is a listing of resources
that are useful in corporate research. Research is a powerful
tool for activists and we intend this database to be a powerful
tool for research. The database contains contact information
for organizations that will do research for you, along with
resources that will allow you to do research for yourself. We
recommend starting by reading one of the Research Guides to
get a general idea of what to do. With patience and persistence
these resources can yield valuable information that will help
you in your corporate campaign.
|
| organization |
| website |
www.tenkwizard.com |
| comments
|
10-K Wizard is a search
engine that can search the entire EDGAR database word by word.
This is extremely useful in establishing the "web-of-power"
behind a company that you are researching. It allows you to
search the names of board members and executives and see where
else they turn up in the world of publicly traded companies.
Even if the corporation you are researching is private it is
almost guaranteed that they at least do business with some publicly
traded company, so make sure to search here. |
| organization |
| website |
www.fastaflcio.org |
| publications |
Manual of Corporate
Investigation |
| comments
|
FAST sells printed copies
of its "Manual of Corporate Investigation", but the
best way access new sources of useful corporate information
is by subscribing to the website version of the Manual. Access
to the Manual is free to members and staff of unions affiliated
to F.A.S.T. Others can subscribe for $25 a year. |
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| organization |
| website |
www.zpub.com/sf/arl |
| comments |
The Annual Reports Library has a collection of over 1.45
million original reports (and proxies) from corporations, foundations,
banks, mutual funds and public institutions. |
|
organization
|
| website |
www.boycott.2street.com |
| publications |
Boycott lists |
| comments |
The Boycott Board lists boycotts that are currently
underway. It may be useful to know if there is a boycott on
the company you are researching and why.
|
| organization |
| website |
www.crp.org |
| comments |
The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan, non-profit
research group that tracks money in politics, and its effect
on elections and public policy. The Center conducts computer-based
research on campaign finance issues for the news media, academics,
activists, and the public at large. CRP has exhaustive databases
on where, specifically, the money is in politics, including
contribution information on everyone who has run for federal
office. |
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| organization |
| website |
www.chej.org |
| publications |
Numerous reports on USA Waste, Waste Management, Browning-Ferris
Industries, and other waste companies. |
| comments |
CHEJ has an outstanding library as well as files
containing over a decade's worth of materials on waste and chemical
companies, an invaluable resources for communities facing toxic
threats. |
| organization |
| website |
www.commoncause.org |
| comments |
Common Cause is a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen's
lobbying organization promoting open, honest and accountable
government.. Common Cause has a long history of working for
campaign finance reform and ethics in government, and has a
good campaign finance reform project--Project Independence.
Common Cause has a soft money database on its website that can
be searched by donor name, location or industry. |
| organization |
| website |
www.coopamerica.org/boycotts/ |
| publications |
Boycott Action News |
| comments |
Co-op America's Boycott Action News lists companies being
boycotted, boycott organizers, allegations and some products.
|
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| organization |
| website |
www.corporations.org |
| publications |
Corporate Dirt Archives |
| comments |
The Corporate Accountability Project's website has a list
of linked research resources. CAP's site includes links to corporate
research sites. The "Corporate Dirt Archives" has
links to sites with information on specific industries (apparel,
banks, insurance and economic firms, chemicals, computers and
telecommunications, food, healthcare, hotels and restaurants,
mining, oil, rain forests, retain, tobacco, transportation and
the waste industry) |
| organization |
| website |
home.earthlink.net/~avkrebs/CARP |
| comments |
CARP provides a central source of information on corporate
agriculture's economic, social and environmental impacts on
family farmers, rural communities, ecosystems and consumers.
CARP provides research, public education materials, lectures
and trainings. |
| organization |
| website |
www.corpwatch.org |
| publications |
Activist's Guide to Research and Campaign on Transnational
Corporations |
| comments |
Corporate Watch focuses on transnational corporations, but
much of the information their site provides is useful for researching
any type of corporation. You'll find "An Activist's Guide
to Research and Campaign on Transnational Corporations"
which includes valuable information on researching corporations,
labor actions, legal actions, environmental actions, shareholder
actions, government resources, and resources on different industry
sectors (mining, fishing, logging, chemical, biotech, fossil
fuels, motor vehicles, nuclear power, and electronics and computer). |
| organization |
| website |
www.cepnyc.org |
| publications |
Shopping for a Better World |
| comments |
CEP specializes in "uncovering the truth about corporate
behavior, bringing about reform, and enhancing the incentives
for superior corporate social and environmental performance."
CEP provides information on over 700 publicly-held U.S. companies.
They have a freely accessible report card that assigns letter
grades to corporation in various areas of performance. |
| organization |
| website |
www.igc.apc.org/datacenter |
| comments |
The DataCenter is an independent non-profit research center
providing information to activists working for progressive social
change. The Data Center researches corporations, and puts on
corporate research trainings. Consultations are free, and non-profit
groups may qualify for free research.
Who are these guys? |
| organization |
| website |
www.enviroweb.org/ebic/ |
| comments |
EBIC is a non-profit organization that provides
corporate research and strategic assistance to members of the
public who are interested in getting involved in local environmental
issues. EBIC researches corporations for grass roots groups
at no cost. |
| organization |
| website |
www.edf.org
and www.scorecard.org |
| publications |
The Scorecard |
| comments |
The Environmental Defense Fund's Scorecard
ranks many polluting corporations in terms of amounts of toxic
release to air, land and water, and the toxicity of these chemicals.
This can give you an idea of how your local polluter compares
to other corporations in the same industry throughout the country. |
| organization |
| website |
www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html |
| publications |
Enviro Facts Warehouse |
| comments |
EPA's Enviro
Facts Warehouse is a single point of access to U.S. EPA
environmental data, including seven EPA databases: Superfund,
the Safe Drinking Water Act, hazardous waste (Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act), the Toxic Release Inventory, water discharge
permits, air releases and EPA grants information. Using query
forms, you can search all of these databases by a facility's
name, geography (ZIP code, city, county and/or state) and/or
SIC code to get information on permits and discharges. This
site also has the tools you need to produce maps from database
information. |
| organization |
| website |
es.epa.gov/oeca/sfi |
| publications |
Sector Facility Indexing Project |
| comments |
EPA's Sector
Facility Indexing Project allows you to create profiles
for facilities in five industry sectors (petroleum refining,
iron and steel production, primary non-ferrous metal refining
and smelting, pulp manufacturing and automobile assembly), including
compliance and inspection history, chemical releases and spills
and surrounding population demographics. |
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| organization |
| website |
www.rachel.org |
| publications |
How ERF Does Its Research For Rachel's Environment & Health
Weekly (April 1997)
Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly
Researching Corporations: A Guide to Organizations (October
1995)
Researching In Libraries (October 4, 1997) |
| comments |
Environmental Research Foundation is the home of Rachel's
Environment and Health Weekly. The site has all of the Rachel
newsletters archived in a searchable format. |
| organization |
| website |
www.ewg.org |
| comments |
EWG's "Clearinghouse for Environmental Advocacy Research"
(CLEAR) project does research on the Wise Use Movement and its
corporate sponsors. CLEAR has a database on EWG's website that
tracks the industry-supported backlash against the environmental
movement. You can search
the CLEAR database for funders, individuals and groups in the
Wise Use Movement. EWG also has a "Money in Politics"
section. |
| organization |
| website |
www.freeedgar.com |
| comments |
FreeEDGAR is a corporation dedicated to developing services
for using the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC)
Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis & Retrieval System.
FreeEDGAR's searchable access to the EDGAR filing's is friendlier
than SEC's site. The SEC filings provide a wealth of information
on publicly traded companies. |
| organization |
| website |
www.hoovers.com |
| comments |
Hoover's has been referred to as "the reigning king of
corporate profiles." Hoover's is a pay site for investors
doing business research, but they have free searches, including
company overviews (including news and links to other websites),
industry snapshots, detailed quarterly earnings reports and
headlines from hundreds of on-line business sources. This site
provides an interesting angle to research a target corporation
from because some interesting facts may come out when a company
is trying to sell itself. Hoover's has 14,000 corporate "capsules",
which can be accessed for free. |
| organization |
| website |
www.irrc.org |
| comments |
IRRC is a research firm that promotes shareholder activism
by providing proxy voting, corporate profiles, portfolio screening,
software and consulting to institutional shareholders. IRRC's
Environmental Information Service provides track records for
corporate environmental performance, using EPA data and corporate
environmental management information. |
| organization |
| website |
www.knowx.com |
| comments |
KnowX.com provides real-time access to billions of public
records, including aircraft & watercraft ownership, bankruptcy
records, yellow pages, corporate records, death records, court
records, professional licenses, property records, sales tax
permits, stock ownership and more. KnowX charges for access
to some of their records, but others are free. |
| organization |
| website |
www.lff.org/services/envgui.html |
| publications |
The Environmentalist's Guide to the Public Library |
| comments |
Libraries for the Future's "Environmentalists
Guide to the Library" gives guidance in using the ublic
libraries for corporate and other environmental research. It
is good to remember that there are still resources in our libraries
no matter how diverse the resources of the Internet. |
| organization |
| website |
www.mineralpolicy.org |
| comments |
Mineral Policy Center is a non-profit environmental organization
dedicated to protecting communities and the environment by preventing
the environmental impacts associated with irresponsible mining
and mineral development, and by cleaning up pollution caused
by past mining. |
| organization |
| website |
www.essential.org/monitor/monitor.html |
| comments |
Multinational Monitor tracks the activities of multinational
corporations. The Multinationals Resource Center is a project
of Multinational Monitor, and provides information on the activities
of corporations. MRC provides information on corporate history,
environmental and work place hazards associated with production,
health and environmental problems associated with products,
and the dangers of large-scale waste disposal. MRC focuses on
organizations in the southern U.S. |
| organization |
| website |
www.nlrb.gov/nlrbsrch.html |
| comments |
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board is the government
agency in charge of enforcing the National Labor Relations Act.
Their website allows you to search their decisions and orders
regarding companies and find out if their any complaints with
the NRLB against the company you are researching. |
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| organization |
| website |
www.scn.org/earth/wum/ |
| comments |
The Northwest Corporate Accountability Project's website
has information on and examples of Shareholder Resolutions,
rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, information
on Washington Corporations, Mutual Funds and related Websites. |
| Many newspapers are now on-line and
have archives of their articles that are easily searchable.
There is usually a fee to retrieve the articles. AJR
NewsLink is a comprehensive list of links to many newspapers
that are on-line all over the country. Some industry trade newspapers
have searchable archives on-line as well, such as Waste
News, the waste industry's trade press. These can be found
by searching the web and at the Rutger's
Business Resources site. |
| organization |
| website |
www.osha.gov/oshstats/ |
| comments |
OSHA's site can be searched for inspection and compliance
information by company and industry and there are many industry
wide statistics available. |
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| organization |
| website |
www.enviroweb.org/issues/campaign$$/ |
| comments |
Pennsylvania Environmental Network's Researching Your Politicians:
Campaign Contribution and Voting Records page has an exhaustive
set of links regarding campaign contributions. |
| organization |
| website |
www.moles.org |
| comments |
Project Underground supports communities facing the mining
and oil industries, provides information such as corporate data
and examples off past behavior, and informs communities of their
rights under national and international laws. |
| organization |
| website |
www.tray.com |
| publications |
FECInfo |
| comments |
"The non-partisan Federal candidate campaign money page."
This page is the mother load of campaign contribution data,
from soft money contributions to PAC filings. You can look-up
contributors by name or go directly to the contributor occupation/employer
look-up section and find all of the employees (primarily officers
and such) of a certain corporation who give money to political
campaigns. |
| organization |
| website |
www.endgame.org |
| publications |
Activist Research Manual -- Volume 1: Sources of Information
on Corporations (January 1997)
Directory of Transnational Corporations |
| comments |
PIN maintains databases on the environmental and social impacts
of corporations, does corporate research workshops, public education
and action campaigns, and does some corporate research. PIN's
Directory of Transnational Corporations includes records on
800 corporations. |
| organization |
| website |
www.reportgallery.com |
| comments |
The Reports Gallery is the Internet's most comprehensive
listing of annual reports. You can print complete annual reports
from this site using free Adobe Acrobat software. They have
nearly 1,000 annual reports that can give you corporate information
straight from the horse's mouth. |
| organization |
| website |
www.rtk.net |
| comments |
RTK Net is a project of OMB Watch and Unison Institute. RTK
Net users can access and manipulate substantial quantitative
and text databases with information on housing and the environment.
RTK Net provides electric conferences and open forums as well
as technical support and training. |
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| When researching corporations on the Internet, don't forget
to use a generic search engine such as: Infoseek,
Altavista,
Dogpile,
Excite
or Yahoo.
There are many more with varying attributes, but your best bet
is to try a few of them, choose a couple you like, and thoroughly
learn their procedures and search query syntax. For a general
overview of what search engines are and how to use them, go
to searchenginewatch.com.
|
| organization |
| website |
www.wsrn.com |
| comments |
Wall Street Research Net's website includes over 500,000
links to help conduct fundamental research on publicly-traded
companies. Wall Street Research Net is the most comprehensive
resource for investors on the Web, mobilizing the best free,
for-sale, and in-depth information into one comprehensive, easy-to-use
site. Use "Research A Company" to access SEC documents,
home pages, news, charts, statistical analysis and more. All
this is meant for investors but it can be effectively utilized
for activist research. |
| organization |
|
| website |
www.worc.org |
| publications |
Corporate Campaign Case Studies
Enforcing Environmental Laws: A Case Study of the Northern Plains
Resource Council's Agency Accountability Campaign
How
to Research Corporations
How to Research for Organizing
How to Use the Freedom of Information Act
Using the Toxics Release Inventory and Other "Right to
Know"Resources
Western
Organizing Review
(See the "Corporate Roundup" with agricultural industry
news in each edition) |
| comments |
WORC provides research and policy analysis on critical issues
facing its region to bring a regional and national perspective
to local and state-wide issues. WORC also puts on workshops
and trainings that teach skills pertaining to community organizing,
including corporate research workshops.
|
| organization |
| website |
www.wri.org/wri/wri/iffe.leverage.htm |
| publications |
Leverage
for the Environment |
| comments |
For activists seeking to understand and influence how environmental
considerations impact decisions made by private financiers,
"Leverge For the Environment" profiles eight segments
of the private financial services industry. This page on WRI's
site also includes links to sites with additional information
on this industry. |
| organization |
| website |
finance.yahoo.com |
| comments |
Yahoo's finance page has information on over 8,000 public
companies, including contacts, business summaries, officer
and employee information, sector and industry classification,
business and earnings announcement summaries, and financial
statistics and stock charts. Links will take you to Yahoo!
Finance's other resources, including Reuters and other business
news, stock quotes, press releases, etc.
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