Online People Search Products

Robert Redman

Does anyone use online products, such as White Pages Premium, Intelius, Spokeo, or People Finder (not a Blackbaud product) for one off searches for constituents, alumni, donors, etc. We are looking to get a subscription of one of the above. Can anyone provide some insight  or advise to a really good one. It doesn't have to be any of the above mentioned.  We would be looking for birthdates, addresses, relatives, phone number(s), and other (last) names. We do use Research Point, but I was told by BB that, if they have multiple addresses that come back in the results, it just means there name is on the deed to that address and it doesn't mean they reside at that address permanently. Thanks in advance for your input. 

Stephanie Crawley

Robert Redman:

Does anyone use online products, such as White Pages Premium, Intelius, Spokeo, or People Finder (not a Blackbaud product) for one off searches for constituents, alumni, donors, etc. We are looking to get a subscription of one of the above. Can anyone provide some insight  or advise to a really good one. It doesn't have to be any of the above mentioned.  We would be looking for birthdates, addresses, relatives, phone number(s), and other (last) names. We do use Research Point, but I was told by BB that, if they have multiple addresses that come back in the results, it just means there name is on the deed to that address and it doesn't mean they reside at that address permanently. Thanks in advance for your input. 

I haven't subscribed to one of these services, but we use the free versions of them regularly.  When I looked into buying a premium service subscription, the one that seemed to me to have the most comprehensive info was Spokeo, since it seems to include renters' address info, whereas White Pages seems to only include homeowners' address info.  Ultimately, my organization (my boss, VP of Finance) was unwilling to spend the money for a subscription, since it wasn't seen as saving enough time, since it would be looking for information one at a time, rather than in bulk.  This is because we have over 200,000 constituents, and only 1 person to manage addresses.

Daniel Bayer

If you're a school, then I would recommend AlumniSync. I've had great success with them and their prices are VERY reasonable (especially since they only charge you for the records they actually find, not the number of records you submit).


Other than that, LexisNexis. They find EVERYTHING. It's pricy, but definitely worth it in my experience. I'm pretty sure they don't do bulk processing, so if that's something you really want you'd have to look into it, but I haven't seen another service that returns as much info on a person (oftentimes more than we really want to know lol), and it's easy to determine what the good info is vs. the bad info. It's the most comprehensive, most trustworthy source I've used. You'll pay a lot, but you'll get a lot in return.

Jen Claudy

Had LexisNexis at my last two jobs.  Loved it, but very, very pricey.  Don't know if it went anywhere, but I suggested to BB that they try to get an agreement with LexisNexis to give access to BB customers at a reduced rate, or included in the cost of, say, the Search (Prospect) Module or ResearchPoint.  I believe you can do a monthly-rate subscription or a per-search fee.  We had the first, but probably would have saved money with the second.


For addresses, try MelissaData.com.  They offer free lookups for a number of things, and then subscriptions for other things.  Some, in particular addresses, you can do in bulk.  There's a limit to free lookups per day, which I think is raised if you sign up for a free account.  Again, mostly property owners, not renters.


Birthdates is a tough one.  LexisNexis only gives month & year, same (for the most part, and not in all cases) for ResearchPoint.  There was a Birthdatabase.com site that was based on phone book info (so I'm not listed in the phone book, and therefore not on this site); however, the site seems to have gone defunct about 7 months ago, or so and redirects to something completely different.

Amy Dana

We've been using USSearch.com and they seem to be pretty good. They don't give birthdates but they do have ages and other family members. The fee is monthly so if you decide you don't like it you're not stuck in a contract.

Katie Peterson

We used People Search through Blackbaud for updating our alumni records which we recently imported.  However, it would be great to have a way to update a record when a mailing returns with no forwarding address.

Cindy Hicks

We have been using White Pages Pro for about a year or so. We consider it information you would find in a phone book, but it does give you some previous addresses as well as other people at the same address. We give it the same skepticism we give any online resource. We compare the information with information we find with LexisNexis if needed. There doesn't seem to be a magic bullet, one-size-fits-all resource for information. We just try to find the right mix of resources to get us what we need. We also use iWave, City Directory (SalesGenie) and Foundation Center depending on whether an individual or organization and what information we need.

Robert Redman

Thanks everyone for you suggestions. I greatly appreciate it. I will definitely look into those products that you all recommended. Thanks again!