Other People's Money

How can I get to the money? In a few clicks of the mouse, you too can get the answers to bottom-line questions that the fund raisers will ask. Don't worry, its free. Too good to be true? Read on.

1. If you're not already registered for at guidestar.org - you have no excuse, its free.

Guidestar has a ton of information about 1.5 million nonprofit organizations - including foundations that give money, of coarse. It posts the IRS FORM 990 of almost every nonprofit in the nation. Only the ones that make $25,000 or less and religious organizations don't have a file.

On a 990, you can see how much money the nonprofits have to give away, where they give it, and who their board members are. You may even find someone you know in a key position to help you get free grant money. Sometimes, the 990 even includes the board members personal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

Here's a tip: Enter zip codes near your nonprofits where Guidestar asks for and organization name. You'll find grantmakers right in your area.

(On www.guidestar.org, you can also find tons of tidbits about your nonprofit competitors: how much money they raise and spend, how much they pay their highest paid employees and vendors, and who their board members are. It's also a gold mine if you want to do business with nonprofits.)

2. Far less complete than Guidestar; can still help you locate where the money is - for free. It's a commercial site that sells mailing lists, but here's how it can work for you. Find the the "lookups" at the top of the site, then scroll drown to "nonprofits" in the lower right. just enter a zip code to get a feel for potential funders nears you, or enter a grantmaker's name or tax I.D. number. If you only enter a zip, you'll get a list of all the nonprofits there, not to mention, how much money they have. If you need more info about one of the organizations, click on the link. You'll get its address and and other information, not its 990. I suggest going to melissadata.com first, identifying the most likely contributors, then going to guidestar.org for details.

At some point, melissadata.com will ask you to become a free registered user. It will give you 50 free lookups per day. Without registration, you'll only get 20. If you want more than 50 per day, you gotta pay.

3. You can explore www.melissadata.com for contributors to political campaigns, along with www.fundrace.org, www.follow

themoney.org, www.opensecrets.org and www.myflorida.com. These sites list partisan and issue contributions (gun control, animal rights, education, health care, etc.) At www.fundrace.org, search by zip code and seewhom your neighbors support. At www.myflorida.com, look under "Elections" at Secretary of State for political campaign contributions. Political contributors may not necessarily donate to nonprofits, but their contributions may help you understand their motives for giving, as well as just how gen- erous they can be - when they really want to be.

4. Research property tax information on local county web sites. Knowing who owns what real estate and its appraised value may give you some idea of a person's donor potential.

Beyond what you get from a mouse-click, the trick is to piece together what makes donors tick. That's the most you can get out of the internet, where real fundraising begins - and where you actually have to put some work in and go beyond what a computer can do.

Email your comments or questions about this article to Stephen Goldstein at trendsman@aol.com.