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How to verify your nonprofit and the benefits of doing so
How to verify your nonprofit and the benefits of doing so

All 501(c) registered nonprofits are eligible for verification by Givebutter and can receive a special badge and exclusive benefits.

Max Friedman avatar
Written by Max Friedman
Updated over a week ago

Benefits of getting verified ✨

A special checkmark indicates your nonprofit status across all Givebutter pages, giving donors peace of mind and added confidence when giving to your organization. If you verify your nonprofit on Givebutter, you'll also have access to the following benefits.

ACH payments 🏦

Verified nonprofits can process ACH payments! Givebutter is excited to offer ACH as a lower-cost payment option on any campaign with no additional setup required. Learn about how to activate ACH payments on Givebutter.

DAF payments 💰

Get direct access to the $234B sitting in Donor-Advised Funds — never again worry about missing out on DAF donations. Learn about how to activate DAF payments on Givebutter.

Shorter pending period 💸

Instead of the standard 72-hour pending period, verified nonprofits have access to a shorter pending period of only 48 hours for all transactions!

Outbound Engage SMS messages 💬

Only verified nonprofit accounts on Givebutter have access to Engage SMS, which allows you to send targeted outbound text messages to your supporters.

Sponsored auction items via Inspirato for Good 📣

Verified accounts on Givebutter get access to our native integration with Inspirato for Good, allowing you to seamlessly add high-quality travel packages to your Givebutter auction.

Additional benefits ➕

  • Receipts sent to donors always include your EIN.

  • Receive exclusive and early access to new features, resources, and co-branded materials exclusively for verified nonprofits on Givebutter.

  • Engage is automatically activated for verified nonprofit accounts. Other accounts must request access and meet additional requirements in order to send out emails.

  • Appear in various prominent locations of the Givebutter website as verified fundraising and donation options for visitors (coming soon)!

How to verify your account ✅

If your organization holds nonprofit status with the IRS, you may qualify for verified status on Givebutter.

We use the GuideStar nonprofit database to verify nonprofits on Givebutter. Please note that you will need a GuideStar profile linked to your nonprofit’s EIN to proceed with verification on Givebutter. You can read more about claiming your GuideStar profile here.

To start the verification process on Givebutter, login to your Givebutter dashboard, head to Account, then About, and then Account Verification. (Verify Your Nonprofit is step three.)

As long as your verified email address has the same domain as the URL listed for your organization in the GuideStar Database, your nonprofit verification will be automatically approved.

FAQ + Troubleshooting 🤔

EIN Not Found / Cannot Verify EIN

If your organization’s EIN isn’t found in our system, this is usually because we’re unable to locate your nonprofit’s EIN in the GuideStar Database. They may not yet have a profile created for your organization, especially if your organization received nonprofit status recently. You’ll need an up-to-date GuideStar profile for your organization before your EIN will be recognized in our system. You can read more about claiming your GuideStar profile here.

"We're unable to verify your nonprofit" error message

If the email address you’re using does not have the same domain as the URL listed for your organization in the GuideStar database, please change this to an email on that domain and re-verify your email address. (For example, if your nonprofit’s domain on GuideStar is mynonprofit.org, you will need to enter an email address such as [email protected].)

To update your email address, click the Edit your Email button in “Step 1: Verify your email”. You can also update your email address by following the instructions in this guide.

If you do not have access to an email address on the organization’s domain, your verification request must be manually reviewed. We'll need the contact phone number of your organization and a copy of your organization's IRS Determination Letter. The first sentence of the letter should say something similar to "We're pleased to tell you we have determined you're exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code Section [...]."

Please email your organization's phone number and IRS determination letter to [email protected] for us to review, or click the chat button in the lower right-hand corner to message our team.

What does a determination letter look like? See below!

Givebutter reviews all manual verification requests on a case-by-case basis, and acceptance is not guaranteed. If GuideStar determines that your organization does not have nonprofit status or is not in good standing with the IRS, your verification request will be denied.

Umbrella Organizations ☂️

We’re currently only able to verify organizations that hold their own nonprofit status. Organizations that hold nonprofit status under a fiscal sponsorship, umbrella, or parent EIN are not eligible for verification on our platform at this time.

We are planning to roll out verification for umbrella/parent EIN scenarios in the future. Please upvote this feature request to receive a notification if/when this feature is implemented. In the interim, you can include the parent organization's EIN in the customizable thank you message for tax purposes instead of verifying.


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