Foundation Directory Online (FDO) is the premier grantseeking database on the Web. It has two different versions: FDO Professional and FDO Essential. FDO Professional includes detailed profiles of over 241,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grantmaking public charities, with descriptions of over 24 million recent grants, and over 2 million recipient profiles. Users may also search over 1 million IRS 990 and 990-PF forms. FDO is the only place to find past giving information on the 90 per cent of U.S. foundations that don’t have websites.
FDO Essential is a somewhat smaller database, including over 200,000 foundation profiles – though some of these are profiles are not as detailed as those in FDO Professional. FDO Essential does not include the information on grants and recipients that is in FDO Professional.
Using FDO is the most efficient way to generate a prospect list of potential funders, since it allows you to specify and combine various criteria, such as the subject area (e.g., Health), type of support (e.g. General/operating support), and geographic area (e.g. New Hampshire or United States). See the web link above for more information about FDO.
Since Lamson Library is no longer a partner in the Funding Information Network after December 31, 2021, the library is no longer able to provide free public access to this database. And, since at this time there is no other location in New Hampshire where the public can access the FDO database, you may wish to consider the option of an individual subscription to the database. Here are links to relevant information:
Chart comparing features and costs of FDO Professional and FDO Essential:
https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/helpdocs/chart_flyer.pdf
Subscription costs for an individual:
FDO Professional: $199.99 per month or $124.92 per month (if pay for 1 year in advance at $1499.00)
FDO Essential: $49.99 per month or $33.25 per month (if pay for 1 year in advance at $399.00)
Note: Essential does not have either the detailed Grants or Recipients information that are part of the Professional version.
Sample Grantmaker Profile from FDO Professional:
https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/sample/professional
One other database from Candid that also used to be available within Lamson Library (but is no longer available) is Grants to Individuals. Information on this database is listed below.
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