Research Bookmarks

Last updated June 2, 2008

Compiled and maintained by the Research staff
in the Office of Alumni Relations and Development at Northwestern University


 

Legal/Med/Dent/Other Prof  

Real Estate

Colleges and Universities 

Lists (listserv, archives) 

Reference (Business)

Company Profiles/Venture Capital

Mergers and Acquisitions

Reference (Desktop)

Foundations  

Newspapers and Magazines

Research Web Pages

Government (Federal)  

Patents 

Salary Information

Government (State and Local) 

People

Search Engines 

Grants  

Philanthropy/Non-Profit 

Securities/IPOs/SEC/Stock Quotes

International

Phone/Address/Zip

Tax Assessor Site

Items marked with a are NU Research department favorites!


 

Colleges and Universities

Alumni Magazines on the Web
Yahoo!'s small (but reliable) list of links to alumni magazines in the United States.

 

Google University Search
Great way to thoroughly search a school's website.

 

SearchEdu.com
A search engine for colleges and universities. Provides additional useful links to other reference tools.

Company Profiles/Venture Capital

For links to foreign company information, look under International

Hoover's Online

Hoover's Online is a clearinghouse for company information featuring the Hoover's MasterList Plus database as the publicly accessible core of the service. Search a database of information on over 8,000 companies. You can also search for information on individuals.

Reuter's Investor Research (formerly Market Guide)

Really comprehensive, nicely formatted information on public companies, including charts that show executive compensation and stock ownership.

Yahoo! Finance

Provides profiles, news, SEC filings, and executive bios, not to mention the all-important insider holdings and salary reports. The advantage to this site is that instead of compiling its own information, it contracts with the most reliable sources (Thomson Financial and Multex investor to name two) and links to their information. Especially useful for the most recent news on public companies.

Venture Capital Resource Library

A good starting place for research into the world of venture capital.

The American Stock Exchange

Also listed under Securities heading. Links to companies listed on the American Stock Exchange.

Annual Reports Service from The Wall Street Journal Online

Free annual reports on many major companies in PDF format.

Annual Report Service

Provides annual reports for companies that participate in the service. You are able to get most on-line and some are available in a hard copy as well. 

BigBook (Superpages.com)

A national Yellow Pages that maps the location of 11 million businesses. Helps pinpoint sites, especially for efficient scheduling of appointments. Businesses are searchable by categories.

Business.com

This site bills itself as "the leading business search engine."

Business Credit Reports (Credit.net)

Free basic address information from a database featuring over 14 million companies. Search by business name, executive name, company address, company phone number, Web site URL or UCC listing. Reports with credit information, executive names, sales information, and number of employees now available for a fee or by subscription. Free 72-hour trial.

Corporate Information

Offers free bare-bones reports on companies (meatier profiles are subscriber-based), research links, a list of the top 100 companies worldwide, and a glossary of business definitions.

FDIC Bank Data and Statistics

Access comprehensive financial & structural information about every FDIC-insured institution.

National Venture Capital Association

General information on venture capitalism as a career and a membership directory with links to member firms.

Pinksheets.com

Provides information on smaller companies traded on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board and the Pink Sheets. Quotes, stock charts, and company profile information on over six thousand companies that might be hard to find elsewhere.

Thomas Register

"Search the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers database for product and service suppliers in 52,000 categories! This service is FREE to registered users."

Wall-Street.com (Small Companies Research)

Specializes in companies traded over the counter that don't show up on other financial directories, including profiles, research reports, IPOs, news.

Foundations

For links to non-domestic foundation information, look under International

Guidestar

Search information on the programs and finances of more than 600,000 American charities and nonprofit organizations. Also includes up-to-date news stories philanthropy. 

Internet Prospector Charities Databases on the Web

Excellent links page listing charity registration databases available from all fifty states--and more.

Urban Institute - National Center for Charitable Statistics

Search information on the programs and finances of more than 200,000 American charities and nonprofit organizations. Also includes up-to-date news stories philanthropy. To date, the most current and complete resource for accessing nonprofits' 990's.

California charities

This site will bring you to a searchable database of 990s in California.

Glossary from Common Grant Application site

A very helpful glossary of terms used by foundations and a list of resources

Council on Foundations

"The Council on Foundations, an association of foundations and corporations, serves the public good by promoting and enhancing effective and responsible philanthropy."

Foundation Center

The Foundation Center is an independent nonprofit organization established by foundations in 1956. Its mission is to increase public understanding of the foundation field. The organization maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date database on foundations and corporate giving programs, produces directories, and analyzes trends in foundation support of the nonprofit sector. Publishes Foundation Directory. Its "Foundation Finder" database is available on this Web site, as are a number of grantmaking tools and current philanthropy statistics.

Grantsmart

Offers a searchable database of foundations (by assets, location, or name) and links to recent 990 PFs in Adobe Acrobat format. Grantsmart supplies its scanned images of 990 PFs to the Foundation Center's Foundation Finder database.

Government (Federal)

FECInfo on Political Money Line

Gives contribution amounts for current campaign cycles. Can search by zip, contributor name, or candidate. Not really "government" but politically oriented.

Opensecrets.org

Search by FEC database by name and state to find individual donations to political campaigns. Also provides occupation and age data for donors.

C-SPAN Campaign Finance Database

Search for financial info on candidates, donors, and fundraisers for federal elections going back to 1994. The data is received from the Federal Election Commission, and is updated every month.

Federal Government Internet Guide

The Washington Post's online guide to the federal government.

Institute of Governmental Studies - UC Berkeley

 An exceptional compilation of government (both Federal and local) links (see the "statewide database" section of the site).

The Plum Book

Can find the salary of Federal employees, including Presidential appointees (lists names, too). You must know the department the person is in.

The Political Graveyard

A resource that provides information on both living and deceased politicians which can be used to ascertain whether or not a prospect was ever related to a politician, judge, or diplomat. Most of the people listed have ended their political careers. Searchable by name, office and state held, date born or died, state and county of birth or death, ethnicity, religious affiliation, awards, military status, etc.

SearchGov.com

Excellent starting place to find information about anything federal. Includes links to state and local governments. It is really a search engine devoted solely to government.

Thomas

The Library of Congress sponsors and maintains this database for information on federal legislation.

U.S. Congressmen Biographical Data

Profiles all current members of Congress. Contains links to "Biographies and Backgrounds," "Committee Assignments," "Voting Records," and "Constituent E-Mail."

Uncle Sam by Google

This special Google seach engine searches only web sites with the ".gov" government suffix.

Government (State and Local)

Fifty States Project

The Center for Public Integrity’s 50 States Project is an independent investigation of the ethical conduct of legislators in every state in the union. Includes a searchable database of conflict of interest statements filed by state representatives. An invaluable resource for biographical, business and affiliation information on lower-profile politicians.

Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and Illinois State Board of Elections

Two excellent resources that offer financial disclosure information on Illinois candidates for state office, including campaign donor databases.

Search Systems State Government Public Records Database Links

Links to over 2,300 public records databases in the U.S., grouped by state.

State & Government Links

Provides links to the official home pages of particular states, counties, or cities.

California Directory of Lobbyists, Lobbying Firms, and Lobbying Employers

Searchable directory of lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers in California. Includes client contact information, who they lobby for, and who their clients are.

California Births Database

If you know someone was born in California, you can use this database to find out their birth date, county of birth, and mother's maiden name.

Center for Public Integrity

Includes a searchable database of biographical profiles of state representatives and candidates for office. An invaluable resource for biographical, business and affiliation information on lower-profile politicians.

Kentucky Vital Records

Files of Kentucky deaths (1911-1992), marriages (1973-1993) and divorces (1973-1993)

National Association of Counties

Click on a state on the map of the United States get links to all the counties in the state. These sites often have property assessment links. In the Data and Demographics section, you can search for the home county using the name of a city, view average household incomes in a county and whole lot more.

Public Record Finder

Claims to be "largest free public records search engine on the World Wide Web designed to locate free public records" with over 7,000 links. Offers federal and international links, but the state links are the most helpful by far.

State Election Campaign Contribution Info

From Followthemoney.org (Deep Throat lives!). The data is a little old (IL data is from the 2000 election) but this is the best source currently available for contribution info for gubernatorial campaigns, etc.

Vital Records

Information about and links to vital records by state. Gives info on how to request vital records in each state--what's available, what offices to request, where to write, etc.

Grants

Foundation Center Grantmaker Site

Information on major grantmaking organizations and a general orientation to the grantseeking process.

GetGrants Web site by the State of California

Provides a database of grant sources within California state agencies and departments.

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Grants for conservation projects, online and onsite exhibits, archival projects, leadership, and general operating support.

National Institute for the Humanities Grants Information

Deadlines, applications and descriptions for current NEH grants.

National Science Foundation Grants Information

Deadlines, applications and descriptions for current NSF grants.

Society of Research Administrators GrantsWeb

Grants links and information, with an emphasis on government funding.

Sponsorship.com

While not strictly a grants site, Sponsorship.com is chock full of news about corporate sponsorships of both for-profit and non-profit events, projects and programs. Registered users can access reports and statistics on sponsorship in the U.S., including a list of the top U.S. corporate sponsors. Registration is free.

U.S. Department of Education Grants Site

Everything you need to pursue a DOE grant--announcements, downloadable applications, a forecast of upcoming grants, and an application guide.

International

Corporate Information

The standout starting point for every daunting international company search. Offers profiles of the major public and private companies in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, economic statistics, and links to hard-to-find international corporate reference Web sites, including telephone directories and stock exchanges (warning: you may have to brush up on your multi-lingual skills to use some of these sites).

 

House Prices

Property sale prices for houses sold in England and Wales since 2000. Unfortunately you can only search by addresses or areas, not the name of the property owners. Tip: Search by partial addresses or postal codes to bring up all the sales in the area. Then click on "Map" and get an average sales price.

 

OANDA.com

Offers both current and historical international currency conversions.

 

SEDAR

SEDAR, the Canadian equivalent of the SEC, offers new public company filings, company profiles, and other public company documents. See the "About SEDAR" tab for definitions of filing and document types. Everything is available in both English and French. Worth checking out when researching Canadian prospects or companies, even if the company is listed on an American exchange.

 

SEDI

The System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI) aims to provide full insider transaction disclosure reports for Canadian companies. Electronic filing became mandatory after December 17, 2001.

 

Yahoo! International Stock Exchange Links

Links to stock exchanges throughout the world.

 

Asia Inc

Asia, Inc. magazine, includes a "Who's Who in Asia" list.

 

Budapest Business Journal

Business news and information from Central Europe, brought to you by the publisher of the Prague, Warsaw and Budapest Business Journals. The site offers free access to the archives of all three of these journals for free on Fridays.

 

Canadia Revenue Agency Charities Listing


CharitiesDirect.com

Database of information on over 10,000 foundations in the United Kingdom.

 

Charity Village

Charity Village is “ Canada 's supersite for the nonprofit sector” In your choice of French or English, this site provides news, job information and other resources for Canadian nonprofit professionals.

 

Companies House

This site provides company profiles from the United Kingdom. The free WebCheck service is available from Monday to Saturday 7:00 am to Midnight UK time.

 

Corporate Information

Offers free bare-bones reports on companies around the world (meatier profiles are subscriber-based), research links, a list of the top 100 companies worldwide, and a glossary of business definitions.

 

192.com

The most comprehensive phone directory (55 million records) currently available for United Kingdom. Features an impressive number of lookup options, including voting register, family finder, route maps, relationship search, etc. Unfortunately, it's not free . . .

 

Australia White Pages Online

 

British Telecom Phone Directory

Another useful phone directory for the UK. Includes both white and yellow page searches. They generously allow you ten free lookups a day!

 

Canada Postal Code Look-up

 

Europages

Information on 900,000 businesses in thirty-five European countries. Search by business name, product or service.

 

European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA)

Information on European Venture Capital firms.

 

Internationalist

Links to foreign news items, government links, foreign business schools, and general information about countries. The site is designed for international business travelers and investors.

 

International Real Estate Directory

A collection of real estate related internet sites.

 

Japan Foundation Center

Information and links to many major Japanese Foundations.

 

The Lawyer Salary Surveys

What American Lawyer does for American law firms, The Lawyer does for British law firms. This site includes some great salary surveys: UK 100, UK 200, and Global 100.

 

MLS Online - Canadian Real Estate Database

Searchable Canadian real estate database.

 

Nikkei Net Interactive - Japan Business News Online

Japanese company information, historical and current stock prices and Japanese IPOs (subscription required; free trial available).

 

Real Estate Weekly's Home Guide

Over 1,300 listings of homes in British Columbia.

 

Sutter's Who's Who International Red Series

Full-text, searchable company and biographical information for Italian, Russian, Chinese and Spanish corporations, executives, and other VIPs. It's also free!

 

Swedish Telephone Directory

The Consulate General of Sweden links to the Swedish Yellow Pages and provides simple English instructions to search by busi

 

Zoopla!

Zoopla! aims to be the Zillow of the UK. It gives the prices paid for houses up to seven years ago. Zoopla! also has the Zed-Index!—the average of estimated market values of home in a given area. Look-ups seem to work better using the postal code instead of the specific address.

 

Legal/Medical/Dental/Other Professions

ADA Dentist Directory

The American Dental Association's Find A Dentist database provides information on ADA members only, but is the most comprehensive listing of dentists available online.

American Medical Association Directory

From the "Doctor Finder" you can search by physician's name, specialty, or a medical condition. Lists name, address info, practice, affiliations, educational background, whether they are AMA members, etc.

Martindale Hubbell searchable lawyer directory

An excellent resource for finding basic biographical and professional information on lawyers across the country: Can search by lawyer name, firm name, and location/specialty.

State Medical Board Directories

Search the following state medical board directories by name and title. Allows you to search for MDs, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, and Osteopathic doctors.

West's Legal Directory via WAIS

Searchable directory of attorneys and law firms.  

American Institute of Architects

Search the AIA library and PROFILE, a database of over 20,000 member firms nationwide.

American Lawyer

A subsidiary of the Law.com site, the web site of the professional journal American Lawyer provides free full-text access to the stories in its most current issues. 

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

Has interviews, events, news, as well as searchable database of performed music, guides on the business and resources, income sources for musicians, publishers, etc.

AttorneyFind

Limited searchable database of lawyers and firms by practice area and state.

ECHO Virtual Center for Science and Technology

Search this site for information on any scientific topic, including biographical info on modern and historical scientists and inventors.

California Attorneys

The State Bar of California maintains a database of California attorneys. Information available online includes name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, date of admission to the California Bar, undergraduate and law schools attended and whether the member is entitled to practice law in California at this time.

Federal Judges of the United States Biographical Database

Contains the service record and biographical information for all judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Circuit Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court since 1789.

Find Law: Internet Legal Resources

A list of research-oriented law links that include: Legal Subject Index, Law Firms & Lawyers, State Law Resources, and News & Reference. 

Law.com

An excellent source for salary surveys of coporate lawyers. Also provides comprehensive information on law firms in the United States.

National Law Journal's survey Web site

Includes listings for private firms, showing median starting salaries, other states.

New York Doctors

New York State Licensed Professionals

New York Education Department oversees the licensing of certain professions, including physicians, chiropractors, CPAs, architects, etc. Information on licensing, searchable by name and profession.

Texas Lawyers Center Online

Searchable directory of attorneys by name or by practice area in Houston, Austin, Dallas. Also link to Louisiana Lawyers web page.

The Journal of Online Law

This site is sponsored by Cornell University's Law School. Searchable database of state and federal laws.

Lists

PRSPCT-L archives

PRSPCT-L (pronounced "prospect el") is a listserv provided as a forum for discussion of prospect research issues. The archives of PRSPCT-L are an invaluable resource. Joseph Boeke founded the list at the University of California, Irvine in 1992. From 1995-1999, Bucknell University hosted the list. Now it's hosted on CharityChannel.

 

Prospect-dmm

"A discussion group for development professionals involved or interested in data mining and modeling, particularly as such concepts may be applied to major gifts."

Helen Brown Group

"Rich Lists" from around the world.

 

Tile.net
"Originally started in March 1995 as "The Internet Lotus Exchanger" (T.I.L.E.) this site has evolved over the years from a comprehensive Internet resource to an email newsletter, email discussion lists, email alerts and Internet Service Provider (ISP) directory."

 

Yahoo! Groups for Educational Fund Raising

Searchable list of thousands of fund raising groups on Yahoo! Groups.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Corporate Affiliations' M&A Activity Page

This page lists companies that have merged, been re-named, or gone out of business.

M & A Online

"M & A Online provides a comprehensive, daily updated listing of companies for sale, equity and debt sources, as well as advisors and intermediaries. Use of the Network is free, however, there are fees associated with becoming a member and listing on the service."

MergerCentral.com

Daily news updates on details of mergers and acquisitions.

The Deal

In its efforts to chart "the Deal Economy" this site logs news of mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, bankruptcies, venture capital, and private equity.

Wall Street Net

Another source on mergers and acquisitions from Doremus, a marketing communications agency. "The pipeline to deals, dollars and doers! Designed specifically for issuers and investment banks. Wall Street NetTM brings you the very latest on what's happening in the world of corporate debt and equity financings, as well as archival data, including SEC filings and prospectuses on transactions over the past twelve months."

Newspapers and Magazines

Bizjournals.com

Good source of regional business news. Also provides lists of certain area-specific companies and organizations (top ten law firms, venture capitalists in Minnesota, etc.).

Crain's Chicago Business

Crain's revamped their web site in the summer of 2000 in an attempt to become the definitive Chicago business authority on the Internet. Many of its features are now subscription-based, but the annual Who's Who in Chicago Business list is still free.

Newstrove

Now this is a cool news site! Newstrove provides a news search engine that indexes and categorizes news articles gathered twenty-four hours per day from over 7,000 individual high-quality news sources. Almost guaranteed to turn up things that your usual "push"

subscriptions don't!

PR Newswire

"PR Newswire is the leader in electronic distribution of full-text news to the media and financial community...Browse the information presented here for an overview of some of the most popular services PR Newswire provides... Professional communicators use the wide array of PRN services to meet all of their needs: disclosure to the financial markets, information to shareholders, publicity to the trades, and crisis communication to employees." You can find some news from the company viewpoint here, on a relatively small number of companies.

BBC World Service

Exceptional news source for world news.

Canadian News Sources

Online news sources including Financial Post, MacClean, Money and Toronto radio.

Forbes Publications

Forbes' debut on the World Wide Web. This site will expand over the coming months to include the full text of three Forbes Magazines (Forbes, Forbes FYI and Forbes ASAP), additional Forbes content, and new services for present and future readers.

Harvard Business Review

Abstracts from the Harvard Business Review.

Houston Chronicle Interactive

Search articles from June '95 selected from the Houston Chronicle

Los Angeles Times

Current edition. Searchable archives of articles since 1990 slated to be available mid-May for free browsing, but full-text will cost.

MediaInfo

Editor and Publisher magazine interactive; provides links to online newspapers, some free, some fee-based, some providing text-string search capabilities. There are no free services that allow text-string searching of multiple sources, such as the global searches that LEXIS-NEXIS offers for a fee. If you know of any, please inform me.

News Directory

A nicely organized page with links to domestic and international newspapers, magazines and other news sources. Some sources are fee-based while others are free.

 Newslink

More links to newspaper and magazine home pages, an on-line news services. Some require subscription and/or are fee-based.

New York Times

Full text of many of the day's articles, as well as fee-based archive and clipping services.

Seattle Times

Archives searchable back to February 1996.

The Standard

A business journal covering "emerging technologies and companies, venture funding, acquisitions, site launches, and other developments in the internet space."

Patents

Free Patents Online
A well-designed site that allows you to search for patents by inventors' names, issue dates, descriptions, etc. It is easier to navigate than the US Patent and Trademark Office site and claims to hold more data. The site also provides RSS feeds for patents by class—great for keeping up with a particular industry. See the Advanced Search for protocol in checking specific portions of the patent (e.g. IN/"Doe John E" to query on the inventor). Finally it has a collection called Crazy Patents, which is great fun to browse when you are crazy for a break.


Google Patent
Over 7 million patents available to search. Still in Beta form. I love the line drawings of miracle inventions on the opening page: e.g., Device for Cooling an Infant's Brain.

People

African-American Biographical Database

Wonderful biographical resource that documents the lives of thousands of African Americans from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, both famous and obscure. (NOTE: you may not be able to access this site if your institution's library doesn't subscribe to it, but you can sign up for a free trial.)

Anybirthday.com

Offers a free search from a database of over 135 million U.S. birthdays, by name and location. An excellent last-ditch resource.

Legacy.com

When it comes to searching for obituaries, this site is the best! Through partnerships with over 1,000 newspapers in the US and Canada, Legacy.com has developed a database including well over 1 million obituaries. Families of the deceased can add photos, guest books, and reminiscences to create an tribute page that supplements the newspaper obits.

Social Security Death Index

The Ultimates

Offering 25 directories in one easy to use location, The Ultimates is the current favorite among NU researchers for locating people and businesses.

They Rule

And rule they do. This site could be the funnest thing to ever happen to corporate VIP research. Add a company and double click on the board table--little figures pop up that represent each person currently serving on that company's board (hint, the fatter the figure, the more boards that person sits on!). Click on the figures to do a google search on their name, show their political contributions, find or add links to relevant articles on the Web; double click on a figure, and all of his corporate board affiliations pop up. You can build informative diagrams showing connections between your organization's constituents, or just fill in the blanks on a prospect's affiliations and interests.

African-Americans in the Sciences

Biographies of past and current African/American scientists of all disciplines, compiled by the Louisiana State University Libraries.

AskART.com

Comprehensive biographical database of American artists that also offers sample images, current exhibit information, and some historical auction prices.

Biography.com

The popular cable network's database of over 25,000 notable biographies. Better yet, the database is full-text searchable! (A search for Northwestern University provided 3,819 results!)

CBS Sportsline Alumni Tracker

CBS Sportsline is an excellent source for biographical information on athletes in every professional sport! A particularly useful feature shows allows you to track professional athletes by their alma maters:

Football

Baseball

Basketball

Find-A-Grave

Fun and informative site that contains separate databases for the grave sites of celebrities and ordinary people. The listings number in the millions and the databases are growing every day. Also features a quick look-up page for the most recent obituaries published in major media outlets.

Forbes People Tracker

The name is kind of creepy, but this site (which requires free registration) can be useful for monitoring your top prospect CEOs, celebrities, and other wealthy individuals.

Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans

Contains biographical information on members of the Horatio Alger Association: "Members are the pillars of industry; they are our government leaders and our champions of sport and entertainment; they are innovators and entrepreneurs; and they are healers, teachers, artists, and writers."

Infoplease Biographies

Search more than 30,000 biographies of politicians, athletes, artists, and business leaders.

InfoSpace

Links to yellow pages, business directories searchable by exec name, city information, a government section--fed, state, and local.

Michigan Electronic Library Biography Links

National Obituary Archive

Searchable obituary database, regularly updated. You can sign up for e-mail alerts "when an obituary that interests you is added to the National Obituary Archive."

New York Social Diary

Interesting searchable site documenting the fabulous night life of New York's social elite.

New York Times Portraits of Grief

The definitive site for September 11 research. Includes a database of hundreds of short biographies of victims of the WTC attack; this database continues to grow and will remain on the NY Times site indefinitely. The site also includes an archive of all NY Times articles on September 11.

Notable Citizens of Planet Earth Biographical Dictionary

Contains biographical information on over 18,000 people from ancient times to present day.

Obituary Page

"Sometimes you find that your long time heroes have died, sometimes you find that they were still alive and you didn't know, and sometimes you read about people who are simply interesting. The Obituary page is a repository of the names of people who fall into these categories. If you hear of a death that you think people should know about, you can register it. The Virtual Memorial Garden is there for anyone - famous or not - that you would like to have remembered. Pets are perfectly acceptable and a Pet's Corner (is maintained) for them."

People Spot Biography Links

This page includes links to many smaller, specialized biography sites for people in the arts and notables of various ethnicities.

Sutter's Who's Who International Red Series

Full-text, searchable company and biographical information for Italian, Russian, and Spanish corporations, executives, and other VIPs. It's also free!

Wealthy Families in America: History and Genealogy

This database of America's wealthiest families can be a bit difficult to navigate, but it includes valuable background information and family trees on America's elite.

WhoWhere?

Can find email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, companies on the net, toll free numbers, yellow pages, personal home pages, and people with the same interests as you.

Zoominfo

Provides a quick bio or company profile. The results can be repetitive, but Zoominfo is a great starting point.

 

Philanthropy/Non-Profit

Matching Gift Database, through University of Notre Dame

                Enter a company name, and the database will return matching gift details, range of gifts matched, matching ratio, etc.

Charity Navigator

This wonderful organization actually rates the financial health of more than 2,500 top charities in the US and provides its analyses in a searchable database. In addition to the database, the Web site offers a free newsletter and a daily compendium of useful articles on philanthropy.

Chronicle of Higher Education

This week in Academe--stories on higher education issues and events--if you have a regular subscription, can get a password and search through old Chronicles--particularly good for facts, figures, charts comparing endowment levels, etc

Chronicle of Philanthropy

Includes "a summary of the current issue, organized by topic, guide to Internet resources of interest to people in the non-profit world, forthcoming national conferences on philanthropy, workshops on grants, fund raising, and non-profit management, organized by topic and region, deadlines for grants and awards, announcements of job openings in the non-profit world. The summary of news in the current issue will be available at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time on the Monday preceding the date of that issue. Job announcements will be available the following Monday. Other features will be added in the future."

Helping.org

Brought to you by the AOL Foundation, this site is a great resource to introduce you to the non-profit sector and facilitate communication between non-profits, donors and volunteers. Also provides information on planning and building a website. 

Philanthropic Digest Index

List of large (some humongous!) gifts to institutions.

U.S. Trust Survey of Affluent Americans

This survey, published by the U.S. Trust Company in April 2007, is chock full of fascinating information about the investment beliefs and philanthropic mindset of the upper classes.

 Phone/Address/Zip

For links to non-domestic phone and address information, look under International

Reverse Phone Directory

Offers reverse telephone directory lookups (when you know a phone number and need to know the name or address connected to it) on six different phone directory sites.

The Ultimates

Similar to the above site in that it provides links to various telephone directories on the web including: Yellow Pages - White Pages and E-mail Directories. However, in this case the form for each resource is integrated into the site, and Javascript copies the information from one blank to another so you can use everything out there with a minimum of time and effort. In other words, you only have to type the info out once.

Who-Is by VeriSign

Ever come across one of those pesky Web sites that forget to include contact information? Just type in the URL and Who-Is will provide you with registration information, including snail mail address, email address and a phone number!

Directory Assistance Plus

Jay Computer Services Zip Code Lookup

Find zip codes within a forty mile (or less) radius of a given zip code.

Mailers Software Database

This free database will help you locate US zip codes within a given radius of a center point zip code.

National Telephone & Communications Inc Tele-Locator

The database is a copy of the Bellcore NPA/NXX database. You can search by phone number, find country codes, prefixes or area codes for your city or state.

SimplyZipCodes

Provides zip codes within a 100-miles (or less) radius. You can cut and paste the results into Excel.

Switchboard

A free nationwide residential and business directory from Coordinate.com. Includes over 90 million people and 10 million business.

See WhoWhere in "Securities" below.

Telephone Directories on the Web

This site provides links to various telephone directories on the web including: Yellow Pages - White Pages - Fax Directories - Toll Free Directories - and Regional Directories. It provides links to many international directories.

US Post Office

Type in the address and get the zip+4, or find what zips comprise any city/community. Also takes address changes, calculates postage rates, and other helpful info.

Zip Code Lookup

A web site run by the postal service that will find zips for you.  

ZipMath

Click Applications for zip codes (listed with the cities) within a radius. This site is able to work with much larger radii than other sites, but larger radii can slow the site to a crawl.  

Real Estate

For links to non-domestic real estate information, look under International

 

Christina Pulawski's Tax Assessor Database

Listings of phone numbers and multipliers for counties and other communities so you can find the market value of properties. Also has links to other counties' searchable web sites.

 

Property Shark

Great site for finding information and comparables for New York City property--with free registration you're allowed six free lookups per day.

 

Realtor.com
National real estate database that even carries listings in New York City! Excellent place to find comparable values.

 

Zillow
The real estate site that has become a verb, ala Google. The site provides current market value estimates and allows you to refine the search by excluding houses that are not comparable to the property you are researching. The property can be viewed in three different ways: street (map), satellite photo view, or a combination of the two. A bonus feature is the shots of famous homes: Ozzy Osbourne's home, the Beverly Hillbillies' mansion and more.

ACRIS
The Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) allows you to search property records and view document images for Manhattan , Queens, Bronx, and Brooklyn back to 1966. Maintained by the New York City Department of Finance.

 

Boston.com Home Sales Search
A Massachusetts statewide site that searches by town and street and gives you a listing of recent sale prices of homes in that area.

 

Chicago Tribune Home Sales Site
Offers transactions for the last seven years of home sales in the Chicago metro area.

 

Curbed

This newsletter about the wild world of New York City real estate is both an entertaining read and a great way for outsiders to learn about (and keep up with) rapidly changing real estate values in this area. Every researcher should know the difference between DUMBO and SOHO! Site also contains a great collection of NYC real estate links.

 

DataQuick Real Property Information Center
Explains real property terms and other related information.

 

Domania
Find recent house sales or determine a value for a house using this site's database.

 

Homestore Tools and Calculators

Locate communities with similar demographics by (zip code), compare cost of living figures for different cities, etc.

 

Luxury Letter
Monthly newsletter tracking luxury real estate in New York City.

 

Most Expensive Zip Codes List from Forbes
Forbes list of those much sought-after wealthy zip codes, based on 2006 median sale price. Sortable by rank, zip code, location, county, state and sale price.

 

NetR Online
Contact information for state assessor offices and data portal for state assessor records and other public records. Some info is free and other info available for a price. Really nice user interface!

 

New York State Equalization Information

I can easily kill a half hour searching for the equalization rates hidden away on New York State's Office of Real Property Services site, so here they are. And here is the explanation for how to use them.

 

New York City Realty

Provides comps for coops and condos in Manhattan, describes the buildings, lists recent sale prices, etc. Good site but others have surpassed it.

 

Portico's Online Assessor Links

 

StreetEasy

Easily navigable site for searching New York City and New Jersey properties by neighborhood or building. StreetEasy lists many buildings that are not listed in Zillow or Trulia. It also gives information on co-ops and condos for sale and rent, recent sales and rental data. Free registration allows you to save searches.

Yahoo! Real Estate
Now incorporating Zillow, eppraisal.com and Reply.com Real Estate to give you a range of home value estimates.

Reference (Business)

CEO Express

Includes an incredibly comprehensive series of links on such topics as Daily News and Information, Business Research, and All Things Internet.

Finance Glossary

Brought to you by Professor Campbell R. Harvey at Duke University, this site boasts over 8.000 entries with 18,000 hyperlinks. It is an excellent source for financial terminology.

A Guide to SEC Corporate Filings

Defines all the SEC reports by number, as well as many of the terms and regulations behind them all.

Inflation Calculator

This handy calculator can help you figure out the current value of gifts given as long ago as 1913.

Investopedia Dictionary

InvestorWords

Provides short definitions of investing terms.

References (Desktop)

Babel Fish Translator by Alta Vista

Named after Douglas Adams's extraordinarily useful fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this site will translate any phrase or Web page from/into most of the major languages spoken on this planet. What's more, you don't have to stick anything in your ear to use it.

Boat Trader Online's Boat Price Checker

Using Boat Trader Online's nationwide database of classified ads, identifies current high, low, and average prices for specific boats.

Currency Converter

Translate various currencies to dollars. Note: This bookmark is set to go to the US dollar conversion table. Once there, you can link to another conversion table that has a different country base.

Perpetual Calendar

Yahoo! Reference

One-stop reference shopping, courtesy of Yahoo! Access the American Heritage Dictionary (both English and Spanish) Roget's Thesaurus, the Britannica Concise, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Gray's Anatomy, The Oxford Shakespeare, and the World Factbook. Search all eight sources at once!

Acronym Finder

A world wide web (WWW) searchable database of more than 60,000 common acronyms and abbreviations about computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military, with an emphasis on Department of Defense (DoD), Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Coast Guard acronyms and abbreviations.

Boat Buyers Guide

A searchable database of boat values, most useful for new boats purchased in 2000.

Bartlett's Quotations

The famous quotation resource, searchable by person or key words.

BUBL Link

This engine was created based on the failing Dewey Decimal Classification system. Despite this, it provides many excellent links to academic subjects.

Encyclopedia Britannica

FindArtInfo.com Auction Results Database

Excellent resource for those times when you are trying to estimate the value of a prospect's art collection. The database contains more than 295,713 pieces of art, auctioned since 2004. Each week more than 8,000 new prices are added.

Geographic Name Server (WWW gateway)

You may wish to access the Geographic Name Server at Univ. of Mich. to determine what county a particular city is in. Just click on "USGS Geographic Names Information System" on bottom of page The name server provides other information about cities as well

Highbeam Research (formerly Electric Library)

"With The Electric Library, any researcher can pose a question in plain English and launch a comprehensive, simultaneous search through more than 150 full-text newspapers, over 900 full-text magazines, two international newswires, two thousand classic books, hundreds of maps, thousands of photographs, as well as major works of literature and art." Geared mostly to students. Many obscure interest journals.

Infomine

An absolutely massive collection of academic information. Includes a function to search many academic journals. Also provides a link to another huge collection of government information. The search engine can be a bit frustrating, but the links portion of it is very comprehensive.

The Internet Movie Database

The IMDb is an excellent movie reference source and covers everything you could ever possibly want to know about movies. It's fully hyperlinked both within the database and to thousands of external sites and is updated continuously. Searchable by film and actor name, as well as director and crew.

Intertran

Another good language translator, with a particular focus on eastern European languages like Croation, Czech, Serbian, and Slovenian.

Inventories of American Painting & Sculpture Catalog from the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System

This collections database allows you to search the American art holdings of most major museums and quite a few individual collectors. Browse by owner's name, artist's name, type of art, or by keywords.

Library of Congress

Librarians' Index to the Internet

MapQuest Interactive Atlas

Mapping service. Can search for specific addresses or business, and you can view a map of the area and surrounding blocks and streets. You can even customize your map by placing features that show location of landmarks, services, and facilities and major businesses. Also claims to give directions and distances from one point to another.

MapBrowse

Another mapping service.

Most Expensive Zip Codes List from Forbes

Forbes list of those much sought-after wealthy zip codes, as of September 2003. The list ranks zips by median home price.

Paintings Provenance Database from the Getty Research Institute

Like the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database (see above) this database provides ownership histories for hundreds of thousands of paintings. Most of the works listed in this data base are by European artists. Searchable by owner's name, artist name, owner's location, and keywords. Useful for detecting current holdings of your prospects, and also for tracking donations and loans made to museums.

Peterson's College and University Information Channel

Free access to information on hundreds of major educational institutions, including size, tuition, majors, athletics, and student life.

Research-It!

Provides searchable links for the following categories: "Language Tools, Financial Tools, Shipping & Mailing Tools and Internet." Similar to Reference Desk, in the type of materials offered, however, this site allows you to perform searches within the confines of its own page.

Resource Shelf

A collection of Web resources and information updated daily. Categories include print publications, search tools, government documents, glossaries and a whole lot more. You can subscribe to a free weekly newsletter.

State County Maps from the U.S. Census Bureau

Clickable map of the US, useful for locating particular counties or finding out demographic information about an area.

Taxonomy Warehouse

A repository of hundreds of classification systems, indexes, glossaries and thesauri for a huge variety of fields. This is a useful site if you are trying to find out more about a subject of a prospecting list or other project.

US Geological Survey - Mapping Service

This is a very helpful site for determining the location of something if you have only part of the information. For example, if you have the city and state and you need name of the county, this is the place for you.

Wealthy Zip Code List - USC

The University of Southern California's treasured list of zip codes that boast average household incomes of $150,000+, with average property values of $500,000+.

YachtWorld.com

Another searchable database useful in determining the value of a boat.

Zipcodemaps.com

Basic zip code mapping and demographic data for free: more complicated map requests are fee-based.

Research Web Pages

Anderson University

APRA Home Page
"The mission of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement is to foster professional development and promote standards that enhance the expertise and status of development research and information service professionals worldwide." Also research web site with many useful links.


Helen Brown Group


The Internet Prospector

As featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy...draws together a goldmine of Prospect Research information.

 

Michigan State University

 

Stanford University

 

University of Southern California

 

University of Vermont

 

University of Virginia (Portico)

 

Wheaton College

Salary Information

USA Today Pro Athletes' Salaries
Search for the salaries of football, baseball, basketball and hockey players on this site. Goes back at least seven years in each league.

 

Reuter's Business and Finance
Comprehensive, nicely formatted information on public companies, including executive compensation and stock ownership.

 

Medical Economics

 Great salary information on doctors by specialty, location.

 

* O*Net OnLine
Occupational Information Network. From “Find Occupations,” you can type in or find a name of an occupation, get a detailed description of the job – select “wages and employment” to get to a link where you can choose the state the position is in. Retrieves a report from Bureau of Labor and other stats.

 

Salary.com
This site provides salary and compensation package ranges for a comprehensive list of job titles, by region or zip code.

 

AAUP Faculty Salary Survey
Search nine years of average faculty salaries arranged by academic rank at more than 1,300 colleges, universities, and multicampus systems.

 

CejkaSearch
Current physician compensation information compiled by the American Medical Group Association. The advantage to this site is the wide range of medical specialties covered.

 

Indeed
Salary estimates derived from over 50 million job postings. This site has information about some job titles other sites don't cover.

 

JobStar