Internet Prospector

State Charities Databases on the Web

INDEX
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ALABAMA

There is no online charities database. Search for charities in the corporation filings by active names, active and inactive names, active and inactive word search or agent/officer/incorporator. The search returns a list with links. Details include incorporation information, registered agent and purpose.

http://arc-sos.state.al.us/

ALASKA

Search the Corporations database for nonprofits by entering criteria in the search fields. A list, with addresses, is returned. Click on your selection to see address, registered agent, incorporation information and top officers.

http://www.dced.state.ak.us/bsc/CorpStart.cfm

For how to search go to
http://www.dced.state.ak.us/bsc/search.htm#search

ARIZONA

Thanks to Laurel Porter for this site. At the Arizona Secretary of State Charitable Organizations System site, search by part of name or DBA ("doing business as" name). Get back the contact person, address and purpose.

http://www.sosaz.com/scripts/Charity_Search_engine.cgi

Search corporations by alpha or word for further charities information.

http://159.87.17.11/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.sh/WService=wsbroker1/main.html

ARKANSAS

There is no online charities database. Search the Incorporation filings by word to see status, registered agent and agent address for a nonprofit. You can also FTP the entire database ... just follow the link at the bottom of the page.

http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/corps/incorp/

CALIFORNIA

Thanks to David C. Corey for this link. Search for a charity by word or other criteria. A list is returned with name, address and registry number. Follow the additional link, if available, for financial information in .pdf format. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to do this and it can take a while to download.

http://justice.hdcdojnet.state.ca.us/charity/charity.taf

For information about Charity Search go to:
http://caag.state.ca.us/charities/disclaimer.htm

COLORADO

There is no online charities database. Perform a Business Entity search for charities by name (alpha or phonetic) to get the type of business, registered agent and address.

http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/business/main.htm

http://www.sos.state.co.us/cgi-forte/fortecgi?sos_www=www.sos.state.co.us&serviceName=corporationProdAccess
&templateName=corporation/publicinquiries/public_inquiry_corp_criteria_outer_form.forte&source=campaign

CONNECTICUT

There is no charities database on the Web for Connecticut. The Secretary of State's corporations database, Concord, is available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST. It is extremely clunky to use because it uses function keys and charities information seems sporadic. Before you get started, you will need to print out the instructions and whatever you do, do **not** use the back key on your browser or you will go clear back to your point of entry into the database. Argh!

http://www.concord.state.ct.us/

"Must Read" instructions
http://www.sots.state.ct.us/CommercialRecording/Concord/WebInstructions.html

DELAWARE

There is neither a charities nor a corporations search offered.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

No charities or corporations search is available.

FLORIDA

There is no charities database. Search the Department of State Corporate Name List for nonprofits by name, officer/registered agent, FEI name or document number, then choose from the results list. Information provided includes addresses, status, registered agent, officers and the years for which the annual reports are on file (hard-copy, darn it). The site is quite easy to navigate, a nice bonus.

http://www.sunbiz.org/corpweb/inquiry/corinam.html

GEORGIA

Search the Secretary of State's Registered Charitable Organization database by word. The list includes only address, phone, date of filing, expenses and income information.

http://www.sos.state.ga.us/securities/charitysearch.htm

Search the corporations database and follow the additional link to get a list of officers, their titles and addresses, if available.

http://www.sos.state.ga.us/corporations/corpsearch.htm

HAWAII

There is no charities database online for Hawaii. Perform a Business Name Search for charities by word. Click on the link for the entity you want and find address, purpose and officers. The officer list has some obscure codes with no explanations.

http://www.ehawaiigov.org/DCCA/biz-name/html/

IDAHO

Thanks to Jody Opheim for the Idaho site. Instead of a charities database, search in the Business Entities database by word. Click on the link for detail including status and registered agent. You can also view the annual reports, some with lists of officers, or download them in TIFF format. If you view them online, we recommend clicking on the pages to enlarge them, since they are scanned documents and illegible in the smaller size.

http://www.accessidaho.org/public/sos/corp/search.html?SearchFormstep=crit

ILLINOIS

The Secretary of State's corporations registry includes charities. Search by name, keyword or file number. The keyword search did not work very well. Get the incorporation date and registered agent, with address, and president and secretary names, if available.

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/business_services/corpstart.html

INDIANA

Charities are in the Secretary of State's corporation registry. Search by word or client ID. Name, address, type and status are available free. Additional information, like the principles, is available for a small fee.

https://www.ai.org/sos/bus_service/online_corps/nameavail.asp

IOWA

The Secretary of State's corporation registry includes nonprofits. Search by first few letters of the name or the corporate number. Click on your selection from the results list to see the summary page. Click on filings at the top to access documents like the biennial report and articles of incorporation. These open as .tif files. The officers button yields a name list with titles and addresses, also listed in the biennial report.

http://www.sos.state.ia.us/corpweb/

KANSAS

There is no online charities database. Search for organizations by name, keyword, number, city and date, resident agent name or resident agent name by keyword. Information includes resident agent, address, alternate names, status and filing information.

http://www.accesskansas.org/corporations/

Thanks to Linda Lang for her tip about the Kansas State Department of Education, which maintains a chart of funders for K-12 schools that reports what they fund related to education and minimum and maximum grant amounts.

http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us/pre/dataintro.html

KENTUCKY

Thanks to Erlinda G. Paguio for this URL. The Kentucky Attorney General provides a list of private foundations which have filed with this office since 1998. Information includes name, address, assets, contributions, last filing date and purpose. The purpose codes are defined at:

http://www.law.state.ky.us/cp/chcodepf.htm

Start with the A-C list, then click on the links for the remainder of the alphabet.

http://www.law.state.ky.us/cp/charpfac.htm

Search the online business database for charities by name or first four letters of the name. The information returned on a search includes address, registered agent, current officers and their positions and, for a very nice touch, the names of the initial directors and/or incorporators.

http://www.sos.state.ky.us/corporate2/entityname.asp

LOUISIANA

Search the corporations' database to find charities and individuals by word or charter number. For charities, see the address, status, registered agent and some of the officers or directors. For individuals, get a list of names with links to the associated charities.

http://www.sec.state.la.us/crpinq.htm

Sheri Lazare also suggested trying LANO (Louisiana Association of Nonprofits Organization). But she cautions us to verify the accuracy with a second source. Select Links from the menu on the left and scroll about half way down the page to FundFinder (the link is not working, but hopefully will be in the future).

http://www.lano.org

MAINE

No online charities database. Use the corporate database to search by keyword then select a category from a drop-down menu or search by charter number. Information returned includes names, charter number, status and registered agent with address. Forms like annual and biennial report can be ordered for a fee.

http://www.informe.org/icrs/ICRS?MainPage=x

MARYLAND

Rita Matcher gave us this tip. Search the Secretary of State's charitable database by keyword, name, city and county. You can search for another state in the drop-down menu ,but it appears that the results include only those charities operating in Maryland that are based in the state selected. Results include address, phone, contributions, income and purpose.

http://www.sos.state.md.us/sos/charity/html/search.html

Rita suggested visiting the home page for more information.

http://www.sos.state.md.us/sos/charity/html/cod.html

The Maryland corporations database is housed on the State Department of Assessments and Taxation Web page and does not include charities.

MASSACHUSETTS

Thanks to Susan Cronin Ruderman and Wendy T. Glaas for their help. Search for nonprofits through the corporations database by name, identification number, filing number or individual. Details include address, registered agent, officers and directors. Additionally, you can order copies of the filings right from the details page.

http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corp/corpsearch/corpsearchinput.asp

MICHIGAN

There is no online charities database. Use the Bureau of Commercial Services' Business Entity Search page to query the database for a charity by keyword, name or filing number. Listings include status, registered agent and address.

http://www.cis.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/sr_corp.asp

Thanks to Pam Spencer for providing the Michigan Nonprofit Association site to search for funders.

Start at the home page to find the most information.
http://www.mna.msu.edu/home.html

Go to the Funders page for grant information.
http://www.michigannonprofit.com/cgi-bin/department.pl?departmentId=3

From Grant Resources, go to MNA Funding Resources to search for your prospect by category.
http://www.mna.msu.edu/funding/fundinghome.html

MINNESOTA

Thanks go to Mary Rude, who sent this in. Search the Attorney General's Charities Database by name, city and state to get a list with name, contact person with address and phone. Then choose a year and click the Show Me button to get a detailed financial sheet. Financial sheets go three years back.

http://www.ag.state.mn.us/charities/char_srch.asp

The Secretary of State's corporations search also includes nonprofits. There are links to registered agent or officer information if it is available.

http://da.sos.state.mn.us/minnesota/corp_inquiry/corp_inquiry-find.asp?:Norder_item_type_id=10

MISSISSIPPI

Search for charities at the Secretary of State site by name and year or browse listings to find address and financial information.

http://www.sos.state.ms.us/busserv/charities/charannrpt/index.html

Find address, registered agent and officers, if available, by searching the corporations database. Some filed documents were scanned in and can be viewed as Web sites or .pdf files or you can have them e-mailed to you.

Search by corporation name
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/busserv/corpsnap/index.html

or by officer name
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/busserv/corpsnap/OfficerName.html

but be warned. It may look like it's the same John C. Smith associated with a group of organizations, but if you click on the officer's name, there may be several people with the same name at different addresses.

MISSOURI

Thanks to John Randolph for this page, which offers a list of registered charities. Contact the Attorney General's Office for more detail.

http://www.ago.state.mo.us/charityregister.htm

Also, you can search the business entities database by name, keyword, charter number or agent. From a drop-down menu, select the type of entity (such as Domestic Nonprofit Corporation), name type or status type from the drop-down menus. Information includes status, registered agent and, if available, the organization's annual registration report.

http://sosweb.sos.state.mo.us/businessentity/

MONTANA

There is no online charities database. Search by name for charities in the Secretary of State's corporations registry and get back name, address, status and registered agent.

http://app.discoveringmontana.com/bes/

NEBRASKA

Nebraska does not have a charities Web page and charges for access to its corporations database.

NEVADA

Search charities in the Secretary of State's registry by name, resident agent or corporate officer. Oddly, the information returned includes resident agent and top officers with addresses, but not the charity address.

http://sos.state.nv.us/corpsrch.asp

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Thanks to Robert Constantine for this URL. This gives a link to a list of charities registered with the NH Attorney General and gives only name and address. It's in .pdf format, so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. You can search it as you would any .pdf file.

http://www.state.nh.us/nhdoj/CHARITABLE/nhcharities.html

NEW JERSEY

Thanks to Liz Regula for this site, a searchable database of charities registered with NJ's Department of Law & Public Safety, Division of Consumer Affairs, Office of Consumer Protection. Search results include name, address, registration number and a breakdown of income and expense totals for the year. From the Charities Registration Section, click on New Jersey Charitable Registration Directory to enter the search page

http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/ocp.htm#charity

or try the search page directly (although accessibility was an issue when we tested the page)

http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/charfrm.htm

NEW MEXICO

Find addresses, registered agent, officers and directors for some New Mexico charities by searching the corporations database. The name search is a soundex, so you get what you ask for an any other names that may be close to it. The search by director's last name, a nice plus, appears to search the agent, officer and director fields.

http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/ftq.htm

NEW YORK

Thanks to Wendy Glass and Jill Rydberg who both submitted this URL. The Charitable Institutions page is provided by Office of the New York State Attorney General. Along with other information, it offers not a searchable database, but a series of annual reports about NY's telemarketing fund raisers called "Pennies for Charities." Each report is a series of tables, each of which contains the same information sorted differently. The first is a list by charity name which includes the organization name, the professional fund raiser name (organization or person), geographic area, gross receipts, net to charity, uncollected pledges and, most interesting, the percentage the charity actually received from that year's campaign.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/charities/charities.html

The searchable corporations database also contains registered charities. Information provided includes name, address and, if there is one, registered agent.

http://wdb.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/corp_wdb.corp_search_inputs.show

NORTH CAROLINA

Thanks to Joy Martin for this contribution. Minges and Associates provides a list of North Carolina nonprofits by county. Click on the map and the list loads, albeit somewhat slowly. Information includes name, address and, if available, a contact person.

http://www.ncnonprofits.com

The North Carolina Secretary of State's searchable corporations database also lists nonprofits. Information includes name, address, id number, date formed and registered agent. Click on the registered agent to see if the agent represents multiple organizations.

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/Corporations/

NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota has a searchable Licensed Charitable Organizations Inquiry. Information provided includes name, address, phone, original license date and a breakdown of annual revenue and expenses. The breakdown is for "the most recent reporting period for each licensed charitable organization," but it does not specify which year is most recent for each organization.

http://www.state.nd.us/sec/charitableorganizationsearch.htm

Search the Secretary of State's database for additional nonprofit information, including whether the nonprofit is active and in good standing and the registered agent.

http://www.state.nd.us/sec/entitynamesearch.htm

OHIO

Charities are included in the Ohio Secretary of State's corporations database. Search by business name, registered agent name or prior business name. Enter business name in the search page and select "Corporation for Nonprofit" as the business type. Searches can be refined by location and/or status and are sortable. Be sure to select Ohio as the state! The order of the information columns can be set and the report can be viewed on screen or downloaded in Excel or ASCII format.

http://serform.sos.state.oh.us/servlet/page?_pageid=56,62&_dad=porthope&_schema=PORTHOPE

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma does not have a nonprofit database online. As its main purpose is to provide businesses an opportunity to register online, the business search is limited and provides only name, address and phone. The search function was a little buggy ... an error message sometimes appeared with the first search, but persistence was rewarded.

http://www.youroklahoma.com/businessdir/businessdir.php

OREGON

Oregon offers a fairly complex search form, as charities searchesgo. Refine your search by location, purpose, category, assets, revenues or some combination thereof. A search yields a list with brief descriptions. Mark the box(es) of the charity or charities of interest and click on the "show detail on checked organizations" button at the screen bottom. Or, to see all the listed charities, just click on the "show detail on all (#) organizations" button. Details include name, address, phone, registration number, reporting period , category, purpose, assets, revenues and expenses. Alternately, download the entire database as a zip file.

http://www.state.or.us/cgi-bin/OrgQuery.pl/

Do the same search in the Oregon Secretary of State's Corporation Division database and get name, address, registered agent and some of the nonprofit's officers.

http://sos-venus.sos.state.or.us:8080/beri_prod/PKG_WEB_NAME_SRCH_INQ.LOGIN

PENNSYLVANIA

Thanks to Joan Berg who sent in the Pennsylvania Department of State Bureau of Charitable Organizations Web site. Search by name and limit your search by location. Results include name, address, phone and the percentage of program, service and fund raising costs, as well as gross contributions, total income ending balance and the fiscal year end date.

http://web.dos.state.pa.us/char98/cgi-bin/char_form.cgi

The Department of State's corporations database gives less information, but is searchable by former names, which can be handy when all you have is old biographical information.

http://corps.state.pa.us/corps.htm

RHODE ISLAND

The Rhode Island Secretary of State's corporations database includes nonprofits. It is searchable by name, agent, officer and key words from the purpose statement. There is an inactive entity search too, with the same search parameters. Results include name, status, last filing date, address, agent and top officer or directory.

http://155.212.254.78/

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina's Secretary of State online charities database offers strictly a name search. Results include only organization name, address, revenues, expenses and percentage of expenses applied to services.

http://www.scsos.com/char_online.htm

Check out the best and worst charities based on the percentage of expenses applied to services.

http://www.scsos.com/2000angels.htm

http://www.scsos.com/2000scrooges.htm

Find a nonprofit's registered agent and status by searching the Secretary of State's corporations database by organization name or registered agent name.

http://www.scsos.com/corp_search.htm

SOUTH DAKOTA

Thanks to Kathy Bangasser, who let us know that South Dakota has neither corporate or nonprofit databases on the Web.

TENNESSEE

The Secretary of State's Division of Charitable Solicitations offers a very vanilla list of charities. All it gives is the name, id and the city and state of the organization's headquarters. It's a .pdf file too, so Adobe Acrobat Reader is necessary.

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/charity/registeredcharities.htm

The corporations database search is a bit more forthcoming, with name, full address, registered agent and fiscal year end.

http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/soscorp/

TEXAS

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts offers a corporations search that includes exempt, that is nonprofit, organizations. The name, address, registered agent and status are given. Officer and Director information was seriously lacking for the charities I searched, but the potential is there.

http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/coaStart.html

UTAH

Once again, the only searchable database is for corporations offered by the Utah Department of Commerce. Information is minimal, with the highlights being name, address, registered agent and standing.

http://www.utah.gov/serv/bes

VERMONT

Get name, address, standing, registered agent and a list of officers for nonprofits from the Secretary of State's corporations search page.

http://170.222.200.66/seek/CORPSEEK.HTM

VIRGINIA

Virginia does not have a charity search. The corporations search requires an application to the Office of the Clerk of the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Access is after a user name and ID are issued. Whether nonprofits are included is unknown, but it might be worth exploring since officers/director's name and address are included in the information given.

http://www.state.va.us/scc/division/clk/diracc.htm

WASHINGTON

Find out a nonprofit's registered agent from the corporations search. Go to the Secretary of State's Corporations page and click on Online Corporations Lookup under Register Your Corporation or Partnership or the link under Corporations Look-up to access the search page.

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/

Or trying going directly to the corporations search Web site (accessibility was an issue when we wrote this):

https://wws2.wa.gov/sos/cor/search.jsp

WEST VIRGINIA

Right now the West Virginia charities database consists of a list of registered charities with addresses and date of most recent registration. But watch this site ... the Secretary of State promises "A new database of registration information for charitable organizations, professional fund raisers and professional fund raising counsel is in progress."

http://129.71.220.230/sos/charity/current.htm

The corporations search was much more forth coming with alternate names, officers and directors, in addition to the standard address and registration information.

http://129.71.220.230/wvcorporations/verifylogon.asp

WISCONSIN

The corporation search includes charities, but gives the minimal name, address, registered agent, status, etc. The Alphasort Search is more inclusive, but the Advanced Search lets you search on current exact or old exact name.

http://www.wdfi.org/corporations/crispix/

WYOMING

The Secretary of State's searchable corporations database returns an extremely ugly form, but it does include the top officers and their addresses in addition to the usual registered agent, address, etc. The database is also downloadable in zip format.

http://soswy.state.wy.us/corps1.htm

ADDITIONAL CHARITIES DATABASE WEB SITES

• NASCOnet U.S. STATE CHARITIES OFFICES
• GUIDESTAR
• IDEALIST.ORG
• IRS EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS
• GARY PRICE'S DIRECT SEARCH
• NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHARITABLE STATISTICS (NCCS)
• PACIFIC INFORMATION RESOURCES SEARCH SYSTEMS
• BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE
• CHARITYUSA.ORG
• THE GRANTSMANSHIP CENTER
• FUNDSNETSERVICES.COM

NASCONET U.S. STATE CHARITIES OFFICES

The National Association of State Charities Officials (NASCO) provides a list of the agencies that oversee charitable solicitations in each of the 50 states on its Web page (NASCOnet). Links and general information are provided.

http://www.nasconet.org/stories/storyReader$8

GUIDESTAR

Guidestar offers foundation information and Form 990s

http://www.guidestar.org/

and links to charities pages, though not all pages are searchable charities databases

http://www.guidestar.org/npo/nplinks/links_statecharities.stm

IDEALIST.ORG

Idealist has a searchable database of nonprofits. Searches yields a list of matchingorganizations. Click on an organization for a description and link to its homepage. The Area of Focus search yielded some interesting results ... definitely outside the box.

http://www.idealist.org/ip/orgSearch?MODULE=ORG

IRS EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS

This is searchable, but is basically just a list of charity names and cities.

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/search/eosearch.html

GARY PRICE'S DIRECT SEARCH

The irreplaceable and irrepressible Gary state charities database links, along with many, many, many other state database links

http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/state.htm

NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHARITABLE STATISTICS (NCCS)

NCCS has links to several government offices dealing with charities.

http://nccs.urban.org/links.htm

PACIFIC INFORMATION RESOURCES SEARCH SYSTEMS

Search Systems provides a very comprehensive set of links to "over 5032 Free Searchable Public Record Databases" by state. Charities databases are one of the many types of databases on their site. A nice touch is that there is a symbol that indicates whether there is a fee to search the database. Thank you to Joan Berg for sending in this URL.

http://www.pac-info.com

BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE

This site is a merger of the National Charities Information Bureau with the Council of Better Business Bureaus' (CBBB) Foundation and its Philanthropic Advisory Service. According to the site, "The Alliance reports on national charities and determines if they meet the 23 voluntary standards on matters such as charity finances, appeals and governance." They basically evaluate how well the listed charities do business in accordance with the CBBB Standards for Charitable Solicitations, much as the local BBB rates commercial businesses. In addition, they list address, phone, Web site and top officer.

http://www.give.org/reports/

CHARITYUSA.ORG

This has a limited listing of charities by state with a brief description and links.

http://www.charityusa.org/pages/Charities/Regional/

THE GRANTSMANSHIP CENTER

The Center provides a community foundation finder

http://www.tgci.com/resources/foundations/community/list.htm

and links to federal funding information sites, including the Federal Register (see the Federal Register review under Foundation/Grants)

http://www.tgci.com/resources/federal/ffed.html

Disappointingly, the map on the Funding Through State Government page links only to state home pages, not funding information sites

http://www.tgci.com/STATES/states2.htm

but the International Funding pages actually lists funders.

http://www.tgci.com/intl/index.asp

FUNDSNETSERVICES.COM

FUNDSNET has a list of grant makers by region with descriptions and links. It's definitely not all-inclusive, since it focuses on charities with Web sites, but is a good starting point and a useful site for local research! There are also lists and links for Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, as well as U.S. national funders. Or use the alpha list of foundations. FYI, clicking on the map to access a state link does not work. The FUNDSNET main site provides a number of other helpful tools and resources.

http://www.fundsnetservices.com/regions.htm

http://www.fundsnetservices.com/

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