If you find yourself with too little time or not enough staff to conduct quality prospect research, or if you just want to stretch your precious prospect fundraising budget to obtain the maximum benefit, you might consider allowing our foundation and prospect research staff experts to assist you.
The Foundation Center's Associates Program is an annual membership program designed to provide specialized services to nonprofit organizations with frequent need for information on foundations and corporate givers, including details on their grants and their donors, officers, board members, and trustees.
The Associates Program offers fundraising professionals same-day access to reliable and up-to-date information on private foundations and direct corporate giving programs in the U.S. Members can interact with our research staff via a members-only e-mail address or a toll-free telephone number. Our researchers provide answers to Associates' questions drawn from the Center's comprehensive databases (updated daily) as well as online and print sources from our extensive philanthropic library.
As a member, you may:
- Call upon our staff for quick answers to all your fundraising questions. We have annual reports, electronic grants lists from foundations, and current as well as historical IRS returns. Our staff has access to complete collections of recent books, journals, pamphlets and newspapers on philanthropy, fundraising and nonprofit management;
- Ask our staff to search Foundation Center databases, as well as several other resources, and deliver targeted profiles and grants lists to meet your specific needs. We are expert at searching our own databases, including those not available to the general public that contain the most up-to-the-minute information;
- Let our staff provide crucial biographical information on individuals from your prospect list. We'll search for your prospects using Foundation Center resources, the Internet, and a variety of electronic databases.
Members may also take advantage of these special services:
- Consultations with Foundation Center information specialists who can help you develop research strategies and initial prospect lists of foundation funders;
- Biographical profiles on foundation trustees, program officers, and prospective donors;
- Help finding research reports, books, and articles on any topic related to fundraising or nonprofit management;
- Document delivery option (e-mail, fax, or mail) for the most recent foundation tax returns from our continuously updated in-house database of 990-PF forms, the largest such public database in the country, and our vast collection of grantmaker annual reports and other primary documents.
Members can sign up for a free e-mail alert service that provides your staff with a monthly list of hundreds of new and emerging foundations as well as updates to the Foundation Center's grantmaker database.
Members have exclusive access to Associates Program Online, an extranet site that connects you to a variety of services and offers additional content not available to the general public, including up-to-the-minute notice of changes at foundations and a list of those that have terminated. Visit often to keep up-to-date on what's happening at the Foundation Center and in the world of philanthropy, and to learn about special offers available only to members.
*The Foundation Center's Associates Program is open to any individual or organization. Information provided to you as an Associate is for the sole use of you or your organization. It may not be published, transferred, or sold by you to any other institution or individual. This information is limited to factual and statistical data available in public reference sources, our own records, and computer files. Foundation Center staff cannot suggest foundations or evaluate them as possible sources of funding, nor can we serve as a liaison between you and foundations or write proposals for you.
Membership in the Associates Program is $995 per year. Sign up online or, for more information, call 1-800-634-2953 or send an e-mail to associatesprogram@foundationcenter.org.
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