Skip to Main Content

Business: Companies and nonprofits

Researching companies and nonprofits

Navigate to strategies and resources that fit your need:

Not sure which database to choose? While the databases are organized based on the type of content or data you might need, you should also read each database's description to learn more about its focus each focus. You can also browse the following tutorial to find suggested databases based on the type of company you are researching.

Essential company research databases

These databases are the most comprehensive for company research.

Find company news

Try these resources in addition to the company's website, social media, and the essential business research databases.

Find financials, transactions, shares, and funding information

Most of the essential business databases also provide financials on public companies, but these resources specialize in certain financial data and transactions. Some cover nonprofit organizations and private companies, too.

Find more information on creating, finding, or analyzing financial statements on the Accounting research guide.

Find earnings call transcripts and corporate communications

Research local/regional businesses or retail locations

When you need details on local businesses or specific business locations (e.g., a specific Sprouts store) of a larger entity.

Research nonprofit organizations

Company research strategies

Before using databases, gather basic details on the company with a general search engine like Google. Example: search results in Bing for the grocery store Sprouts. Try to gather the following:

  1. Company's full, official name: While the common name (e.g., Sprouts) might be enough, some databases require the company's official name (e.g., Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc.) to return correct results.
  2. Headquarters location: Knowing where a company is headquartered will also help you correctly identify the company in search results.
  3. Company type: public, private, or non-profit: Knowing whether a company is public vs. private and for profit vs. non-profit can affect how and where you research an organization. You'll want to know the stock ticker for public companies, and details on a comparable public competitor when researching a private company.
    • For public: stock ticker: Adding the words "stock ticker" to your basic search (e.g., Sprouts stock ticker) should bring it up immediately (e.g., SFM). (If you can't find the ticker, it's likely the company is private.) Most business databases let you use the ticker as a search term to increase the relevance of your results.
    • For private: public "proxy company": Identifying a similarly sized public company in the same industry to act as a "proxy" for a private company can help you estimate financial details that may be difficult or impossible to find due to different financial reporting requirements for private companies. For private company research, you may need to rely more on news articles, press releases, and industry reports.