Fabulous Free Sites

Prospect research is an indispensable arm of a major-gifts program. You need to understand a prospective donor’s giving capacity, among other things. Here’s are some great free sites to aid in your research.

Portico is a collection of Web sites containing publicly available information compiled for the use of the advancement community. The site was developed by staff at the University of Virginia and is one of the best compilations of free sites currently available.

The National Association of Legal Investigators’ site has links to a variety of sources of information, some free and some fee-based.

The Wall Street Journal Executive career site has a wealth of salary surveys and other useful career information.

Yahoo! Finance provides information on more than 9,000 public companies, including contact information, business summaries and officer/employee information. Best of all, it’s free.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s site allows you to search by keyword(s) the EDGAR database filings, including insider names. The biggest drawback of this site is that it only contains information from the last four years, but it provides free access to important data.