Candid GuideStar Reviews & Insights

In my line of work I am often tasked with looking into the viability for partnership with various non-profit institutions to see if they would be a good fit for our services. This service allows me to better understand revenues, budget item spending and executive salaries using the 990 functionality.

It is just my go-to for any information I need on a potential client as I work in the non-profit consulting space and need to better understand my prospects. As a former nonprofit exec, I valued what we could share on the site as a gold seal for others to learn about our worthiness to invest.

GuideStar Pro is being used at my organization to find concise data from 990s of funders we are prospecting. It is most useful when used in conjunction with FDO, but GuideStar Pro alone can also be helpful albeit take more time to use. It is being used in Development and addresses issues finding information about funder giving preferences (when they lack a website) or finding out if an organization is still in existence. We also use the GuideStar seal on our website to show our commitment to transparency.

GuideStar Pro is well suited in two scenarios: when you want to demonstrate your organization's commitment to transparency (through the seals) and when you know what you're looking for when searching through 990s. Basically, if you can mine a 990 well, GuideStar Pro is perfect for you. If you are new to the grant-seeking industry and need more guidance/clearer information already mined for you, then GuideStar Pro is likely to be overwhelming.

GuideStar Pro is an essential tool for researching nonprofit organizations and foundations. We primarily use GuideStar for easy access to organizations' Form 990 that contains valuable information and can be used when researching new granting foundations.

GuideStar Pro is my platform of choice for pulling up an organization's Form 990 when researching a grant. I have other paid platforms that allow me to look at 990s, but I prefer GuideStar for its user interface and that it only takes a couple of clicks to get the information you want. They make it quick and easy to get the information that I need to do my research.