GuideStar Data Services falls into administration

Finance | Tania Mason | 19 Oct 2010

GuideStar Data Services CIC has been placed into administration seven months after it was assimilated into the Directory of Social Change.

The community interest company, which was established to sell pools of data garnered from the GuideStar website, has always struggled to break even and finally placed itself into administration last week.

In a statement, the board of directors of GuideStar UK CIC said: “It was with great reluctance that the directors of GuideStar Data Services took the decision to appoint an administrator over the company. This decision was taken in the context of an extremely challenging economic environment which meant that the business was unable to sustain itself in its current form.

“The administrators are currently working to restructure the company to maximise its assets and where possible to protect and preserve its services.”

Ownership of the free public GuideStar website, which contains information about all UK charities, and GuideStar Data Services, passed from UK-registered charity GuideStar International to the DSC in early March.

DSC: still an important resource

The trustees of DSC issued a separate statement: “The trustees of the Directory of Social Change acquired the share in GuideStar Data Services, and the related website GuideStar UK, because it was of the view that the free website was an enormously important resource for the sector and should be preserved if at all possible. DSC was prepared to take on this challenge.

“It is with immense sadness that DSC, as the shareholder, accepts the decision of the board of directors of GuideStar Data Services, to appoint an administrator. DSC continues to believe that this is an enormously important resource for the sector and hopes that the process of administration will help preserve this very important asset.”

The database administered by GDS comprises more than 400 searchable fields of data on 350,000 civil society organisations. GuideStar claims it is the only sector database that is compiled by analysing both the accounts and the narrative from every annual report, work that is carried out in Sri Lanka. However, it has always struggled to make the data targeted enough for commercial sale.

The administrator, Maidment Judd, was appointed on 11 October.

Directory: Directory of Social Change (DSC) | GuideStar | GuideStar International

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