Foster Business Library

Nonprofit Industry


Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.


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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • Associations Unlimited:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Database of national, state, regional and international trade and professional organizations and non-profit membership organizations.

    See nonprofit organizations in this database; see also the section at the bottom of the main menu entitled IRS Data on Nonprofits, a searchable database of nonprofits as categorized by the Internal Revenue Service (but without a link to IRS filings for nonprofits). This database includes over 3,000 nonprofits in Washington state, including over 800 nonprofits in Seattle.

  • Hoovers Online:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Hoovers Online offers information about 40,000 public and private companies worldwide, with links to company homepages and annual reports, charts, company capsule, competitors, divisions, earnings, financials, Fortune and Forbes rankings, history, industry information, insider trading, mission statements, news links, press releases, officers, patents, products, S.E.C. filings, splits, subsidiaries, etc.

    While Hoovers Online is primarily oriented towards profit-making organizations, it does include Charitable Organizations, Membership Organizations, Cultural Institutions, and Foundations.

  • ReferenceUSA:   On the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases. Directory information for 12 million companies in the U.S. Companies and organizations can be searched for by name, business activity, size and location. This database is very useful for identifying competitors in market areas.

    A custom search for SIC code 8399-98, for Non-Profit Organizations, limited to King County, retrieved a list of over 320 organizations.

  • Statistical Universe:   Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Statistical Universe is an index to statistical data in commercial, international and U.S. government publications.

    A keyword search for Nonprofit produced over 1,000 tables; a search for Nonprofit and Washington retrieved over two dozen tables, while a search for Nonprofit and Seattle produced no tables.

    Web Resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

  • The Aspen Institute:   "The mission of the Aspen Institute is to foster enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values." The institute includes, among its topics of study, Corporate Values, Economics/Finance, Leadership, and Nonprofit/Philanthropy. See their Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program.

  • Bplans.com:   Maintained by Palo Alto Software, a company that sells business plan software, books and newsletters, this site offers an extensive amount of free information on business and marketing plans for small business including Sample Plans for startups and for established businesses. The plans were developed by existing companies or new business start-ups as research instruments to determine market viability or funding availability but names, locations and numbers may have been changed, and substantial portions of text may have been omitted. See the business plan for a Nonprofit Trade Association.

  • Community Wealth Ventures:   "Community Wealth Ventures, Inc. is a consulting firm that assists in all aspects of entrepreneurial wealth creation for the social sector. Our objective is to teach our clients how to best leverage the Community Wealth concept to meet their mission and revenue objectives." Their website includes case studies, news, resources, job opportunities in nonprofits, and links to books and periodicals about the nonprofit sector. See their Resources for links to more information about nonprofits, including an Online Compendium of Federal and State Regulations for U.S. Nonprofit Organizations.

  • The Executive Alliance:   This organization "evolved from the long standing Executive Director’s Coalition (EDC), which served as a liaison between United Way of King County (UWKC) and what were then member agencies." See their nonprofit Resources & Links and Members.

  • Foundation Center:   "Established in 1956, and today supported by more than 600 foundations, the Foundation Center is the nation's leading authority on philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust." See their 990 Finder, to view nonprofit organizations' IRS Form 900 returns, as well as 990PFs, by organization name, state abbreviation, ZIP code, employer identification number, or fiscal year. See also their Statistical Rankings of foundations.

  • GuideStar:   Guidestar is a national database of more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations, with extensive organizational information including, in many cases, financials and government filings that itemize significant expenditures on contract business services such as consulting. The orientation of the database is towards donating individuals and companies. See their Selected Resources. Free registration is required to access this database.

  • Idealist:   Idealist, a project of Action Without Borders, includes over 45,000 nonprofit and community organizations in over 160 countries, which can be searched or browsed by name, location or mission. The site also offers a career opportunities database for subscribers to the site. They also offer Tools For Nonprofits, guides for starting, running and funding a nonprofit organization, recruiting and managing volunteers, and exploiting technology in nonprofit organizations. Some information is available to members only.

  • Independent Sector:   This organization acts as a "trade" organization for the more than one million charitable, educational, religious, health, and social welfare organizations. The organization website includes research and member information. See their Free Research Publications and Nonprofit Information Center. See also their extensive Nonprofit FAQ. Some information is restricted to members only.

  • National Center for Charitable Statistics:   "The National Center for Charitable Statistics is the national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. NCCS is a program of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (CNP) at the Urban Institute." See the Washington Nonprofit Organizations and Nonprofit Organizations By State and their nonprofit Links.

  • National Council of Nonprofit Associations:   This organization "is a network of 37 established and 15 emerging state and regional associations of nonprofits serving over 22,000 member nonprofits." The association website provides information about council publications for sale but no research. See their State Association Publications (but none for Washington state) and Links To Resources for Nonprofits.

  • The Nonprofit Times:   This publication describes itself as the "leading business publication for nonprofit management," with jobs ads, special reports, salary surveys, and lists of top nonprofits. Some articles from the magazine (but not all articles) are available at this website. The UW Libraries does not subscribe to this publication (also unavailable in any of the Libraries' periodical databases). See their special report on Top 100 Nonprofits and their Top 50 Nonprofits in Power and Influence.

  • NOZA:   This site offers free access to its database of foundation grants, for nonprofits searching for donors. There are over 825,000 foundation grant records at this site, with searches available by name or by cause; cause searches may be made by category, state, city, and donation amount. For a modest annual fee, more extensive searching is available.

  • Nonprofit Organizations (U.S. Small Business Association):   In addition to assisting small business, the U.S. Small Business Administration also assists nonprofit organizations. This site offers information on SBA's assistance to nonprofits, a nonprofit gateway, relevant regulations and SBA publications, contract and grant information, and outside resources. The SBA also acts as a guarantee for micro-loans to women, low income individuals, minority entrepreneurs, and other small businesses that need small amounts of financial assistance, with these loans provided via nonprofit organizations.

  • Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Non-Profit Organizations.

    Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

    The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

  • Seattle metro yellow pages.
    An excellent and easy to use source for local business information, this directory is also a link to resources often more valuable than web and print resources: people working in business and industry.
    Foster Business Library Reference Desk.

    The yellow pages lack listings for nonprofit organizations per se but they do include a long list of various kinds of nonprofit organizations, such as associations, charities, clubs, social service organizations, etc.

  • The foundation directory.
    This large directory, plus supplement, issued annually by the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive directory of the larger foundations in the United States, with listings for over 10,000 foundations with assets over $3 million or more than $200,000 in annual giving. Foundations in the directory comprise over 90% of all U.S. foundation assets, awarding more than $17 billion annually. Foundations are nongovernmental nonprofit organizations that make grants to other nonprofit organizations. The directory includes indexes to foundations by state, type of support, subject index, etc.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: AS911 .A2 F65 2004.

    See Washington state foundations on pages 2232 to 2271.

  • Puget Sound major employers directory pinpointer.
    Published by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, this unique reference work to companies in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties covers almost 1,900 major employers in the region (employers with more than 100 employees), pinpointing them by map location and providing company addresses, number of employees, telephone numbers, principal products or services, and four names of contact persons.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC107 .W22 .P864 2001/2003.

    See SIC index pages 24 to 25 in the back of the volume for listings of nonprofit social science organizations, amidst other nonprofits in health, etc. See also the list, on pages one to three, of the top 100 employers, ranked by number of employees, in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties; the list includes such nonprofits as the Port of Seattle, the University of Washington, a number of hospitals and health care organizations, cities and counties, schools, etc.

  • Puget Sound Business Journal book of lists.
    This annual publication is an invaluable source of information about public and private companies in the Puget Sound area, culled from lists that appeared weekly in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Besides lists of the largest and fastest growing public and private companies in the area, this reference work includes commercial real estate deals, banks and securities firms, contractors, education and employment, health care, title companies, marketing firms, nonprofits, professional services, executive compensation, real estate, retailers, software developers, biotech and travel and recreation. There is an index to companies and topics in the back of this volume.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC108 .S77 .P83 2005.

    See pages 92 to 95 for the largest nonprofits by annual revenue in this area.

  • The AMA management handbook.
    This thick one-volume handbook comprises 16 sections on important areas of management, written by expert practitioners.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD31 .A418 1994

    See Public Sector and Nonprofit Management on pages 16-1 to 16-46.

  • The Prentice Hall encyclopedia of model business plans.
    This paperback encyclopedia includes an overview of the business plan process, over sixty model business plans and guides to sources of information. Business plan examples include plans for retailers, small service firms, small manufacturers, home-based enterprises, research organizations, educational institutions, franchises, nonprofits, and importers/exporters.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD30.28 .C76 1998.

    See Plans for Nonprofit Ventures on pages 209 to 224 for parts of six very brief model nonprofit plans (but no financials).

  • The business plans handbook.
    This multi-volume set is a compilation of over 200 actual business plans developed by entrepreneurs seeking small business funding. See the cumulative index in the latest volume to locate business plans by type of business.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD62.7 B865.

    The only nonprofits included in this set are for two nonprofit restaurants, in volumes one and two.

  • Encyclopedia of small business.
    This two-volume set covers over 500 small business topics, arranged alphabetically by topic.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD62.7 .H553 1998.

    See Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Organizations and Human Resources Management, and Nonprofit Organizations and Taxes in volume two, pages 679 to 690.

  • The directory of management consultants.
    This annual very comprehensive directory of U.S. consulting firms includes company profiles and indexes to consulting firms by services, by industry, and by geography.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD69 .C6 .D55 2000.

    See index pages 738 to 739 for firms that consult with nonprofit organizations, including about half a dozen in Washington state.

  • Nonprofit almanac: dimensions of the Independent Sector.
    National trends and statistics on wages, finances, employment, giving patterns, and data on all major classifications of nonprofit organizations, in an outdated reference work.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2769.2 .U6 .D55 1996/97.

    See table 5.8 on page 253 for data on nonprofit organizations in Washington state.

  • Encyclopedia of business ethics and society.
    This five-volume reference work includes 900 essays by scholars, arranged alphabetically by topic, on all aspects of business ethics.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .E53 2008.

    See Nonprofits in volume three, on pages 1512 to 1517.

  • Wiley not-for-profit GAAP.
    This annual publication provides information for the interpretation and application of generally accepting accounting principles for not-for-profit organizations, with many examples and illustrations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5686 .N56 .W55 2005.

    Foster Business Library Reference Accounting Collection:

    Foster Business Library Books:

    The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

    To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

    If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

    The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

    A keyword search for Nonprofit, limited to the location Foster Business Library, produced a list of over 180 records, including:

    The subject heading for this topic is Nonprofit Organizations, with nearly 1,000 records in the UW Libraries, with over 170 records in the Foster Business Library, including many of the titles listed above, plus:

    Another way to identify appropriate books in the Foster Business Library general stacks is to browse by call number. The applicable call numbers for nonprofits include:

    Foster Business Library Articles:

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    For example, a search in this database for the "Nonprofit Industry" produced a list of over 230 articles.

    A subject search in this database for SUB(Nonprofit Organizations), on the other hand, produced a list of over 49,000 articles, including over 3,000 in scholarly journals, over 5,000 magazine articles, over 19,000 articles in trade and industry journals, and over 20,000 newspaper articles. A publication search for the term Nonprofit produced a list of two dozen periodicals with that word in the title (with only three, however, that offered full text).

    Some examples include:

    A topic search for Nonprofit Organizations produced the same 49,000 articles as well as every topic associated with this topic. Help:


    Last modified: Monday June 09, 2008 (murata)