Candid

Candid provides trusted information, data-driven tools, research, analysis, best practices, and trainings to help the social sector increase its ability to affect change and transform lives. We represent the world’s largest repositories of trusted historical and present-day information on nonprofits, foundations, and the capital flows that bind them. We aim to create the future of data, information, and knowledge for the social sector. We will also work to enhance the services we offer to the millions of people who rely on us to help them make the world a better place.

Candid will develop a new generation of products and services that are technologically sophisticated and designed to champion the causes, organizations, and knowledge that power civil society worldwide. We will leverage our stores of talent, data, indicators, research, news, and capacity-building resources to improve philanthropic systems and practices in the U.S. and around the world, and will enable knowledge sharing with the potential to transform how civil society and the social sector learns and improves. We will continue to learn from our stakeholders to determine how to improve our offerings and provide tools that will help nonprofits, foundations, giving platforms, and other social sector stakeholders achieve their missions.

With more than 80 years of collective experience supporting the social sector, Candid has the staff expertise, organizational capacity, and leadership to provide new resources and services for those in the social sector and beyond.

We are fortunate to have a staff of 200+ dedicated professionals skilled in building tools and delivering services to nonprofits, foundations, professionals, and individuals; stable financials and a plan for continued sustainability; an engaged board of directors from a wide variety of disciplines; and a large group of committed funders. Our staff leadership has a long track record of expanding our service to the field, often by capitalizing on new technologies. By developing the skills and knowledge base of our staff, we ensure that we can continue to innovate, and effectively identify and meet needs in the sector as they arise.

Candid’s combined history of serving nonprofits, grantmakers, researchers, and do-gooders of all kinds provides us with unique insights into the the evolving needs of the social sector. These insights help us shape our offerings and ensure that we keep our finger on the pulse of what our users need to help them do good. We have long held that increasing transparency in our sector would increase its effectiveness, and that democratizing access to data, knowledge, and resources would level the playing field for those working to improve their communities and champion their causes. The combination of a trusted history of providing non-partisan data and knowledge and the ability to create cutting edge technology to propel the social sector forward gives us a unique vantage point from which to serve those who are working to build a better world.

Candid was formed in 2019 with the integration of Foundation Center and GuideStar. The guiding work and missions of Foundation Center and GuideStar were complementary, and we collaborated over the years on data processing efficiencies, data standards for the social sector, and the development of a registry of unique identification numbers for nonprofits globally. We have helped each other maintain data standards and protect the integrity of the data that we collect. For example, one of our most recent collaborations included building the Basic Registry of Identified Global Entities (BRIDGE). BRIDGE numbers help the social sector discover what other data exists, integrate data systems, and ensure that nonprofits and service organizations are discoverable. Both organizations have made great strides in advancing the social sector, and we look forward to the exciting year that lies ahead.