Nonprofit Eligibility Requirements

Content

• Nonprofit eligibility within the United States
• What is CA AB 488?
• How can I get my U.S. nonprofit back as eligible?
• Nonprofit eligibility outside of the United States

If you search for an organization and it is not eligible to receive donations, you may see a message stating: "Unfortunately this organization is not eligible to receive donations through Bright Funds." Learn more here.

Nonprofit eligibility within the United States

Within the United States, Bright Funds only permits donations to:

• 501(c)(3) Public Charities that are:
  • listed in the IRS database of tax-exempt organizations (known as Pub78)
  • in good standing across the with the California Attorney General’s Office, the California Franchise Tax Board, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)*
• Public schools

Nonprofits that are not eligible for donations include:

• Nonprofit organizations that are not registered as 501(c)(3) Public Charities [for example, 501(c)(4) organizations, 501(c)(6) business leagues, etc.]
• Nonprofits that have lost their tax-exempt status with any of the below agencies*:
  • California Attorney General’s Office
  • California Franchise Tax Board
  • IRS
• Nonprofits that do not comply with Bright Funds' nondiscrimination policy
• Nonprofits that do not process donations they receive from Bright Funds

*Note: The eligibility is tied to the recent California AB 488 law, where nonprofits are now required to be in good standing across the California Attorney General’s Office, the California Franchise Tax Board, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This may be applicable to any nonprofit who has solicitied donations or conducted business in the state of California.

What is CA AB 488?

California AB 488 (CA AB 488) is a legislation that went into effect in California on January 1, 2023. CA AB 488 is aimed at improving transparency and accountability in online charitable fundraising, which includes platforms like Bright Funds. 

Nonprofits must be in good standing with the below agencies if at any time they have operated or received donations from within the state of California:

• California Attorney General's
• California Franchise Tax Board

If your nonprofit is on either list, they must update their charitable status directly with the agency. Bright Funds cannot override any charitable statuses determined by the agencies, as well as the IRS, in order to confirm eligibility.

If your nonprofit has corrected their status, please allow a few weeks for their status to be reflected in Bright Funds, as the agency files must be updated by the agency in order to reflect their most recent status.

How can I get my U.S. nonprofit back as eligible?

You will need to determine why your nonprofit is not in “good standing.” Please reach out to our team at [e-mail], and we can help look into the reason.

Unresponsive to receiving donations

Please have the nonprofit contact our Nonprofit team at [e-mail]. In some cases, the nonprofit may need to verify their recipient details (contact, mailing/banking details) in order to receive donations through the platform.

Ineligible through CA AB 488

A nonprofit which appears on any of the lists with either of the below agencies is considered not in “good standing” in California for purposes of the California AB 488 law:

• California Attorney General's Registry Report
  • May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes
  • Undetermined
  • Not Operating or In Process of Dissolving
• California Franchise Tax Board
  • Revoked Exempt Organizations List

The nonprofit will need to work directly with the applicable government agency to update their nonprofit status on their registry. Below are helpful links depending on agency that you can pass along to your nonprofit if they are impacted:

• Reinstating charity status with the Attorney General's Office
• Reinstating charity status with the Franchise Tax Board

Ineligible through the IRS

The nonprofit must also appear in the IRS database as Pub78 Verified in order to receive donations. If they are not Pub78 Verified, they may not be able to receive donations.

• Internal Revenue Service

The nonprofit will need to work directly with the IRS to update their nonprofit status on their registry.

If your nonprofit has already submitted an update to the agency, and received confirmation from the agency they are in good standing, please allow a few weeks for the update to appear in Bright Funds.

Bright Funds cannot override the nonprofit's charitable status if it is not updated on the official registries of those agencies or their publicly available files.

Nonprofit eligibility outside of the United States

The Bright Funds database includes eligible charitable organizations registered within a country's charity database for the countries listed below. An organization will be not be eligible if it is not found in the charity database or if it has lost its registration status.

Registered charities in good standing with local regulatory agencies in the following countries are included in Bright Funds:

• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• India (must be FCRA registered)
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Northern Ireland
• Poland
• Portugal
• Scotland
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Spain
• Taiwan
• UK

The Bright Funds team continues to work on including additional countries and their local charity registration agencies.

If your nonprofit's country is listed above but you are not able to locate them, please contact our team at [e-mail], and verify your nonprofit's charity ID, and our team will be happy to help confirm eligibility.