Give Lively member nonprofits gain full access to our powerful and practical fundraising platform that is free for nonprofits and intuitive for donors.

The Give Lively membership application process can be completed in a few minutes, provided you have a few essential details at hand. Membership approval takes 5-7 business days as we manually review all applications.

Give Lively membership is open to registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations (public charities and private operating foundations) that

• align with our Give Lively values
• are in good standing with both the California Attorney General's Office and the California Franchise Tax Board
• are in good standing with the IRS
• are eligible IRS foundation types.

What are Give Lively’s values? 

We hold dear to these values, which inspire nonprofits to tackle tough challenges and complex issues such as gender and racial equality, reproductive health and LGBTQ+ rights, social and environmental justice, education, domestic violence, immigrant services and more. We personally review every membership application to ensure each nonprofit aligns with these values.

What does it mean when a nonprofit is not in good standing with California?

When a charitable organization does not submit timely, complete, required filings and/or fees to the California Attorney General's Office and/or the California Franchise Tax Board, its status on the California Attorney General's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers is listed as “Delinquent" and/or its tax-exempt status in California is “revoked,” respectively. 

Until the delinquency and/or revocation is remedied, the nonprofit is not in good standing and: 

• its Give Lively membership application will not be considered
• if it is already a Give Lively member nonprofit, its fundraising pages must be disabled and its recurring donations paused.

Importantly, these requirements are applicable to all U.S. nonprofits, not just those headquartered in California. Learn about California's nonprofit governance and delinquency laws.

What happens if a nonprofit is not in good standing with the IRS?

In order to become and remain a Give Lively member, a nonprofit must be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization (public charity or private operating foundation). To confirm the existence and status of a nonprofit, Give Lively automatically consults public data available through the IRS.

Importantly, when a nonprofit misses a deadline to submit timely, complete, required filings and/or fees to the IRS, its tax-exempt status may be hard to determine. Until the lack of clarity is remedied, the nonprofit may not be in good standing and, in keeping with federal law:

• its Give Lively membership application will not be considered 
• if it is already a Give Lively member nonprofit, its fundraising pages must be disabled and its recurring donations paused.

Give Lively relies on multiple sources of IRS data to identify an organization's good standing, i.e. whether its federal tax exemption is clearly in good order. However, Give Lively is unable to conclusively affirm a nonprofit’s standing if the nonprofit is NOT listed on the IRS Business Master File, IRS Publication 78 or both.

Nonprofits can check their own status in these databases:

• Exempt Organizations Business Master File: Download the relevant state or regional CSV file and then use a computer’s “Find” tool to search for either the nonprofit’s name or its EIN (without the dash). Consult this information sheet for details about the data. If the nonprofit does not appear in the Business Master File, it may not be in good standing with the IRS.
• Publication 78: Follow the download instructions. If the nonprofit does not appear in this monthly-updated list, it may not be in good standing.
• Nonprofits may also wish to consult the Automatic revocation of exemption list. Download the zip file, unpack it and then use a computer’s “Find” tool to search for either the nonprofit’s name or its EIN (without the dash). For nonprofits on this monthly-updated list, the IRS offers information about what it means to be revoked/reinstated and how to have your tax-exempt status reinstated.

What are Give Lively–eligible and –ineligible IRS foundation codes for nonprofit organizations?

Registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations (public charities and private operating foundations) with the following IRS deductibility codes and foundation types are eligible to receive donations through Give Lively technology:

Deductibility codes

• Contributions are deductible (deductibility code 1 in the Business Master File)
• PC (deductibility code in Pub 78)
• POF (deductibility code in Pub 78)

Foundation types and codes in the Business Master File

• private operating foundation exempt from paying excise taxes on investment income (foundation code 02)
• other types of private operating foundations (foundation code 03)
• 170(b)(1)(A)(i) - churches (foundation code 10)
• 170(b)(1)(A)(ii) - schools (foundation code 11)
• 170(b)(1)(A)(iii) - hospitals or medical research organizations (foundation code 12) 
• 170(b)(1)(A)(iv) - organizations that operate for the benefit of a college or university and are owned or operated by a governmental unit (foundation code 13)
• 170(b)(1)(A)(v) - governmental units (foundation code 14)
• 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) - organizations that receive a substantial part of their support from a governmental unit or the general public (foundation code 15)
• 509(a)(2) - organizations that normally receive no more than one-third of their support from gross investment income and unrelated business income and at the same time more than one-third of their support from contributions, fees and gross receipts related to exempt purposes (foundation code 16)
• 509(a)(4) - organizations organized and operated to test for public safety (foundation code 18).  

For clarity, organizations with the following IRS deductibility codes and foundation types are NOT eligible to use Give Lively technology:

Deductibility codes:

• Contributions are not deductible (deductibility code 2 in the Business Master File)
• Contributions are deductible by treaty (foreign organizations) (deductibility code 4 in the Business Master File)
• PF (deductibility code in Pub 78)

Foundation types and codes in the Business Master File:

• all tax-exempt organizations under section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that are NOT registered under subsection code 501(c)(3) (foundation code 00)
• all private non-operating foundations (foundation code 04)
• a poorly defined “suspense” category (foundation code 09)
• 509(a)(3) - organizations operated solely for the benefit of and in conjunction with 170(b)(1)(A)(i), 170(b)(1)(A)(ii), 170(b)(1)(A)(iii), 170(b)(1)(A)(iv), 170(b)(1)(A)(v), 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) or 509(a)(2) organizations (foundation code 17)
• 509(a)(3) Type I (foundation code 21)
• 509(a)(3) Type II (foundation code 22)
• 509(a)(3) Type III functionally integrated (foundation code 23)
• 509(a)(3) Type III not functionally integrated (foundation code 24).

Learn more about foundation types and codes in the Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract (PDF).