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GuideStar UK and Civil Society Systems announce merger

Finance | Ian Allsop | 24 Jan 2008

Guidestar UK and Civil Society Systems have announced they will merge to become GuideStar International, following a £3m grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

The two charities are aiming to “combine their strengths in technology, operations and outreach into one efficient, technologically-advanced information platform”.

While ensuring the continued quality and development of the GuideStar service in the UK, it is hoped that the merger will help GuideStar International respond to the growing interest in the GuideStar model around the world.

Following the merger, GuideStar International will establish a distinct, wholly-owned Community Interest Company called GuideStar Data Services (GDS). 

The formation of GDS represents a natural progression resulting from successful revenue generation activities which will shortly exceed the annual limits on earned revenue by a charity. The social enterprise will be established to provide value-added charities’ information services to institutional audiences including the UK government and private institutions.

The first three of these services, Local Government Intelligence, Legal Intelligence and Financial Intelligence, are said to be already generating significant cashflows.

As well as established models in the US and UK, nationally operated systems are now under development in South Africa, India, South Korea and, with support from the European Commission, in four European countries: Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands. The shared technology platform will dramatically reduce development costs for these and other countries.

Hilary Browne-Wilkinson, founder of the London-based Institute for Philanthropy, a founder of GuideStar UK and now a member of the board of the new combined charity, said: “I believe that comprehensive, accurate information is vital to the strength of civil societies and the development of their role in every country of the world. GuideStar provides this.

"The benefit of the UK experience in developing a database, and an easy-to-use search engine, can be passed on to other countries at the beginning of the process. I see this new global organisation as a fitting and exciting evolution of the work we began in London exactly five years ago.”

Bill Dietel, the retired president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and chair of Civil Society Systems, will chair the united charities’ board of trustees.

The NCVO’s chief executive Stuart Etherington will chair a new GuideStar UK advisory council, formed to ensure GuideStar UK’s progress in meeting the needs of the UK’s citizens and institutions for information about the voluntary sector, in promoting better charity reporting and in enabling more confident, generous and proactive philanthropy.

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