Key Word(s)

You may search for organizations by name or by a word or phrase that is key to your search. The GuideStar® search engine scans the organization's GuideStar® Report, current Form 990, and IRS Business Master File for the search term(s).

Since the database contains 1.8 million records, searches on keywords such as health or school can be lengthy and yield an overwhelming and unwieldy number of results. Limit your search by specifying a particular city and state or revenue range.

Special Syntax

  • Phrase search

    Use quotation marks ( " " ) to search for an exact phrase: "united nations" will return results where the words united nations appear beside each other in the text.

  • Wildcards
    • Use a question mark to replace a single character anywhere in a word:
      te?t finds test and text.
    • Use an asterisk ( * ) to replace multiple characters anywhere in a word:
      hous* will return results with house as well as housing.
  • Stop words

    Our search recognizes stop words (nonessential, frequently used words, such as a, and, because, if, often, the, when) and rewrites your query without them, unless they are entered in quotation marks.

  • Excluding words

    Narrow your search by using a hyphen (be sure to space before the hyphen):

    child -care will return results containing the term child but exclude those that also contain the term care.

  • Acronyms

    Our search recognizes some acronyms (e.g., PTA), but relevancy is improved when you type the entire organization name or keywords.