Hello Randy,
You haven’t said much about why you want such a l-o-o-o-n-g list of
associations, so it’s a bit difficult, from a researchers point of
view, to know which is the best source of information to steer you
towards.
So...here’s a few options to choose from.
Let me know if anything below is unclear, or needs elaboration.
All the best...
Pafalafa-ga
--------------------------------------
First stop is, believe it or not, the “association of associations”
known as the American Society of Association Executives, otherwise
known as ASAE. This group has a database that I alluded to earlier
with over 10,000 member associations. You can access the database and
search it at:
http://info.asaenet.org/gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html
Oddly, their site says they have 6,589 associations, but there are
actually considerably more listed in their database! If you simply
click on the “GO” button (without filling in any information) you’ll
be taken to a results page with the message:
“Your search found 10642 Association(s)”
and an alphabetical list of the first twenty associations.
----
You also have the option to specify a state, or a city within a state.
The results will return all associations within the selected
geographical area.
You can also fine-tune search results by entering text in the
“Association Name Contains” box. For instance, entering the word
“international” gives you a list that beings this way:
AACE International
ACA International
Academy of Dentistry International
Accion International
Adventist Development and Relief Agency International
Affiliated Conference of Practicing Accountants International
AGN International North America
Air Movement and Control Association International Inc
Airports Council International European Office
Airports Council International NA
Alpha Beta Gamma International Inc
Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity
Alpha Phi International Fraternity Inc
Altrusa International Incorporated
AMD Alliance International Inc
American Councils for International Education
American International Automobile Dealers Association
American Management Association International
American Red Cross International Services Department
American Society for Industrial Security International
Selecting a term from the “Keyword” list seems to work much the same
way. You can combine search strategies in order to, e.g., list all
the groups in New York State with the word “international” in their
title.
Clicking on any of the association names then takes you directly to
the organization’s web page.
-------------------------------------------
Need more/better/faster information than that? The ASAE is one of the
few organizations that sells their mailing list. You can slice it and
dice it any way you want – with or without executive names, with or
without size of association (by budget), geographically, by subject
matter, and so on. You have to pay, or course, but from what I’ve
seen of other mailing lists, their rates seem reasonable. You can
find all the relevant details at:
http://www.infocusnet.com/imi/lists/asae.pdf
Note that at the bottom of the PDF document are several more links to
additional information.
------------------------------------------
Another organization with a MUCH LARGER database is Guidestar. You
can search their database at:
http://www.guidestar.org/search/index.jsp
When I entered “association” in the KEYWORD box, the database came
back with a message:
“89,711 organizations were found. Please refine your search criteria
and try again.”
That’s almost 100,000 associations in their (and there are a lot of
other similar groups in the database as well that simply don’t have
the word “association” in their keyword list).
In order to narrow it down to a reasonable number of results, I kept
“association” as my keyword, and made some arbitrary choices from the
pull-down menus, selecting Massachusetts as my state of choice, and
Research Organizations as the type of organization. The search
returned 41 research associations in Massachusetts, including:
Organizations Found : 41
Association for Computing Machinery
Springfield, MA 1119
ACM is committed to bringing potentially significant technical and
public policy issues to the attention of the ACM membership and the
community.
Association for Computing Machinery
Boston, MA 2115
ACM is committed to bringing potentially significant technical and
public policy issues to the attention of the ACM membership and the
community.
Association for Computing Machinery
Worcester, MA 1609
ACM is committed to bringing potentially significant technical and
public policy issues to the attention of the ACM membership and the
community.
[this group was repeated about 25 times in locations throughout
Massachusetts]
.
.
.
.
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Inc.
Cambridge, MA 02138
ADVANCEMENT OF SLAVIC ACADEMIC STUDIES
American Association of Variable Star Observers
Cambridge, MA 02138
STUDY OF VARIABLE STAR ASTRONOMY
Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts, Inc.
HADLEY, MA 01035
DEVELOP, PATENT, LICENSE, AND TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY UMASS
RESEARCHERS. PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BY HELPING TO CREATE NEW
COMPANIES BASED ON UMASS RESEARCH. COLLABORATE WITH EXISTING COMPANIES
ON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION. PROVIDE INCENTIVES FOR
UMASS FACULTY AND STAFF PARTICIPATING IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ACTIVITIES TO MAINTAIN THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH UMASS.
Law & Society Association
AMHERST, MA 01003
Development sociolegal studies
...and so on.
Again, the Guidestar site allows you to click on any name that appears
in the search result, to be taken to a summary page that describes the
group in detail, and to links for getting even more information on any
organization of interest.
Like ASAE, Guidestar will also custom-tailor a slice of their database
for you, for a fee, of course. You can see the details at:
http://www.guidestar.org/services/index.jsp
where it says:
GuideStar Data Services
Need specific nonprofit data for your research or outreach activities?
Tap into the millions of fields GuideStar has stored in its extensive
database. Tell us what information you need and how you need it—we'll
deliver a customized slice of GuideStar right to your in box!
[They offer a lot more detail elsewhere on their site. Just click on
the “Data Services” link for additional information].
--------------------------------------
Finally, I want you to at least be aware of the motherlode of all
association information, though the files here are very large,
extremely cumbersome to use, and best left to data management
specialists. However, they’re available at no charge, and you’re
always welcome to give them a try.
The IRS is the keeper of the master lists of all tax-exempt
organizations. Most associations belong in this category, and are
therefore included in the IRS’ “Publication 78" which is the listing
of all organizations in the country (and some international groups as
well) that are eligible for tax exemption in the US. You can find the
electronic version of Publication 78 here:
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=97186,00.html
The relevant link on the page is:
Cumulative List of Organizations, Publication 78
The 'Cumulative List of Organizations', an Electronic Version of
Publication 78. This Publication Lists the Names of Organizations
Eligible to Receive Tax Deductible Contributions, as Well as Their
Deductibility Limitations . ZIP File Includes ASCII Text. Large File
- 11 Megabytes. Updated Quarterly
It is an 11 Mbyte compressed file that extracts to a file over 100 Mb
in size. It is, for the most part, a name and address file, along
with some IRS coding information that may be of interest, but that I
haven’t fully deciphered.
Note that the page also offers sub-files for each state. You may want
to try your hand with one of these before biting off the full file.
--------------------------------------
I hope this is enough to get you going. You probably had your heart
set on getting perfect information at the get go. Ahhh...if only the
world were that cooperative. But these lists should get you off to a
robust start.
Let me know if you need any additional information.
pafalafa-ga
search strategy: None. Made use of bookmarked links and existing
knowledge. |
