Metasoft - About Us

Since 1995, Metasoft has helped more than 10,000 non-profit and charitable organizations throughout North America raise over $1 billion in funding. We listen closely and take pride in our commitment to clients. Here is what they have to say.

Katy Quigley
Director of Grants
The Jesuits of the New Orleans Province

"We're very happy with FoundationSearch. We started our membership just before Hurricane Katrina, and I don't know what we would have done without it—it helped us raise $7.5 million to assist in the rebuilding efforts of several member agencies. It was also a great help that we were able to access the membership from any computer, because after Katrina flooded our offices we had to work from our evacuation locations for months—family members' homes, public terminals and other locations. I'm always telling other organizations that they need FoundationSearch—there is simply no comparison with other resources."

Becky Pettengill
Foundation Relations Officer
University of Michigan-Flint

"I love the reports I am able to create in ‘My Reports’ on FoundationSearch. My manager was quite impressed with what I was able to generate after only one review of the training tutorial on the site. Even though the site is intuitive to use, the tutorial showed me how to take the information to a higher level of analysis and create a concise, comprehensive list of prospective funding sources!"

Rabbi Dan R.
Director of Development
Yeshivah of Flatbush

"We rely on FoundationSearch on nearly a daily basis. We tried other databases, but are pleased to have chosen the user-friendly and comprehensive FoundationSearch. The ability to easily search through documents and foundations is indispensible to our fundraising efforts. It's affordable and paid for itself in a matter of weeks. No brainer!"

Davis L. Goodman, Ph.D.
President
Harvester's International Mission

"I have found Metasoft, Bigdatabase, and FoundationSearch to be excellent sources for information to help raise funds for non-profit organizations. My experience has been very good in reference to finding the information needed. The people are great! They are eager to serve you and it is a joy to call and be able to talk to a live person. There is a lot of stuff available to the fund seeker who wants information that will help them find the foundation that would be interested in their need, produce the best proposals, write the best letters and support for other fund raising needs they may have. It doesn't get any better than this when it comes to fundraising. Whether you are a novice or experienced fund raiser, you will find the folks at Metasoft, Bigdatabase and FoundationSearch ready to serve you. Just give them a call!"

Kathleen Warren, Ph.D.
Director, Foundation Relations
WSU Foundation

"Washington State University has switched to FoundationSearch, and we love it. It provides excellent analysis capabilities especially for funding patterns, sortable by geographic region, grant size, category (i.e. can be filtered just for grants to universities and colleges, or just for health grants, etc.), which enables us to make predictions on likelihood of funding, contact previous grantees, assess our success against competing organizations, etc. It also includes BIG Online, which is a database of top grant making corporations, and most recently it is beta testing a global search tool. Individuals from our large institution are buying their own IDs and passwords to give each unit search capabilities, alleviating the pressure on our central team to analyze their requests or provide additional lists. Both online and phone help is easily accessed, online courses are available at reasonable fees (I haven't tried these yet, but will be doing one soon), the database of news articles and searchable 990's (archived as well as current) is comprehensive and easy to use. You can print profiles for clients, but they also have links to the Websites, which are always where one has to go ultimately anyway to assess current priorities and RFP regulations. Within the FoundationSearch profiles, however, there is a quick link to the stated 'limitations' of the organization, so that you don't have to search through the Website for those and can avoid making elaborate plans to submit only to find out too late that the organization has limits that disqualify you."

Cindy Block
Director of Prospect Research
National Audubon Society

"FoundationSearch is a unique and user friendly resource. One of their more remarkable attributes is their customer service which we find to be extremely responsive and helpful. I think the amount and type of information they provide in their foundation profiles is outstanding, especially the foundation news which is a huge time saver. I have also found their grant analyzer tool helpful, especially when searching for grants made to specific organizations. I haven’t seen another product out there that does what they do."

Kim Nesvig
CHRISTUS Health Foundation

"Our non-profit health care system began its grants development initiative two years ago to support our facilities in several states, as well as system wide efforts to address the needs of vulnerable populations. BIG Online and FoundationSearch provide one obvious advantage which is the huge and highly accessible database on America’s charitable foundations. The web access provides excellent graphic and text-based intuitive interfaces that allow fast and easy prospect searches. FoundationSearch quickly identifies those foundations with funding preferences and geographic focus consistent with our needs. I highly recommend this as a resource to both the novice and the experienced non-profit fund raiser."

Marie Beichert
Development Service
CFRE
http://www.granthelper.com

"I switched to Metasoft's FoundationSearch & BIG Online a few months ago. I'm delighted. The search capabilities and drill down are great, and their features are clean and easy to print and file. I especially like their download to Excel feature. BIG Online is great for corporate search. They seem to be very busy making improvements and updating their files. Tech support is immediate."

Daniel A. DiDonato, FAHP
VP, Development
Shepherds Ministries

"The staff and volunteers that I have working with the FoundationSearch software have found this resource to be the most comprehensive they have used to date. Searches and navigations using this online software are easy to learn and use. We have successfully added a significant number of new foundations to our prospect list as well as deleted others that we found were not viable as a result of the information found through using the software. We are planning a major 50th Anniversary campaign and are thankful that we have this valuable resource to assist us in making our grant proposal activities efficient and effective. In addition, Metasoft has provided valuable training to those on my staff using the software and provides excellent customer service as well as regular follow up to assist us in the most effective use of FoundationSearch software. We would highly recommend FoundationSearch as a most valuable and cost effective resource in expanding the foundation research and grant proposal function of a fund development program."

Tim Halpern
Managing Partner
Comprehensive Prospect Research
http://www.prospectresearch.org

"FoundationSearch has fundamentally changed one critical aspect of strategic fundraising: new prospect identification. Specifically, the firm’s use of OCR and other, related technologies has enabled end users to get past one problem that haunts most non-profits: effective lead generation. FoundationSearch’s full text coverage of multiple years of 990 returns is impressive; and its intense use of Boolean logic resoundingly beats the competition. And one need not be a technical specialist to use the product to its full advantage. In short, no serious fundraising operation can afford to be without the product. If you’re not using this product effectively, the probability is high that your organization is over soliciting “the same old prospects."

Cara Rosson
Prospect Research Analyst
Bradley University

"I am pretty enamored of the product. The variety of ways that you can search for information is my favorite aspect. You can search by state, by amounts, by interest, for your organization specifically. The ways to drill down into the specific information are also great. The profiles they provide for each foundation are about as comprehensive as I've seen. The information is, on the whole, very current. Their customer service was great too. I certainly like it better than what we used before. There is a great deal more information in FoundationSearch's profiles"

Laura Olague
Executive Director
Children's Grief Center of El Paso

"I want to thank you for introducing the Children’s Grief Center to your FoundationSearch and BIG Online software. We have increased our foundation support by 35% this year and that makes our purchase a worthy investment in our organization’s future. Without a doubt it was an excellent choice."

Linda M. Frisch
Director of Grants & Major Gifts
Carroll Hospital Center Foundation

"FoundationSearch is the most comprehensive and user friendly tool that I have used to research grant prospects. I especially like the capability to export lists of prospects and non-profits who have received funding from a particular foundation. The searchable 990 is helpful to identify Trustees, application specifics and recent recipients of funds. The FoundationSearch links will take you directly on the page of the 990. Very time effective. I have also used the upcoming grant deadline link which is also extremely beneficial. I would highly recommend FoundationSearch to the beginning grant writer as well as the most experienced."

Michael S. Campbell
Director, Grants Department
Edison Schools
http://www.edisonschools.com

"FoundationSearch has been an invaluable funding research tool for us at Edison Schools. From day one, Metasoft has provided our Grants Staff with hours of extra training and support, guiding us through complex searches. This is our main resource for seeking the best funders for our 100+ schools across the United States and abroad."

Tracey Martin
Director of Development
Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York

"I use FoundationSearch a lot and have found it a useful tool. Fortunately, the first grant we applied for that we found on the software more than made up for the price we paid. FoundationSearch is very flexible, easy to use, and produces detailed information that has been very helpful in locating and applying for new funds."

Richard Weitzel
Director of Development
Teen Challenge Training Center, Inc.

"I would like to report that our organization has obtained a grant for $20,000 in the latter part of 2006 for computer network system upgrading through utilizing the FoundationSearch website resources. We are especially pleased at this because obtaining funding for infrastructure and operations is generally more difficult to obtain. We recommend FoundationSearch as a viable grant search resource to other non-profit organizations."

Clive Pedley
Advancement Officer
Auckland University of Technology

"FoundationSearch has been an invaluable tool in our team learning about the opportunities and avenues to approach US Foundations for funding of world class research at AUT University in New Zealand. The system has been easy to use and the initial training and advice from Customer Support has been very helpful. We are looking forward to capitalising on this initial progress and making great gains for our researchers and academic leaders in conjunction with foundation partners in the future."

Cheryl Fulton
Executive Director
Camden House

"Camden House has benefited greatly from the FoundationSearch and related services. We are a small non-profit in a rural area with limited resources. This product allows us to reach out into the world to broaden our financial base. Our community is not industry oriented so this software helps us find the foundations that may help our mission. We have been in business for 18 years as a domestic violence agency now we can expand to help homeless women and children in our community. Foundation Search brings the world to us. Thank you for helping us to reach our goals."

Steve Keck
Director of Development
Tennessee Temple University

"Grant writing and grant research is, at best, a difficult endeavor. Three years ago, new to development, learning this critical ‘slice’ of development was daunting. My first call to FoundationSearch, however, proved to be an enjoyable experience. After admitting my inexperience, they led me through an online tutorial, answered numerous questions, and have since been more than helpful with my staff’s research, training and technical questions. I have recommended FoundationSearch to other non-profits in our area and will continue to do so. They are an essential part of my development office."

Suzanne Fleming
Registered Dietician
Memorial Hospital
KS

"Our hospital recently purchased FoundationSearch and BIG Online, and we are very pleased not only with what the sites allow us to accomplish, but also the customer service. The staff are very friendly and willing to help, and I've always had a 'real live person' answer the phone. FoundationSearch is allowing us to simplify the research in our quest for grant funds, saving us many hours of labor."

Pamela Gignac
JMG Solutions

"As a fundraiser and a prospect researcher for over 15 years, I have found that BIG Online takes you to the next level of research and enables me to focus on fine-tuning the details they provide and get out there to fundraise. BIG remains true to their commitment of boiling down information for you into a profile format and the links to other sources of information on the internet are great!! I highly recommend adding BIG Online to anyone's repertoire of research sources."

Maria Machado
Executive Director
Shared Housing Center

"I must admit that at first I was hesitant about the investment, but I know it was the right decision. It has made that part of my work responsibility so much easier. FoundationSearch offers so many “easy” ways to use the database that you really don’t have to bother the support team. But when you do complicate the research, the staff is there to support you and your needs. We have raised over $50,000 in new Foundation money and now with the new management component – I know we can do more (I won’t have to keep looking for the post-it notes I scribbled on!). I rave all the time about FoundationSearch to my Board and colleagues."

Maria Semple
Principal
The Prospect Finder, LLC
http://www.TheProspectFinder.com

"I have found FoundationSearch to be very comprehensive in locating funders. Nonprofits of all sizes can benefit from their easy-to-use search features, export capabilities and their Foundation Manager. They also make it easy to locate newly established foundations so you can find your community's newest philanthropists. Their money back guarantee enables even the smallest of nonprofits to give them a try."