The Foundation Directory Online Professional is licensed by the Levy Library for faculty, students and staff at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. It includes two fully searchable databases: the foundation database and the grants database.

• The foundation database houses a collection of data on nearly 80,000 foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities.
• The grants database is a collection of 500,000 records of grants recently awarded by foundations in the United States.

The example screens below describe how to use the foundation database of The Foundation Directory Online.

The Foundation Directory Online is listed on the Library's Databases page, under the category Reference - Medical and General.

From the Foundation Directory homepage, select the Foundation Search button.

Look for the foundation in the alphabetical Foundation Name Index.

1. To open the index pane, click on Foundation Name next to the search box on the search page. An alphabetical index will appear.
2. Click on a foundation name from the index to automatically insert it into the Foundation Name search field.
3. Click the Search button to view the Results Screen.

If you are unsure of the exact name of the foundation or can't find it in the index, enter one or more words from the foundation name into the top box on the search form.

You can combine search words with And, Or, Not and Near.

For example, the search "Bill and Gates" will retrieve "Gates Foundation, Bill & Melinda".

Click the Search button to view the Results Screen.

Click on any of the eight search field headings on the Search Screen to open an Index Pane. (The headings are outlined in red in the screen capture to the left.)

Browse the Index Pane and click on one or more entries to add them to your search.

Then, click the Search button to run your search.

Most of the search field headings are self explanatory. Note two search field headings that may be particularly useful:

• Fields of Interest includes categories such as specific disease groups (such as "Alzheimer's disease"), "Health care services", "Medical school/ education", etc.
• Types of Support identifies grants that are provided to help grantseekers start and/or complete specific tasks. Some examples are "Curriculum Development", "Equipment", and "Research".

A Text (or Keyword) Search allows you to find a record by searching the full text of the grantmaker Profile. If you are searching for information not found in the indexes, or you do not want to limit your search to a particular field, use the Text Search option.

To do a Text Search, type the keywords or phrase for which you are searching in the Text Search box. Then click the Search button.

For example, the search "Consumer Health and Education" will retrieve the names of five foundations that have made grants in this area.

SEARCH TIPS:

• By default, The Foundation Directory Online only returns records containing all the words you typed in the exact order in which you typed them. For example, the search "Consumer Health Education" does not retrieve any potential funders because that exact phrase does not appear in any grantmaker Profiles.
• If you do not wish all the words you enter to be interpreted as a single phrase, include a Boolean operator such as And, Or, Not, or Near between each word or phrase.
• Use the * (asterisk) symbol as a "wild card" to search for variations on several letters at the beginning or end of a word.

The Results Screen appears and displays a list of foundation records that contain your search words.

Results are displayed in alphabetical order by name. You can re-sort your search results by clicking a column header.

Click a foundation name to launch the Record Display Screen in a new browser window.

The Record Display Screen opens to the grantmaker Profile menu tab.

The content of a grantmaker Profile varies. Examples of elements that could be included in a Profile are:

• Foundation name, address, and telephone number
• Purpose and activities
• Fields of interest
• Types of support
• Geographic focus
• Selected grants

The Record Display Screen may include a forms 990s tab. Private corporations do not file the forms 990, so their records will not include this tab.

Click on the 990s tab to open a page with links to the latest available IRS 990 and 990-PF filings for the foundation.

Foundations list the grants that they have made and the amount spent on them in IRS 990 and 990-PF forms.

Click the link for a fiscal year to launch the Adobe Acrobat Reader and open the form 990 in PDF format.

It is particularly important to examine IRS forms 990 and 990-PF when you are evaluating smaller foundations. The Foundation Directory Online does not report the grants made by smaller foundations in their grants database. The grant information for smaller foundations can be found in only in the forms 990 section of their foundation database.

Below the links to the IRS filings, the forms 990 tab includes links to two tutorials on the content, accessibility, and value of forms 990 tax returns.

An IRS form 990 may be over one hundred pages long. The quickest way to find out about the grants made in a tax year is to search the document.

Click on the Adobe Reader's Search button, which has an image of binoculars on it, to open a search sidebar. The search button is highlighted with red in the screen capture on the left.

Search results show the search word in context. A search for the word "Grants" retrieved a multi-page list of "Grants and Contributions Paid" in the example to the left.

View our Grant Database Tutorial for an introduction to using the Foundation Directory Online's grant database.

The Foundation Center, which operates and maintains The Foundation Directory Online, defines a foundation as a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization with its own funds and established to maintain or aid educational, social, charitable, religious, or other activities serving the common welfare, primarily by making grants to other nonprofit organizations.

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Grants and Contracts Office provides additional information about funding resources, including governmental grants and contracts, from their Web site at http://www.mssm.edu/grants/funding.shtml

Librarians are available to support your research. For help with a search, or to schedule individual assistance, please call (212) 241-7204 or send an email to Ask a Librarian.

Guide last updated January 2006