Finding information about corporations

Overviews on how to research companies
Doing Company Research: A Resource Guide is the best overview on how to research companies. This U.S. Library of Congress guide provides ideas and strategies for researching companies. It focuses on on more common sources for current information on active companies.

Global Investigative Journalism Network offers tips on researching companies internationally.

Corporate Board Members
Usually the fastest way to see who is on the board of a corporation is to look on its website. The bios of the board members will often mention other boards they are on. 

If you are on LinkedIn, check the pages of corporate directors for additional information.

Corporate registrations, filings
Open Corporates collects information from corporate registrations and filings from all states in the US and other internationally. Each entry links directly to the information from the government. We recommend getting a login.

State insurance and business licensing and regulation websites. States vary in what they require health care or health insurance companies to disclose to operate in that state. You will probably have to dig deep into filings, but may find detailed financial and corporate structure information.

Your college or university library may offer access to subscription business databases such as Pitchbook, D&B Hoovers, Capital IQ, Nexis, Mergent, especially if it has a business school. Some public libraries also have business databases.

Investments, investment deals
Private Equity Stakeholder Project does research into private equity and private fund investments in health care and other socially important sectors. You can find information about deals, and analysis of major events and trends.

WhaleWisdom extracts data from US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 13F filings. Form 13F is required for all institutional and individual investors (mutual funds, hedge funds, trust companies, pension funds, insurance companies, and registered investment advisors) who manage over $100 million in assets. It must be submitted to the SEC no later than 45 days after the end of the March, June, September, and December quarters. The 13F is essentially a list of holdings that large investors own. WhaleWisdom also has a tool to search for insider transactions.

Researching nonprofits
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer is a great resource for information on non-profits.

Find nonprofit tax returns (990s).

Canadian Revenue Agency – Registered charity search

Court records

Businesses that have declared bankruptcy, or that have sued or been sued, have to disclose information to the court. Court filings can be a gold mine of otherwise inaccessible information. Start with a basic internet search of the case name and see what comes up. Then go to Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) and search for the case. You have to sign up to use PACER and how it works is confusing. It costs $0.10 per page to access case information; with the cost for a single document capped at $3.00. These fees are waived when users spend $30 or less for the quarter. This is more than you are likely to use researching one case if you’re careful. This article gives detailed information about using court records for research

Information about political contributions

Overview of corporate political influence 

Open Secrets is the most comprehensive resource for campaign contributions in the US. It also has some lobbying data and analysis available. 

Federal Election Commission records are searchable.

States may have their own records on lobbyists and political contributions.

Background information on Private Equity, Privatization of Healthcare, and Political Influence