Nonprofit Organizations

The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in nonprofit organizations. See also the guide to Finding Grants & Foundation Information. For further assistance, contact Tom Stave in the Document Center, at tstave@uoregon.edu.

Starting Your Research

Finding Foundations and Nonprofit Organizations
Use these databases and directories to find grantmaking and other nonprofit organizations:

• Foundation Directory Online Professional (Knight Library only.)
  Four databases: 80,000 grantmakers, 500,000+ grants, searchable IRS 990 forms, and corporate giving data.
• Foundation Grants to Individuals Online (Knight Library only.)
  Information about foundation grant opportunities for individuals.
• Guidestar
  Information on nonprofits, including IRS 990 forms, annual reports.
• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
  Information about federal grant-making programs.
• Reference USA
  Database of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Search by "yellow page" heading or industry classification, and by geographic place.
• Foundation Directory (Knight Ref AS 911 .A2 F65)
• Encyclopedia of Associations (Knight Ref/Doc Ref AS22.E5)
• National Directory of Nonprofit Organizations (Doc Ref AS 29.5.N38)

Reference Sources

• Glossary of Philanthropic Terms
• Dictionary of Nonprofit Terms and Concepts (Doc Ref 2769.15.S63 2006)
• New Nonprofit Almanac and Desk Reference (Doc Ref HD 2769.2.U6N47 2002)

Finding articles

Article indexes
These are some of the most relevant article indexes for the nonprofit sector. You may also wish to search others from the Libraries' collection.

• Catalog of nonprofit literature
  Books and articles from Foundation Center's library, some online.
• Philanthropic Studies Index (Indiana U.) Academic journal articles, dissertations, websites, working papers.
• PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service)
  References to journal articles, books, proceedings, and government documents in the area of public affairs.
• SocAbstracts
  Access to papers in sociology and related disciplines, including social work and community development.
• Web of Science
  Comprehensive index for science and social science articles. Search for words in article titles, by author, or for works that cite a specified author or paper.
• Academic Search Premier
  Interdisciplinary database with indexing for more than 8,000 periodicals, including full text for articles in 4,500 journals.
• Business Source Complete Indexing for articles in over 7,000 business-related journals, including full text for over 3000 titles.

Key Journals

• Chronicle of Philanthropy
• International Journal of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Marketing
•  Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
• Nonprofit Management and Leadership
• Nonprofit Quarterly (KNIGHT HD 62.6.N68)
• Stanford Social Innovation Review (KNIGHT HD 62.6 .S733)
• Voluntas

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Finding Books

• UO Library Catalog
  Identify books by topic, title or author; identify journals and magazines owned by the UO Library.
• Summit Union Catalog
  Quick turnaround loans of books from 35 academic libraries in the Northwest.
• WorldCat
  Access to holdings of 60,000 libraries worldwide. Request items using Interlibrary Loan feature.
• Catalog of nonprofit literature
  Books, articles and reports from the Foundation Center's library, some available online.

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Statistics

Locate statistical data on foundations and the non-profit sector. Reference staff in the Knight Library's Document Center can assist with hard-to-locate data.

• National Center for Charitable Statistics from the Urban Institute
• Nonprofit statistics (IRS) (select "Charitable & Exempt Organizations")
• Trend Tracker (Foundation Center) Review data for individual grantmakers or compare up to five foundations, creating charts, graphs or tables.
• U.S. Bureau of the Census Use Population/Housing data for community analysis; use Economic data for nonprofit sector.
• Lexis-Nexis: Statistical
• Data for Local Communities Database of data sources on the web for local communities in Oregon

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Organizational Sources

• ARNOVA (Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action)
• Association of Fundraising Professionals (including annual AFP State of Fundraising survey)
• Blackbaud Nonprofit Industry Research (including annual State of the Nonprofit Industry Survey)
• Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (Urban Institute)
• Council on Foundations
• Foundation Center
• Independent Sector
• Nonprofit Studies at the University of Oregon
• Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (Aspen Institute)
• Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society

Blogs

Blogs dealing with nonprofit and philanthropy issues, recommended by the authors of Philanthropy Annual 2007.