This list of resources is designed to help you help your community. If you can think of any other resources you are familar with, or types of resources you’d like to learn about, please, let me know. Be careful though… consuming too many resources can turn you into a resource.

Charity & Philanthropy

• The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance is an excellent tool for evaluating if a charity is fiscally responsible – just search for them to find out their rating.
• Guidestar contains public financial documents for all registered charities. This includes everything from how much money they bring in and how much they grant out, to how much they pay their CEO, and who is on their Board of Directors/Trustees.
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy will help you stay ontop of the latest news in the philanthropic sector.

Volunteering

• Idealist is one of the best known and most widely utilized websites for finding volunteer opportunities and jobs in the nonprofit sector.
• The Taproot Foundation connects professionals who are interested in donating their time to pro-bono projects in the nonprofit sector with nonprofit organizations and other professionals to work on collaborative, high-impact projects.

Ethical Business & Entrepreneurship

• B Labs is the place to go if you are looking to launch a socially-minded business (or if you already have one and would like to be certified). They are leading the way in redefining what it means to be a successful business – not just one that makes a profit, but also one that has a positive social impact.
• Be Social Change is a New York City network of people looking to build purpose-driven careers, with a strong focus on ethical business and entrepreneurship. If you’re ever in NYC and looking to network with other social enterprise professionals, their events are a great place to start.

Facts & Statistics

• Snopes is an excellent resource for when you see some crazy fact, story, or rumor on the internet and want to check if it is true. Fast & easy.
• Pew Research Center is excellent if you’re looking for hard statistics on social trends, politics, and public opinion. They’ve got everything from how many internet users report experiencing harassment, to what percentage of Catholics voted Democratic in the last election, and everything in between.
• Google Scholar is a great, easy-to-use resource for finding scholarly articles for when you really mean business. And by business, I mean information.