How Candid Helps Nonprofits

Hello and welcome to How Candid Helps Nonprofits. This is an introductory overview to how Candid supports nonprofits in addressing a variety of challenges. Do any of these challenges sound familiar to you? There are a lot. They include things like "Donors don't know we exist." Or, "I need to raise money, but I don't know any wealthy people." Or, "I'm new to fundraising and I don't know where to begin." The good news is that Candid can help you address these challenges. In this presentation, I wi

ll highlight how Candid can help you improve your visibility by showcasing your organization's work, including more efficiently sharing information with funders, find funding by doing your research and accessing insights to find donors, and access training to build your skills and knowledge to better sustain your organization. Let's jump in. First of all, you may be wondering what is Candid and why should I be interested in what they do? Candid is a nonprofit organization serving the larger nonp

rofit sector. Every year, millions of nonprofits spend trillions of dollars around the world. Candid finds out where that money comes from, where that money goes, and why it matters. All in all, we get you the information that you need to do good. And while Candid is a relatively new organization, our history is not. Candid is made up out of two long-standing legacy organizations which are Foundation Center and GuideStar. Foundation Center has long been the number one source of information on fo

undations and grants, while GuideStar has long been the number one source of information on the nonprofit sector. In early 2019, Foundation Center and GuideStar came together, joined forces, and became one organization. We changed our name and we're now known as Candid, and together we do so much more. Candid, overall, is the most comprehensive data and information source on the social sector. We help you identify reliable grant prospects to maximize your fundraising, we serve as the hub of sect

or intelligence, we drive data-informed decisions to promote outcomes, we center equity in all we do, and we embed our services locally to activate philanthropy. We are going to start by looking at how you can use your nonprofit's Candid profile on GuideStar to showcase your work. Each year, Candid's GuideStar has millions of visitors. Funders and donors alike come to our site to research and validate nonprofits. The information on your Candid profile shares your impact and builds trust. Your Ca

ndid nonprofit profile goes beyond IRS data. It provides nonprofits with an opportunity to create a fuller, publicly available picture of their nonprofit than their 990 provides. Your profiles give donors the information that they're looking for and this information is what powers giving platforms like Network for Good, or Facebook, or many donor-advised funds. Keeping your profile up to date will ensure the most accurate information is sent over. In your profile, you have the opportunity to sho

wcase your mission and programs, demonstrate transparency about your operations, and share how your organization represents the community that you serve. When you share this information, you earn a Seal of Transparency. The process to begin to earn Seals of Transparency is a simple one. Once your identity has been validated, you have editing rights to your Candid profile so that you can start with a Bronze Seal and then maximize the visibility and benefits of having a profile by continuing to ad

d information and earn more seals. Please note the verification process will go much faster and easier if you use your work email address when establishing your account. Earning a Bronze Seal will help you stand out from the crowd and help you be found. You can do so in five minutes or less, because much of what we require is already prepopulated in the profile and is available to you for editing and confirmation. The information needed in order to earn a Bronze Seal of Transparency includes con

tact information like your organization's address, contact name, and email, information on where to send donations, and the name of your organization's leader and board chair. Your profile serves as a valuable tool when you're trying to tell your story to prospective donors. All seal holders have access to a unique, shareable full profile link in your benefit section. You can use this link to share your nonprofit's impact. The recipients of this link will be able to view your profile without hav

ing to register with Candid and they will have unlimited access. This is a handy benefit that will allow you to post your profile on social media, your webpage, or in a newsletter. Your Candid profile streamlines how you share key information with funders. Candid profiles and Seals of Transparency don't just show up on guidestar.org. Their information is also shared with a range of partners, including tech platforms such as Facebook and PayPal, most major donor advised funds including Fidelity a

nd Vanguard, major giving platforms such as Network for Good and Give Lively also link to Candid profiles. When donors are deciding who to give to on these sites, they can consult nonprofits' Candid profiles when making their decision. There's also grants management software. If you apply to a grant at a foundation online the grants management software is likely what you submit your application on. Then on the back end, program officers at the foundation use this software to review and track you

r application. This software often links to your Candid profile on guidestar.org and foundations use your Candid profile as part of their due diligence process when considering applicants for grants. For example, foundations love checking potential grantee's financial health as part of due diligence. Earning Seals of Transparency will help you stand out across this network. As you complete your profile, the various Seals of Transparency you earn indicate that you have key information in your non

profit profile. When you earn a Seal of Transparency, you provide context for the IRS information already in your organization's nonprofit profile and you give potential donors and funders better insight into your work and stand out from the other nonprofits in our database. All by claiming your organization's profile and completing the required fields. The amount of information you provide determines which of our four Seals of Transparency that you earn. There are four levels. First there's Bro

nze, which you earn by sharing your mission and basic contact information so that donors can find you. Then we have Silver, which you earn by providing program information and branding details such as your logo. The Gold Seal of Transparency is earned by sharing financial and leadership information to help you gain trust and support. Finally, the Platinum Seal of Transparency, which is the highest level seal you can earn. In order to earn a Platinum Seal, you must share how you measure your prog

ress and results. The information you must share in order to earn a Platinum Seal of Transparency helps you show the difference that your work is making. To earn the Platinum Seal of Transparency you must also complete the Bronze, Silver, and Gold requirements. Relevant to the Candid Profiles is the Demographics via Candid campaign, which sets out to streamline and rationalize demographic data collection for the entire social sector. This is a national campaign to capture demographic data in a r

eusable form on Candid's GuideStar profile where nonprofits are able to tell the story of their work. With Demographics via Candid, we're building a movement to encourage everyone who is seeking demographic data from nonprofits to ask for it through the Candid profile. There, nonprofits can share their demographic data one time using standardized questions and categories so that funders can access it without burdening nonprofits with repeated requests. This data is part of earning a Gold Seal of

Transparency. It's high time for us to shift the power imbalance and ask those who are seeking demographic data to take responsibility and to harmonize their requests. And here at Candid, we commit to making all of the demographic data we collect available for free through multiple channels. This slide shows an example of how demographic data shows up in the profile along multiple dimensions of staff and board diversity, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and dis

ability. The benefits to sharing demographic data on your profile are numerous, and it includes saving valuable staff time, increasing visibility with funders, and showing your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. To recap the details of claiming your Candid profile, you need to get verified in order to gain editing privileges to your Candid profile on guidestar.org. Earning a Bronze Seal of Transparency is relatively simple. You can usually do this in five minutes or less. You can al

so add more information, including demographic data, to tell your story and earn additional Seals of Transparency. Afterwards, you have the ability to share your profile to attract donors. Now, we're going to discuss how Candid can help you with your foundation fundraising. Foundation Directory is Candid's other flagship product. Foundation Directory is the most comprehensive search tool for prospecting potential funders. At Candid, we have found that past giving is indicative of future giving.

Foundation Directory helps you find trends in funders grant making to help you identify strong prospects and connect with key decision makers. In Foundation Directory, you'll find detailed profiles of funders, grants, and grant recipients. This information is updated daily. Candid uses a variety of data sources to inform what you will find in Foundation Directory, which includes information from grant maker websites, from their annual reports, their published application guidelines, from philant

hropic press, federal government grant information, and over 30 other information sources. Many grant makers also report their data directly to us, which helps us to keep our information extremely current. When you're searching for grants in Foundation Directory you should do so with a specific project in mind. Be clear about what you do and where you do it. You can simply describe the type of project, who it is serving, and where the project is taking place right into the search bar. For exampl

e, as you can see on the screen here, try typing, say, "Afterschool sports for teens in Wisconsin." Foundation Directory will match your search terms with various fields in the application. Here we are seeing that there are over 1,700 grant makers who have awarded more than 24,000 grants to more than 2,000 recipient organizations. These grant awards were for sports, out-of-school learning, youth development, and family services in Wisconsin. Needless to say, this is a very powerful tool for orga

nizations that are actively seeking foundation funding. Foundation Directory provides information about funder preferences including program areas, geographic priorities, and grant sizes so you can more easily identify funders who are a good fit for your needs. Also, Foundation Directory includes people information, so that you can more easily see whether you have any connections to people affiliated with foundations on their staff or board. Foundation Directory Professional is free to use at hu

ndreds of partner locations. This network of partner organizations provides free access to both Foundation Directory and GuideStar as well as other nonprofit resources. On Candid's website, you can search our map by zip code, city, state, or country to find these free access locations. We suggest checking their catalogs or contacting them to confirm local hours and availability. You can also subscribe to Foundation Directory to search from wherever you access the internet, your home, office, caf

e, or other favorite location. Individual subscribers also get some convenient features that aren't possible in a public access version, like the ability to mark past funders, or save searches, or create custom lists, and manage grant proposals. Candid is committed to helping small nonprofits achieve their fundraising goals by providing equitable access to Foundation Directory. If your nonprofit has less than $1 million in annual revenue and it earns a 2023 Gold Seal of Transparency you can get

free access to Foundation Directory Essential, a resource that helps you win more grants. To learn more about the program visit bit.ly/gold_seal. To recap, you can use the Foundation Directory to find potential funders, assess their fit for your organization's need, and connect with those funders. In addition to our two flagship products, Candid is a leader in capacity building resources for nonprofits. for nonprofits. Free resources include a learning hub of training programs on popular fundrai

sing topics, like grant seeking and proposal writing, or a robust collection of eBooks that you can borrow free of charge, and also a library of sample documents to give you a headstart with ready templates for things like grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and donor acknowledgement letters. Stay up to date with Candid's blog and Philanthropy News Digest, your daily go-to service for philanthropy news. It's a compendium in digest form of philanthropy related articles and features culled from p

rint and electronic media outlets nationwide. You can also stay up to date with requests for proposals, job postings, book reviews, and expert insights. We hope this brief overview has inspired you to use Candid tools for your nonprofit. I'll close out with two next steps. For one, you can claim your nonprofit's Candid profile and earn a Bronze Seal of Transparency as you do so. A pro tip, when getting started use your work email address to streamline the process. Also, check out our free Introd

uction to Finding Grants course to learn more about how to research funders likely to be interested in your nonprofit's work. Thank you for joining this brief orientation to Candid resources. We hope it's been useful for you. If you'd like to learn more, sign up for our newsletter as it's a great way to stay in the loop regarding our future news and offerings. Thank you again so much for joining us today.