Research Guide Nonprofit | Sunlight Research

Bing Visual Search

Description:

Use Bing Visual Search to search the internet using images instead of words. Using this tool, you can find similar images, products, and pages that include an image.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.bing.com/images/

Ferretly

Description:

Ferretly is a paid research tool that aggregates social media activity from an individual’s accounts on different platforms.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.ferretly.com/

Findmypast

Description:

FindMyPast is a genealogy website that collects certain archival records. Using its advanced World search, researchers can collect information on an individual, their family or their connections by name, location and types of records. In addition to birth/death and family history records, FindMyPast has some historical professional and educational records archived.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records-in-education-and-work/and_schools-and-education

Google Advanced Search

Description:

Google Advanced Search uses Boolean operators, which allow you to search by including, excluding or combining exact words or phrases. Google Advanced Search also allows you to narrow results by language, file type, domain and other variables. Check out Sunlight’s Advanced Internet Search Tip Sheet to learn how to find exactly what you’re looking for on the internet. It includes a comprehensive list of basic and advanced search operators, search tips and strategies, and more.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.google.com/advanced_search

Google Dataset Search

Description:

Google Dataset Search is a search engine for datasets. You can use a simple keyword search to discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the internet. For instance, a search for ‘politicians’ will return databases including Work With Data’s Politicians from the United States list and GESIS’ extracted Politician data from Wikipedia and DBPedia.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://datasetsearch.research.google.com/

https://blog.google/products/search/discovering-millions-datasets-web/

Google Fact Checking

Description:

Google Fact Check Explorer combines the work of fact checkers, journalists and researchers by aggregating fact checking and misinformation reporting from outlets and agencies around the world. You can search by topic or by people connected to a fact- checked issue. You can also upload photos in the “search fact checks” bar to see fact checks related to an image and when it first appeared online.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://toolbox.google.com/factcheck/explorer/search/list:recent;hl=en

Google Image Search

Description:

Google Image Search allows users to search for images by keyword or any of Google’s advanced search parameters. It also allows for reverse image searches using images and links.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://images.google.com/

Google Scholar

Description:

Google Scholar is an academic journal and patent search engine. It provides a comprehensive search of scholarly journals, databases, preprint servers and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) archives.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://scholar.google.com/

IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search

Description:

The IRS Tax-Exempt Organization search is an official repository of nonprofits records, including determination letters and Form 990s (annual reports). The database is searchable by organization name, tax identification number, location and other fields.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Nonprofits, Associated People

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search

Personal Financial Disclosures

Description:

Most candidates for and members of elected office are required to submit personal financial disclosures. The U.S. Senate and House each maintain a database of financial disclosures, which include both annual financial disclosures and periodic transaction reports. Annual disclosures present a somewhat comprehensive but imprecise summary of a candidate’s assets and liabilities, while periodic transaction reports disclose transactions in publicly traded securities. Candidates who have previously served in the executive branch may have filed annual financial disclosures, periodic transaction reports and documents related to potential conflicts of interest with the Office of Government Ethics. Candidates who have held state-level elected office will have filed financial disclosures with their state-level election authority, often the secretary of state. The level of detail in these reports will vary from state to state. These disclosures can be used to verify information against other public records, identify potentially omitted assets or debts, and provide additional details on a candidate’s or member’s finances. They may also reveal financial transactions, spousal assets and income, gifts and business interests that could identify potential business partners or associates.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Personal Finances, Nonprofits, Associated People

https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/

https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/FinancialDisclosure

https://www.whitehouse.gov/disclosures/financial-disclosures/

https://ethics.house.gov/sites/ethics.house.gov/files/documents/Updated%20Final%20Combined%202023%20Instruction%20Guide.pdf

https://www.ethics.senate.gov/downloads/pdffiles/fdinstruct11.pdf

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer

Description:

The ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer provides access to many of the same records as the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search, but it also offers a full-text search across IRS Form 990s. Use it to search for nonprofits in which a specific person has served as an officer, director or key employee or contractor. You can also use it to find organizations that received grants from nonprofits and individuals who made significant contributions to private foundations. The ProPublica database sometimes has copies of Form 990s that are not in the IRS database. Additionally, you can use it to identify individuals who have participated in the same nonprofits as the individual in question, along with addresses and other details associated with them.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Nonprofits, Associated People

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/

ProPublica: Tracking PPP

Description:

This ProPublica search tool collects and presents information concerning businesses that applied to and received monetary relief from the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program, otherwise known as PPP loans. This also provides information concerning how much was paid out and how much of the loans are outstanding, have been paid down or have been forgiven.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Nonprofits, Personal Finances, Associated People

https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/

Public Records Requests

Description:

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Associated People, Political History, Background and Family, Personal Finances, Nonprofits

This is an offline resource.

Secretary of State Business Searches

Description:

The first link leads to a list of all secretary of state business searches. The others link to business searches in Delaware, Florida, Nevada and Texas, where many businesses from other states register because of business-friendly laws and other factors.

Resource Type:

State and Local Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Nonprofits, Associated People

https://www.e-secretaryofstate.com/

https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/Ecorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx

https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/search/

https://esos.nv.gov/EntitySearch/OnlineEntitySearch

https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/

TinEye

Description:

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. When uploading an image, you can find out where it came from, how it’s being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there are higher resolution versions.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://tineye.com/

Valital

Description:

Valital is a paid resource that searches publicly available information. Using it, you can extract, filter and analyze online media on people and organizations you’re researching. It creates a well-organized clip search that makes it easy to know where to start with your research.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.valital.com/

Yahoo Image Search

Description:

Use Yahoo Image Search to find visuals such as photos, vectors, screenshots and icons.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://images.search.yahoo.com/

Yandex

Description:

Yandex is a suite of internet search tools hosted by Yandex, LLC, a Russian technology company. This site indexes networks and pages on the internet outside of the West and is useful when searching for information about individuals in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://yandex.com/