What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About GuideStar, Network for Good and Social Media Fundraising

[tweetmeme] 1. Social media fundraising is built upon and empowered by the GuideStar database.

2. All 501c3’s in the United States have profiles on GuideStar.

3. Network for Good uses the GuideStar database to distribute online donations made on their website and on their partner websites.

4. Network for Good has partnered with Change.org, Razoo, Facebook Causes and Give a Tweet (just to name a few!).

5. Therefore, all nonprofits inside the GuideStar database also have profiles on Network for Good, Give a Tweet, Change.org, Razoo and Facebook Causes.

Those five points made, if your organization has old information inside of GuideStar, then you have old information on Network for Good, Change.org, Razoo, Facebook Causes and Give A Tweet. If your organization receives any donations on these sites, then it’s mailed to the address in GuideStar so you want to make sure that address is current.

I worked at various nonprofits from 1997-2006 and updating Guidestar was one of those “To Do’s” that was always last on my list. Updating GuideStar is a bit tedious because you have to enter a lot of financial data, but in this new era of social media fundraising, keeping your organization’s information current in GuideStar is an absolute must.

If you have not updated your entry in Guidestar recently, please visit Guidestar’s Nonprofit Resources. If you are not sure whether your nonprofit is in Guidestar, please visit GuideStar.org and in the “Search” box enter your EIN number with the dash [XX-XXXXXXX]. If nothing comes up, then your organization is not in Guidestar. See GuideStar’s FAQ for more infomation or e-mail them at nposervices@guidestar.org. Good luck. The good news is you only have to update GuideStar once a year!