Basic Research Websites
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of these websites, this list and the
services described may have been discontinued, or are now offered for a fee. Please forward changes and
broken links to resourcecenter@bbbs.org.
Business information:
American City Business Journals
www.bizjournals.com
This company produces 41 business periodicals for individual cities such as Albany, NY;
Louisville, KY; Phoenix, AZ; Cincinnati, OH; Greensboro-Winston Salem, NC.
If this company covers your area and your office doesn’t already subscribe, subscribe soon.
Each business journal publishes an annual Book of Lists. Topics generally include the top
public companies in the region, top private companies, top law firms, top compensation, etc.
Crain’s
www.newyorkbusiness.com
www.crainsdetroit.com
www.crainscleveland.com
www.crainschicagobusiness.com
Similar to American City Business Journals, Crain’s publishes local business news magazines
in New York City, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago. Also publishes annual Book of Lists.
Hoover’s Online
www.hoovers.com
Provides information on thousands of public and private companies. The “capsule
summaries” are free. These contain a brief description of the company, top officers, most
recent sales and profits. Full profiles contain much more detail.
Wall Street Journal Career Journal
www.careerjournal.com
Click on “Salary and Hiring Info”, then select an industry. Gives compensation information for
various positions within the industry.
Factiva
www.factiva.com
This is a fee-based Dow Jones/Wall St Journal database; for this and other fee-based search
tools. Explore what access you can acquire through your local public library website.
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Stock information:
SEC information
www.sec.gov or www.edgar-online.com
Internet sites with full-text of SEC filings of public companies in the US. On the SEC site, go to
“Filings & Forms (EDGAR)”, then “search for company filings”. Then select “Companies &
Filings”.
Stock quotes
finance.yahoo.com
Enter the company’s ticker symbol to obtain stock price information. The site has a ticker
look-up feature.
10K Wizard
www.tenkwizard.com
Search SEC documents by name. You can choose to view the full proxy or the section where
the individual’s name occurs. (Note: No longer a free service. Subscriptions: $199/year)
Political Contributions:
Federal Election Commission
www.tray.com
A database that includes names of donors of $200+ to national-level political campaigns
(President, U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Republican National Committee, Democratic
National Committee, etc.)
Search under Campaign Finance –select Individual Donor from drop down menu
Enter the individual’s last name, comma, first name or first initial.
Non-profits:
Guidestar
www.guidestar.org
Provides the IRS Form 990-PF for foundations. Enter the last lame of your prospect in “Search
for Nonprofits” to see if they have a family foundation.
Grantsmart
www.noza990pf.com
Similar to Guidestar. Provides the 990-PF form for over 60,000 private foundations.
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Foundation Center
www.foundationcenter.org
Includes “Foundation Finder”. For a fee, the Foundation Center also publishes directories of
foundation information, including FC-Search on CD-ROM with excellent searching features.
Chronicle of Philanthropy
www.philanthropy.com
If you are a subscriber to the hard-copy publication, register for a free password to search the
archives. Searching the grant archives is now fee-based.
Professions:
Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator
www.martindale.com
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory is considered the leading directory of lawyers and law
firms. The internet version allows you to search for lawyers by name.
American Lawyer 100
www.law.com
Click on Surveys and Rankings for the latest annual listing of average compensation for
partners at the top 100 law firms in the country and by firm size.
LawyerExpress
www.lawyerexpress.com
Similar to CEOExpress, a compilation of websites serving the legal profession. Good for legal
periodicals.
American Medical Association
www.ama-assn.org/aps/amahg.htm
Gives contact information and educational background for 650,000 physicians.
Public Records:
Pacific Information – Public Record Databases
www.searchsystems.net/
A compilation of searchable national and state public record databases. Some nominal fees are
required for this site.
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Real estate:
Zillow
www.zillow.com
Enter an address and this site will tell you what this home, or other homes in the area have
sold for and what the property tax is. Also includes estimates of home values that vary widely
in accuracy for some areas; be clear about what information is being displayed. No data is
available on this site for Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota or South Dakota (due to
state disclosure laws).
Domania
www.domania.com
Enter an address and this site will summarize recent sales information for that specific house,
or all the homes on the street, or in the vicinity.
Yahoo Real Estate
realestate.yahoo.com/realestate/homevalues
Another source for information about recent home sales.
Telephone Directories:
Note: On internet telephone directories, there is a time lag between when the telephone info is
collected and when it is loaded. Directory assistance will give you the most current information.
Anywho
www.anywho.com
Newspapers and Periodicals:
New York Times
www.nytimes.com
The most efficient way to search the New York Times is on the Lexis-Nexis for a fee, but the
newspaper’s website provides limited searching for free.
Forbes magazine
www.forbes.com
In addition to business articles, Forbes publishes the annual Forbes 400 list of the richest
Americans and other useful lists.
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Fortune magazine
www.fortune.com
Worth magazine
www.worth.com
Newspapers Within the U.S.
www.newspapers.com/usa_news.htm
Selected Search Engines:
ZoomInfo
www.zoominfo.com
“Networking, employment and influencers” tool bringing together a powerful, easy to navigate
people and company finder. Electronic news clipping service from diverse sources.
Google
www.google.com
To maximize your Google search, check out their guides on smart searching at:
 http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=advanced
Copernic
copernic.com/index.html
Available through Wealth Engine. If you don’t have Wealth Engine, this requires a download
of software. Allows instant search of files, emails, and email attachments stored anywhere on
PC’s hard drive. Additional search and indexing features offered for a fee.
Wealthy Towns:
Wealthy Zip Codes
www.usc.edu/dept/source/zipcode
A selection of the country’s wealthiest zip codes. Arranged by state.
University Development Websites:
A number of research departments in university development offices provide a website with
useful Internet resources. These are also good sources of regional information (for example,
the University of Southern California site has references for the entertainment industry).
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University of Southern California
www.usc.edu/dept/source/
University of Vermont
www.uvm.edu/~prospect/index.html
Ethics:
APRA Code of Ethics
www.aprahome.org/ProfessionalStandards/StatementofEthics/tabid/74/Default.aspx
Guidelines from The Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
www.afpnet.org/ethics
Various Standards and Principles to be used for ethics
CASE
www.case.org/Content/AboutCASE/Display.cfm?contentItemID=2570
Case Statement of Ethics
Guidelines from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education
http://www.case.org/IndexBrowser.cfm?indexEntryID=1087
Resource on CASE Guidelines and Standards on a variety of topics
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