Candid
The information you need to do good.
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Mission
Candid's mission is to get you the information you need to do good.
Notes from the nonprofit
Foundation Center was the largest source of information about philanthropy globally, and GuideStar was the largest source of information on U.S. nonprofit organizations. In 2019, the two organizations joined forces to become Candid, enabling us to enhance the services we offer to the millions of people who rely on us to help them make the world a better place. Please note, this profile will continue to maintain historic data on Foundation Center’s financials, annual reports, and organization demographics. For information on GuideStar’s financials and organization demographics, please visit GuideStar’s legacy profile (EIN: 54-1774039).
Ruling year
1957
Principal Officer
Ann Mei Chang
Main address
32 Old Slip Fl 24
New York City, NY 10005-3554 USA
Formerly known as
Foundation Center
GuideStar
EIN
13-1837418
NTEE code
Philanthropy / Charity / Voluntarism Promotion (General) (T50)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
As the social sector landscape continues to rapidly evolve, funders are increasingly facing competing, pressing priorities while nonprofits struggle to find desperately needed resources particularly small, rural, and early-stage nonprofits as well as organizations led by and serving communities that have been historically marginalized. We need easy and equitable access to knowledge and timely, nonpartisan data as we work to solve increasingly complex social issues. Candid removes barriers to data and resources for nonprofits, creating a more effective, efficient, and equitable social sector.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Nonprofit Training
Candid Learning is our learning community for the social sector. Through it we provide free training, resources, and learning experiences to improve the way changemakers do their work. Candid’s training courses encourage engagement throughout the full cycle of a person’s career, building capacity in three core competencies: fundraising, organizational sustainability, and leadership and management.
Local Access
Though we are a national organization, our impact is highly local through the reach and impact of our Candid community partners. Our more than 1,700 Candid community partners make access to our core tools like Foundation Directory and GuideStar freely available in local communities. Any Candid community partner that would like to teach Candid’s courses to their local communities also has access to our curriculum, exponentially increasing our reach and impact. These partners are located at libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers and provide database access and support to nonprofits nationwide. Our Candid community partners are deeply embedded in the communities they serve.
Data
Data is the cornerstone of Candid’s value to the social sector. To accurately describe the sector at scale and to provide actionable information to the field, we need a more robust, active, stable, and current data collection system. We make data on the philanthropic sector widely available and easy to understand with the goal of helping create a more equitable, effective, and efficient social sector. Our data tools advance the work of the social sector and help remove barriers to funding for nonprofits. For example, Foundation Directory helps nonprofits fundraise and GuideStar helps funders identify and vet nonprofits. To ensure that financial resources and geographic location are never a barrier, our Go for Gold initiative allows 501c3 organizations with budgets of less than $1 million to access a free subscription to Foundation Directory if they fill out their Candid profile and earn a Gold Seal of Transparency.
Insights and News
Offering the best, freshest data possible is only meaningful if it is accessible and easy to understand. We have a dedicated team of researchers that analyze and interpret the most current philanthropic data so our users can tap into it. We share these insights via research reports and ongoing blog posts. In addition to our own research and thought leadership, we support ongoing learning and research in the social sector through Issue Lab. Issue Lab is our searchable database of more than 35,000 research publications and best practices created by the social sector. Candid delivers accurate and timely information through Philanthropy News Digest, our daily news service, which publishes philanthropy-related articles and features culled from print and electronic media outlets nationwide.
Where we work
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Global
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of Candid training registrants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Number of Candid community partner locations
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of organizations who share enough information to earn a Seal of Transparency on GuideStar
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of research reports and white papers available on Issue Lab
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our goal is to help build a more effective, efficient, and equitable social sector.
Candid plays a pivotal role in the sector by democratizing access to information and leveling the playing field for nonprofits. We offer a range of tools and services including a comprehensive database of grantmakers and grants that help nonprofits find funding, educational resources that build capacity, research and analysis that inform decision-making, and more.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Candid is developing a new generation of products and services that are technologically sophisticated and designed to champion the causes, organizations, and knowledge that power civil society worldwide. We will leverage our stores of talent, data, indicators, research, news, and capacity-building resources to improve philanthropic systems and practices in the U.S. and around the world, and will enable knowledge sharing with the potential to transform how civil society and the social sector learns and improves. We will continue to learn from our stakeholders to determine how to improve our offerings and provide tools that will help nonprofits, foundations, giving platforms, and other social sector stakeholders achieve their missions.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
With more than 80 years of collective experience supporting the social sector, Candid has the staff expertise, organizational capacity, and leadership to provide new resources and services for those in the social sector and beyond.
We are fortunate to have a staff of 200+ dedicated professionals skilled in building tools and delivering services to nonprofits, foundations, professionals, and individuals; stable financials and a plan for continued sustainability; an engaged board of directors from a wide variety of disciplines; and a large group of committed funders. Our staff leadership has a long track record of expanding our service to the field, often by capitalizing on new technologies. By developing the skills and knowledge base of our staff, we ensure that we can continue to innovate, and effectively identify and meet needs in the sector as they arise.
Candid’s combined history of serving nonprofits, grantmakers, researchers, and do-gooders of all kinds provides us with unique insights into the the evolving needs of the social sector. These insights help us shape our offerings and ensure that we keep our finger on the pulse of what our users need to help them do good. We have long held that increasing transparency in our sector would increase its effectiveness, and that democratizing access to data, knowledge, and resources would level the playing field for those working to improve their communities and champion their causes. The combination of a trusted history of providing non-partisan data and knowledge and the ability to create cutting edge technology to propel the social sector forward gives us a unique vantage point from which to serve those who are working to build a better world.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Candid
Board of directorsas of 11/13/2025
Melissa Berman
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.
Term: 2024 -
Anahita Tafvizi
Snowflake
Angela Williams
United Way Worldwide
Brian Trelstad TREASURER
Bridges Fund Management
Donna Murray-Brown
National Council of Nonprofits
Esther Benjamin
World Education Services
John Brothers
T. Rowe Price Foundation
Kami Dar
Uniti Networks
Kenneth Jones
The MacArthur Foundation
Lyle Matthew Kan
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP)
Matt Gee
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Melissa Berman
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.
Mosun Layode
African Philanthropy Forum
Naila Farouky
Arab Foundations Forum
Rhett Mabry
The Duke Endowment
Romanita Hairston
M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
Rosa Gallego
Asociación Española de Fundaciones (AEF; Spanish Association of Foundations)
Stephen Goodall
J.D. Power and Associates
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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