What's NTEE number all about

The National Taxonomy of Exempt Identities is an attempt by the IRS to classify foundations by their interests. It provides a categorization system that begins with 10 broad categories and then drills down to flag more specific sub-categories.

What's the difference between a public foundation and a private foundation?

Public Foundation: A foundation which runs on gifts from the general public at large. It is frequently set up to support a specific, named cause and only gives to that cause Private Foundation: A foundation that has been set up by a single entity such as an individual, a family or a corporation. The income normally comes from a single source.

Does the term nonoperating mean that they aren't currently giving money?

No, A nonoperating foundation is simply one that does not directly operate any charitable service or activity, but prefers to disburse funds so that other organizations may do so.

How much money does a foundation have to give away each year?

The IRS rules state that the foundation is required to distribute approximately 5% of the average fair market value of its assets each year. Qualifying distributions meeting this requirement include grants and certain operating expenses.

What's the difference between Foundation Search and Big Online?

FoundationSearch is used primarily for prospecting potential foundations, whereas BIG Online is more suitable for researching corporations and government programs. You are also able to use BIG Online for cross border funding, i.e. in the US or Canada, and BIG Online also has the writing resources.

Home > Assistance > FAQs

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

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We update the foundation profiles whenever we receive a new 990PF for that foundation.

Under normal circumstances, a foundation must submit a 990PF or 990 to the IRS once per year. Foundations have 5 months to file the final return after close of their fiscal year, and then can apply for additional extensions, so this can mean that many months may go by before it’s submitted to the IRS. The IRS then needs to process the return, and convert it to a digital format, after which it is made publicly available.

The IRS supplies us with that tax form and we post it to our database as soon as we receive it, formatted so that it is keyword searchable. Once it is up online and available to our clients, it is sent to our data entry team to enter the grants. There can be a delay at this stage that affects the listing and charting of grants, due to the amount of content on the form and the number of such forms we have received. However, since the 990PF is searchable, the data is available to members in its raw format.
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We update our foundation profiles based on the tax form, but addresses, deadlines, board members and granting officers are subject to change without notice and need to be verified at the time you are making contact with the organization.

Check these things before you write to the foundation, because otherwise, you risk getting them wrong.
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There are a number of reasons why a foundation is not listed in the database.
- They might not have an EIN number and be registered as a charity by the IRS. They can still call themselves a foundation.
- They might be listed as a church, in which case they are not required to disclose their information in a 990PF.
- They could have assets of less than $50,000.00 in which case they are not required to submit a 990PF or 990 tax form (instead, they file a 990N, or e-postcard).
- They could be a public charity. (We list only a select number of public charities that are also granting organizations.)
- They might have submitted their final tax form to the IRS prior to closing their doors.
- They might be acting as a donor advised fund through a bank or community foundation to save themselves the administration costs and headaches.
Answer

The National Taxonomy of Exempt Identities is an attempt by the IRS to classify foundations by their interests. It provides a categorization system that begins with 10 broad categories and then drills down to flag more specific sub-categories. You can see the categories here:

National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities - Core Codes (NTEE-CC) Classification System
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The increasing need for charitable dollars has forced some foundations to look more closely at where they grant money, and some have used this strategy to make grant seekers take more responsibility for ensuring that their need is within the purview of the foundation. It does not mean that the foundation is not giving money. It just means that they won’t accept an unsolicited request. The onus is on the grant seeker to make their cause known to the foundation in such a way that they will be invited to apply.

NB. In FoundationSearch there is a very easy way to see if a foundation is giving to new applicants, or only to the favored few that always receive their grants.
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On every tax form you will find two sets of assets, they are the Ledger Value and the Fair Market Value.
- Ledger Value: The book value of an asset equals the price that you paid minus any depreciation in value of the asset. The Ledger value either stays the same or falls.
- Fair Market Value: Markets rise and fall depending on several factors that have nothing to do with the book value of your asset. The value can increase or decrease, depending on market prices after you buy the asset.
The IRS reports the Ledger Value of the foundation’s assets for the purposes of determining assets, so that is the value we include on our foundation profiles.
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Public Foundation: A foundation which runs on gifts from the general public at large. It is frequently set up to support a specific, named cause and only gives to that cause

Private Foundation: A foundation that has been set up by a single entity such as an individual, a family or a corporation. The income normally comes from a single source.
Answer

To add another user you must have administrative privileges for your account. If you have those, log in with your username, go to Account Management on the User Dashboard and choose Power Users: Manage Account. The page you reach allows you to Edit or Delete current users, Add New Members and to change your password.

**Please note that your member ID and Password are case sensitive and should contain only alphanumeric characters**