FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Catherine Drew (212) 807-2492 Foundation Center Issues New Release of FC Search Enormous Volume of Current and Expanded Data! March 15, 2002, New York, NY —The Foundation Center, the nation's foremost authority on foundation and corporate giving, will release in late March the new edition of FC Search: The Foundation Center's Database on CD-ROM, Version 6.0. This expanded version presents updated information on the Center's database of over 65,000 foundations, corporate givers, and grantmaking public charities. FC Search also includes close to 203,000 grant records, plus the names of close to 290,000 trustees, officers, and donors, with updates on their foundation affiliations. Also featured in Version 6.0 are in-depth program descriptions for more than 1,100 major grantmakers and enhanced application guidelines for over 6,700 funders. FC Search is both a sophisticated and user-friendly funding research tool. It is designed for use by grantseekers and other nonprofit researchers at all levels of experience - from seasoned prospect researchers to those who may have little or no electronic searching experience. Joyce Infante, Vice President for Marketing and Product Development for the Foundation Center commented that "FC Search is a unique product. It is the only comprehensive CD-ROM in the field of private grantmaking, and it is the only one that quickly links grantmakers to their associated grants...all on one disk." Current users include grantseekers, grantmakers, journalists, consultants, and nonprofit researchers across the United States as well as in over 20 other countries. Thousands of New Grantmakers and Newly Reported Grants According to Senior Database Editor, Margie Feczko, "Since FC Search, Version 5.0 was released in Spring 2001, a majority of the entries in the Grantmaker file have been updated, and over 9,800 new grantmaker profiles have been added." This file now comprises over 65,000 profiles of independent, community, and company-sponsored foundations; corporate giving programs and grantmaking public charities. Included are new contact names and application addresses, financial data, giving interests, application guidelines, the names of key trustees, and more. The Grants file in FC Search now features close to 203,000 grant records. Ms. Feczko explained that more than 88,000 grants are newly reported grants that have been added since the Spring 2001 release. This updated grants archive, with grants of $10,000 or more that were awarded between 1998 and 2001, helps researchers to track their prospects' emerging interests as well as their historical giving patterns. Links to Thousands of Grantmaker and Corporate Web Sites FC Search provides direct links to related Web sites for users with access to the Internet. Over 2,400 grantmakers in the Foundation Center's database now have Internet addresses included in their records. Visiting these grantmaker Web sites will provide users with additional facts and even greater currency of information on the funders' activities. Version 6.0 includes additional links to the company Web sites of over 1,500 corporations that sponsor foundations or giving programs. Users can also link to an FC Search subscribers-only Web page with value-added links. Time-Saving Benefits FC Search's powerful, flexible search capabilities, based on 21 search criteria, including full text searching, dramatically reduce the amount of time required to: research the policies of specific funders, develop lists of prospective funders, discover the foundation affiliations of prominent individuals, and view newly reported grants in one or more fields. FC Search contains many features specifically designed to aid users in organizing and recording the information obtained in their funding research. Users can create tailored lists of funding prospects by marking records in FC Search. These marked record lists can be stored for use in future sessions, as can commonly used search strategies. Researchers can use a wide range of flexible printing and saving options as well as the searchable Notepad function that allows information to be added to individual records. Free Update Disk in Fall 2002 All FC Search, Version 6.0, licensees will automatically receive an Update disk in fall 2002. The disk will contain the full FC Search database and will reflect the most current information collected during the year by the Center's editorial researchers on foundations, corporate givers, public charities, and newly reported grant awards. This updated information will prove a major asset to researchers as they prepare their fourth-quarter 2002 and early 2003 proposals. System Requirements and Order Information The recommended system configurations for FC Search, Version 6.0, are Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows '98, Windows '95, or Windows NT on a Windows-based PC, with a minimum 64 MB of memory and a Pentium microprocessor. Internet access and either Netscape's Navigator or Communicator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser are required to access Web sites. FC Search is licensed to users at $1,195 for a stand-alone (single-user) version. The local area network version (2-8 users in one building) is priced at $1,895. Orders are now being accepted. Larger local area networks and wide area network versions are also available. Prices include the March release of Version 6.0, the Update disk in fall 2002, and one User Manual. To order, or for more information, inquirers may call the FC Search Hotline at 1-800-478-4661 or visit the Center's site on the World Wide Web: www.foundationcenter.org/marketplace. FC Search is also available for use by the public, free of charge, at the Foundation Center's libraries in New York, NY; Washington, D.C.; Cleveland, OH; San Francisco, CA; and Atlanta, GA; as well as at the Center's 200+ Cooperating Collections across the country. The Foundation Center is the nation's premier source of information on foundation and corporate giving. The Center's mission is to support and improve institutional philanthropy by promoting public understanding of the field and helping grantseekers succeed. To achieve this mission, the Center collects, organizes, and communicates information on U.S. philanthropy; conducts and facilitates research on trends in the field; provides education and training; and ensures public access to information and services through a Web site and a network of libraries. Founded in 1956, the Center is dedicated to serving grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policy-makers, the media, and the general public. Return to Press Releases