Building community knowledge and helping people use it to inspire giving.

GuideStar's DonorEdge on-line research engine helps you to build community knowledge and to make it accessible to inspire charitable giving. Creating community knowledge is a distinct value-add for community foundations whose challenge today is to remain relevant to donors by sharing knowledge about community issues and solutions provided by the most effective nonprofits. Today's donors want to invest in the organizations they support—not just write a check. DonorEdge delivers the transparency donors need to make the kind of decisions that turn a simple act of giving into a wise investment. And when your community foundation enables donors to make well-informed investment decisions, you not only establish your foundation as the "go-to" place for local nonprofit knowledge and giving—but you also gain a significant advantage in the increasingly competitive marketplace for donor services.

Branding your community foundation as a high-impact leader.

DonorEdge strengthens your community foundation's brand as a leader in the community. By bringing credible, vetted information about local nonprofits to donors, it increases recognition of your foundation as a trusted source of knowledge for identifying high-priority community concerns and deserving granting prospects. And by encouraging charitable investments that address priorities to improve the community's quality of life, your community foundation becomes a high-impact leader in local philanthropy.

Encouraging individual giving and nonprofit effectiveness.

DonorEdge is a powerful tool designed to encourage charitable giving within your community and improve the performance of nonprofits by helping them make a better case for community investment in their organization. DonorEdge drives results-oriented philanthropy by delivering vital, measurable data on-line about the health and mission of local nonprofits, enabling prospective donors to answer key questions before investing:

• What will be achieved with my philanthropic investment?
• Will it make a difference in the areas that concern me most?
• Is it the best possible use of my charitable contribution?

A national partner who shares your values.

GuideStar is a national nonprofit organization that shares your values with a charitable mission that is in complete alignment with yours. We are motivated to help you gather high-quality information that will inspire giving that rewards top-performing nonprofits. When you work with GuideStar's DonorEdge, you join a learning community with fellow practitioners who share "lessons learned" and support innovation in community philanthropy.

What can DonorEdge do for your community foundation?

• Communicate your value by packaging community knowledge into a publically accessible, online philanthropic marketplace.
• Position your foundation as a leader in community knowledge and provide a platform to share that information.
• Create customized Web profiles of local nonprofits so your donors can make better-informed giving decisions.
• Start an open and honest dialogue about nonprofit performance so nonprofits can learn how to improve.
• Help the local sector tie its priorities to measurable benchmarks so donors, foundations, and nonprofits can allocate their resources more effectively.