The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to GuideStar to help it expand and enhance its database of nonprofit information, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Awarded in support of Guidestar 2020, the $10 million strategic plan recently unveiled by the organization, the three-year grant will support the development and deployment of a suite of new data-collection and -presentation tools, including a common profile system that enables nonprofits to use a single profile across multiple online giving platforms. Additional tools will make it easier for GuideStar users to search nonprofits and data by causes and to report their program outcomes, giving potential funders a better view into an organization's effectiveness. Currently, Guidestar provides information on some 1.5 million nonprofit organizations and has 2.7 million registered users, 98 percent of whom access that information for free.

"What GuideStar knows is that it can't just have the information and expect everybody to come get it," said Victoria Vrana, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation. "It knows it needs to get it out there to the fingertips of people when they are making decisions, where they are making decisions."