On this page:
Advanced Search (Open Data) help
Overview
The Advanced Search (Open Data) tool provides a more flexible and powerful way to search the Charities Register. When performing any of the three advanced searches (Search charity data, Search financial data and Search officer data), you will be presented with a form for building up your query and fetching the related results.
A query is made up of a number of individual query statements (e.g., Name Contains Charity, Date Registered Before 02/03/2011, etc.), built up in each query line of the form. Submitting the completed query will return a CSV (comma-separated values) file containing all matching results in the Charities Register, which can be opened using a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
Performing an Advanced Search
-
Using the drop down lists in the query builder, choose the search field column to use as part of the search criteria, a search operator, and the search value to use. In the example below, the query is searching for Charities whose Name contains the word 'Trust'.
-
You can add and remove additional search criteria by using the 'Add' and 'Remove' buttons highlighted below. The 'Add' button inserts another query row to provide another search criterion. The 'Remove' button conversely removes a query row. In the example, we have added another query row and are now also searching for Charities which are in the 'Health' Sector.
- Use the Match All and Match Any statements at the top to further define your query if required. This controls whether results that match all of the criteria will be returned, or whether results need only match one of them.
-
In more complex searches, you may want to add another Group of search criteria, which will use a different Match All or Match Any statement. You can do this by using the 'Add Group' button highlighted. This will create a new Group underneath that query line. In the example, we have added another couple of search criteria into a Match Any group.
The full query represented in the example is now:
Return me all the charities where the Name contains the word 'Trust', and Sectors contains 'Health', and, either Beneficiaries contains 'Children / young people' or 'General public'.
- Select View Result File* at the bottom right of the screen to submit the query. The results for the query will be returned as a CSV (comma-separated values) file, which can be saved on to your computer and opened using a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. Note: You may return to the query to refine it until it is correct.
- To clear the search form and start again, select Clear Search.
-
You can also specify which groups of columns you want to be returned in your results using the column selection panel highlighted. By default, all groups (and therefore all columns of data) will be returned in results.
