What is BRIDGE?

BRIDGE (the Basic Registry of Identified Global Entities) is a system that assigns a unique identifying number to non-governmental organizations, programs, and projects and to other entities in the social sector across the globe, including schools and churches. This universal identifier acts like a “numerical fingerprint.”

Why was BRIDGE created?

BRIDGE is a project that arose, in part, from Markets for Good, an initiative to discover how the social sector can better use and share information to improve outcomes and change lives. BRIDGE creates a more structured, transparent, and measurable “philanthropic market” by creating a universal standard for sharing global NGO information. BRIDGE Numbers can facilitate interoperability between organizations that have their own set of data on identified entities. In this way, data can be combined and consolidated in countless ways, adding value over time.

It is our hope that BRIDGE becomes a useful standard, widely integrated in systems used to track nonprofits and their activities.

Who is funding BRIDGE? Who are the founding partners?

The development of the BRIDGE system was funded by generous grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Google Inc. The four founding partners that have worked together to build the system are Foundation Center, GlobalGiving, GuideStar, and TechSoup.