Welcome to the Access Philanthropy

assistance presentation

We are here to walk you through the steps to search the

database and offer some hints on how to make it easier.

Just click through this presentation and we will show you

how to sign in, how to search, how to narrow a search and

how to broaden it to get every piece of information that the

Access Philanthropy database has for you.

Ready? Just click the mouse and let’s go!

http://accessphilanthropy.com

Click here to go to the

Sign-In Page

Sign In Page

Sign In here.Your password is

case-sensitive.

Now you have two options1. You can create an account by filling in the data on the form that is pictured on the left

2. You can click the “Back” button and go to a webpage that has already been set up for your organization

Make your choice and you are in the database

The database contains around 2,000 funders with the following information (when it is available) for each Name, Contact Info and Overview Application Process and Deadline Giving Interests and Types of Support Offered Geographic and Population Interests Total Assets, Grant History, Average Grant & Sample

Grant Info Related Corporate Info, if applicable Trustees Political Leanings and Funding Restrictions, if applicable Honors, Recognitions, Memberships

There are three ways to search the databases depending upon the result you are looking for

Basic Search—a good way to get started and of use when you have just a few general terms that you want to search

Advanced Search—good to use to narrow a very broad search or to search multiple terms at the same time

Sample Grant Search—if you want to by-pass their criteria of what they say they will do and go right to what they actually do, search our database of sample grants made.

Basic Search

This search will find matches in the following fields: Name and Address Overview Takeaway Notes Geographic Interests Special Population

Interests Political Leanings Trustees

Basic Search This search will automatically search for

all words that begin with the letters you enter.

For example: Typing Rees to search for the Sheldon Rees Foundation generates these results:

McKesson Foundation, with Trustee Nigel Rees Sheldon Reese Foundation Research Corporation: Overview – “reestablish”

Basic Search—Limitation

You must enter at least four characters to get a result and they must be four characters that appear together somewhere in the database. Searching for MN for all foundations based in

Minnesota will not yield results. Searching Minnesota will not find them either, since

the state in the address is not spelled out. If this is all you know you may want to use the

Advanced Search option.

Boolean Operator Terms All the search fields can use Boolean Operator Terms to

expand or narrow your search. OR can be used to search for two or more terms. Searching

Sheldon OR Reese will find all records with either one of these terms – In this case, 6 results

AND can be used to narrow your search. Searching Sheldon AND Reese will find only the records with both of these terms – In this case, 1 result

NOT will also narrow your search. Searching Rees NOT Reese will exclude the Sheldon Reese Foundation – In this case, 2 results

Parenthesis ( ) around each item is a trick that will help you keep your thinking straight if you want to use multiple terms in your search

Advanced Search You can search using multiple criteria.

For example: Search by State, by Interests and by Online Application

Use the Pop-Up boxes listed on the right to choose the correct search terms. Each box lists the items that are found in the database.

Things to Know About

Interest Area Search The database has over 800 unique interest

areas. There is usually a broad term (Agriculture) followed by specific areas (Agriculture, Biodiversity). Searching by the broad term will only generate

results in that category. Agriculture = 27 results Agriculture, Biodiversity = 3 results – none of which

were found under the Agriculture search

USE THE POP-UP BOX AND SEARCH ALL APPLICABLE INTEREST AREAS.

Things to Know About

Geographic Area Search This will search the states in which the funder has

donated. Some larger metro areas, such as Chicago, and regions, such as New England, are also used. You can also search by the number of states in which the funder gives.

Use the Pop-Up Box to find the correct terms. This field corresponds with the “Gives in these

states” area on the record. Funders may also have geographic giving interests.

These are noted in the “Geographic Interests” field of the records. This field cannot be search.

Sample Grant Report Search

Each of the funder pages has a list of sample grants

Use this to judge a funders actual history of giving

Sample grants are just a few examples, not an exhaustive list for each funder.

There are thousands of recipient organizations listed. Use Boolean Operator Terms to narrow your search or search the Interest Area field instead

Need more help?Contact Us

Steve Paprocki, Managing Partner 612-436-9191

steve@accessphilanthropy.com 2600 East Franklin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55406