While there are a ton of subscription based prospect research resources out there there are also a lot of free ones.  While I religiously subscribe to some – Blackbaud’s NOZA and Imagine Canada’s Grant Connect to name a couple – it is also imperative to use a good selection of free resources when conducting prospect research.  Not from only a budget standpoint but to make sure you are getting as much useful information as possible.  I have provided a few of my favourite free Canadian resources in the past but here are a few of my favourite ones from south of the border:

1. sec.gov – U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Provides information for stock holding for publicly traded companies in the United States.
2. Property Assessors: Can be found for most counties and states, although they differ in their search accessibility.  As a number of our prospects from Canada are snowbirds I spend a lot of time on the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office, Miami-Dade Property Assessor, and Palm Beach County Property Appraiser
3. fec.gov – Federal Election Commission: The contributor search includes contributions made by individuals, Native American tribes, partnerships, sole proprietorships, limited liability companies (LLCs) and contributions by the candidate to all political committees including Independent Expenditure-Only Political Committees (Super PACs) and Political Committees with Non-Contribution Accounts (Hybrid PACs). The Search results also include refunds to these contributors.
4. campaignmoney.com: Allows you to search for contributions by individual and by their employers.
5. Bonus tip: Not free if you don’t have the subscription, but if you already subscribe to Blackbaud’s NOZA for Canadian giving information, you also receive Foundation information for the United States free of charge.

I hope that you find these sites as informative as I do.  As with the Canadian sites, there are many more free American sources that I use regularly.  Watch this blog for more!