The State of California recently enacted legislation, California Assembly Bill 488 (CA AB 488), which regulates online charitable fundraising in the state. Specifically, the law prohibits charitable fundraising platforms, like Blackbaud, from assisting organizations not in “good standing” in California with making charitable solicitations to and receiving funds from California residents.

All charitable organizations in the United States who operate or solicit donations in California (even if those charities are organized elsewhere) must maintain “good standing” in California.

California Assembly Bill 488 regulates charitable fundraising platforms that enable charities which operate or solicit donations in the state of California.  

The bill contains a requirement that charitable fundraising platforms only provide certain services to charities in “good standing” in California. All charitable organizations in the United States who operate or solicit donations in California (even if those charities are organized in another state) must maintain “good standing” in California. 

An organization which appears on any one of the three lists (below) is considered not in “good standing” in California for purposes of this law:

• California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts
  • Download and search for your organization on California Attorney General’s “May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes” list here
• California Franchise Tax Board
  • View and search California’s Franchise Tax Board’s “Revoked exempt organizations list” here
• Internal Revenue Service
  • Download and search the IRS’s “Automatic Revocation of Exemption List” here

There are many reasons why an organization may be placed on one of these lists. A common reason an organization would lose “good standing” in California is the failure to make timely mandatory filings with the California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, the California Franchise Tax Board, or the Internal Revenue Service. We, at Blackbaud, are not in a position to know the details of an organization’s specific situation. 

It is critically important that you rectify your status as soon as possible, so that you are lawfully operating in California using our solutions. You must work with the applicable government agency directly to solve this problem. We at Blackbaud do not have further details on your status.

The California Attorney General has information that may be helpful to you including what is required of charities, how charities become delinquent, how charities can resolve delinquency.

Configure your Blackbaud solution(s)

While you work to rectify your status, you should consult your legal advisor. We are not providing you legal advice but in general, it is unlawful for a nonprofit organization which is not in “good standing” in the State of California to operate in California. This includes soliciting charitable donations from California residents.  

In consultation with your legal advisor, while you are not in “good standing,” you should consider configuring your Blackbaud solution(s) to prevent continuing solicitations to California donors, from your email communications. See our solution-specific FAQs below on how to action this. 

Note: If your organization is not in “good standing”, Consistent with our legal obligation, transactions made through Blackbaud solutions by California donors to organizations that are not in “good standing” will not be accepted.

If your organization appears on one of these lists, it means that are you not in “good standing” with the State of California. Blackbaud is therefore prohibited from providing certain services to you until your “good standing” status has been reinstated. Consistent with our legal obligation, transactions made through Blackbaud solutions by California donors to organizations that are not in “good standing” will not be accepted.

Note: Due to the way donor location information is captured in the platform, JustGiving customers who are not in “good standing” with the State of California will be offboarded from the JustGiving platform and no longer have access to their charity account and their page will no longer be viewable to donors.

Consistent with our legal obligation, transactions made through Blackbaud solutions by California donors to organizations that are not in “good standing” will not be accepted.

In the meantime, you should consult your legal advisor and consider changing your interaction with California donors. These changes may include suppressing California residents from upcoming email solicitations and other actions for recurring payments and failed transactions.

Blackbaud Secure Payments and Blackbaud Checkout forms are integrated to work with some third-party gateways. If you process payments through a third-party form that does not use Blackbaud Checkout or Blackbaud Secure Payments, you should review your current setup to evaluate if further actions are needed to remain compliant.

Blackbaud Checkout 2.0 will comply on or before January 1, 2024; however, organizations using APIs to capture payments will need to take steps as noted if applicable.

If you have questions about your “good standing” status, you must work with the applicable government agency directly to solve this problem. We, at Blackbaud, do not know the details of your specific situation.

• Blackbaud Altru
• Blackbaud CRM and Blackbaud Internet Solutions
• Blackbaud eTapestry
• Blackbaud Luminate Online
• Blackbaud NetCommunity
• Blackbaud Online Express
• Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT
• Blackbaud Education Management, including Blackbaud Enrollment Management System and Blackbaud School Website System
• Blackbaud TeamRaiser
• Blackbaud Tuition Management
• Raiser’s Edge
• YourCause CSRconnect

We updated endpoints based on the new law. For more information, view our blog post.

You can find information about YourCause CSRconnect on this page.