“Few are likely to see the merger of the Foundation Center and GuideStar, announced this morning, as a surprise,” writes Ruth McCambridge in last Tuesday’s (2/5) Nonprofit Quarterly. “It has been more than a decade since the two started getting to know each other in a way that acknowledged their linked purposes, and a full seven years since their merger discussions began. But, to be sure, it is a momentous occasion…. Foundation Center was established in 1956 … as a public information service on philanthropy…. With information on more than 13 million grants and 155,000 grantmakers, Foundation Center maintains the world’s largest database on global grantmaking. Foundation Center information and services aid nonprofits in increasing organizational capacity and raising the funds to fulfill their missions … Founded in 1994, GuideStar has helped drive the nonprofit transparency revolution. GuideStar released the first-ever searchable electronic database of nonprofits in 1996. Over the years, GuideStar expanded the database to include all tax-exempt organizations registered with IRS; the database currently comprises profiles of 2.7 million organizations…. The two organizations have developed purposefully over years in ways that would eventually fit nicely together as one.” The new organization “now goes by the inspired name of ‘Candid.’ ”
Posted February 12, 2019
