today announced new enhancements to GuideStar for Education, a program that offers all class instructors, their students, and individuals doing unsponsored academic research complimentary access to GuideStar Premium, the only tool that enables users sophisticated analysis and access to GuideStar's most complete nonprofit reports. Through the GuideStar for Education program, classes and academic researchers may use GuideStar Premium at no cost for the duration of their course and/or research project, a savings of $1,000-1,500.

"More than 600 academic institutions offer degrees and individual courses specifically on the nonprofit sector, and hundreds more use nonprofit information to inform other coursework," said Erinn Andrews, senior director of nonprofit strategy at GuideStar. "We understand the importance of preparing leaders to manage the billions of dollars in goods and services that nonprofits provide to citizens all over the world, and we know we must ensure accessibility and affordability to those strengthening the nonprofit sector through education. Our GuideStar for Education program is an invaluable tool for thousands of students, faculty, and academic researchers, who together make up the largest population currently accessing the GuideStar database."

New Enhancements to GuideStar for Education

With the new enhancements to the program, it's easier than ever for people wishing to take advantage of GuideStar for Education to manage their applications. Specifically, students, instructors, and researchers can now:

• View a list of all past applications with information about whether the request was accepted or denied.
• Reapply to the program using a past application, with the ability to edit the content before submitting.

Applications take on average 24 business hours to be approved.

GuideStar Premium Benefits for Academia

GuideStar Premium provides sophisticated tools to help users perform customized searches, filter search results, and access complete reports on nonprofit organizations. GuideStar Premium's features include:

• access to all Forms 990 GuideStar has received from the IRS;
• access to all audited financial statements, Forms 1023/1024, and annual reports provided by individual nonprofit organizations;
• the ability to search for people (board members, directors, key employees) associated with nonprofit organizations in a database of more than 3.3 million individuals;
• financial data, including revenue and expense charts and balance sheets, for organizations;
• the ability to download up to 5 years of people and detailed financial data for 5,000 organizations per month in Excel; and
• much more.

Five-Step Enrollment Process

1. Review the GuideStar for Education license agreement.
2. If you have not already created an account with GuideStar, please do so at http://www.guidestar.org/register.
3. To gain access for a course, complete the online enrollment form at: http://www.guidestar.org/guidestar-for-education/instructor-application.aspx
4. To gain access for research purposes, go to: http://www.guidestar.org/guidestar-for-education/researcher-application.aspx
5. GuideStar staff will review your enrollment application. If your application is approved, you will receive an e-mail—typically within 24 business hours—providing further details around administering GuideStar Premium access to the appropriate users at your institution.
6. Sign in at http://www.guidestar.org/Login.aspx and click on "My Account" in the upper right to manage your GuideStar Premium subscriptions.

Since 2005, GuideStar for Education has been used by more than 660 academic institutions, and more than 35,000 students, professors, and unsponsored academic researchers have benefited from access to GuideStar Premium through this program. "The program brings 1.8 million nonprofits to academia by combining powerful, easy-to-use tools with GuideStar's most complete nonprofit reports," added Andrews.

For more information about the GuideStar for Education program, please visit http://www.guidestar.org/rxg/products/resources/guidestar-for-education.aspx.

About GuideStar

GuideStar, www.guidestar.org, connects people and organizations with information on the programs and finances of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. GuideStar serves a wide audience inside and outside the nonprofit sector, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, government officials, academic researchers, and the media.

Media Contact

Lindsay J.K. Nichols
(202) 637-7614
lnichols@guidestar.org