I started my prospect research career in a small shop as the first prospect researcher the organization hired.  In that role I implemented the organization’s prospect research program using mainly free resources as we had a very small budget.  Having a small budget meant spending time and using creativity to find free prospect research sources that would provide me with the information I needed.  While it is wonderful to subscribe to some of the prospect research and fundraising tools available, it is definitely possible to compile a great deal of information using free resources.  Here are a few of my favourites:

1. The System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR): Provides access to most public securities documents and information filed by issuers with the Canadian Securities Administrators across the country’s 13 provinces and territories. Some examples of information that can be found on SEDAR include salary and bonus information, stock and stock option information and brief biographies for the Officers and Directors of the company. EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, is the American equivalent of SEDAR.
2. Online Property Assessments: These sites provide the current and recent values of a particular property.  Living in Manitoba my two favourites are the Winnipeg Assessment site and the Manitoba Municipal Government property search for rural properties, however there are many other Canadian and American town and city sites that can be found online.
3. Canadian Company Capabilities: Provides information for many Canadian companies including the key company contacts, year established, total sales, export sales, number of employees and more.

I hope that you find these sites as informative as I do.  These are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my favourite free prospect research resources.  Stay tuned for more!