GuideStar

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

GuideStar, a source of nonprofit information, announced GuideStar Search Provider, a new keyword search tool that people can use from a majority of Internet browsers for easier access to GuideStar's expansive database of nonprofit information. With a simple installation, GuideStar Search Provider allows people to search the GuideStar database using keywords, such as the name of an organization, without specifically browsing to www.guidestar.org first.

GuideStar announced the winner of the 2011 Giving Season Giveaway. Golden Gate Basset Rescue Inc., a 1793GuideStar Exchange Seal holder that rescues basset hounds from abusive, abandoned and unwanted situations and rehabilitates homeless animals in foster homes while evaluating behavior and health problems, received the highest number of donations in November and December 2011 and won the prize of $5,000, furnished by KIMBIA.

In the past two months, more than 1,690 donations were submitted through GuideStar, generating more than $251,000 in donations to hundreds of organizations.

As end-of-the year giving gets under way, some charities like the American Red Cross are skipping disaster pictures and switching to gentler imagery to urge people to forgo extraneous holiday gifts and, instead, give “something that means something.”

To deliver its message, the American Red Cross has a new animated character in its multimedia campaign highlighting the seasonal dilemma of whether to please family and friends with material gifts or to give them something that betters the lives of others.

Sixty-five percent of charities surveyed report increased demand for their services in 2011, but just 41 percent saw increased fundraising results in the first nine months of 2011 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Late Fall 2011 Nonprofit Fundraising Study, conducted by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative.

Smaller charities, those with less than $3 million in total expenditures and which make up 90 percent of the nation’s nonprofit organizations, saw disproportionate declines in funds raised and were more likely to report they are planning budget and services cuts in 2012.

GuideStar and Hope Consulting announced the results of a new study, Money for Good II (MFGII), that shows if nonprofits and information providers are able to provide donors, advisors and foundation grant-makers with the information that they want, where and how they want it, these donors would consider shifting up to $15 billion in charitable dollars to higher-performing nonprofits.

As the fourth quarter of 2011 begins, fewer than half of surveyed nonprofits reported fundraising increases during the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.

According to a report released by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), of 813 responding nonprofits surveyed in July:

• 44 percent reported increases in charitable contributions received through June, compared with the same period in 2010;
• 25 percent reported giving remained level; and
• 30 percent reported charitable contributions have declined so far this year.
• 1 percent did not know.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

GuideStar — the leading source of nonprofit information — published its 2011 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report, the only large-scale analysis of its kind that relies exclusively on data reported to the IRS. The report, which was GuideStar's first look at how the "Great Recession" affected salaries and benefits across the nonprofit sector, showed that the economy undoubtedly played a role in lessening compensation. In 2008, median increases in incumbent CEO compensation were generally 4 percent or higher. In 2009, increases were generally 2 percent or less.

Nonprofit information source GuideStar has rolled out new updates to the GuideStar Exchange, an initiative designed to help nonprofits connect with key stakeholders, including funders. These changes allow the nonprofits that enter their organizations' information into the GuideStar Exchange to do so with fewer hurdles, thereby ensuring that more people see their information more quickly.