Learn more about our powerful, practical and free platform
This recorded presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the Give Lively fundraising platform for nonprofits. After you enjoy the video, check out the resources below for additional information.
What's next?
- Explore live examples of current member nonprofit fundraising pages.
- If you're already a member, discover more about us through our "New Member Crash Course".
- If you’re considering becoming a member, review our membership application process.
We have some answers that will help you
We believe that nonprofits, no matter their size, should not sacrifice their means to satisfy their missions.
So we build and support powerful and practical fundraising solutions that are free for nonprofits and intuitive for donors.
Through nonprofits’ use of our secure technology, we make it easier for them to devote more resources to their critical work — not to fundraising software — and hit ever-higher fundraising goals.
We don't charge for the unlimited use of our powerful and practical technology – no annual fees, no setup fees, no other fees or hidden fees.
However, we use independent services to securely manage the financial transaction process, from donation to disbursement.
These services – Stripe, PayPal and Lob – do charge small fees, although the fees can sometimes be covered by the donor. There is also a discounted base rate for qualified nonprofits that register with Stripe and PayPal. Fees are always subject to change at any time by the independent services. Always verify directly with the services themselves for the latest updates.
The payment processors (Stripe and PayPal) differ in speed of disbursement as well. We believe all money donated to nonprofits should get to those nonprofits as quickly as possible. The speed of disbursement is in part a function of the form of payment and whether the nonprofit is a Give Lively member.
We also accept voluntary contributions (not tax-deductible) to Give Lively from donors, though these are not fees, are entirely voluntary and have no effect on the final donation amount the nonprofit receives. Learn more about voluntary contributions to Give Lively.
For detailed information on fees and disbursements, see our fees and disbursements page.
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).
In keeping with our commitment to data privacy and security, Give Lively takes full measures to protect all collected data, both where it is stored and when it is transferred between authorized parties.
More specifically, Give Lively and its member nonprofits can never view a donor’s full payment details as they are handled exclusively by a secure third-party payment processor -- they are captured and stored securely by them without passing through our servers -- although some credit/debit card metadata and general payment information is accessible by Give Lively. Upon request, we can work with the payment processor to delete all data.
Give Lively does capture and securely store some non-payment data about donors, for instance a donor’s first and last names, email address and donation date, among other data points. See our Resource Hub (for members, but open to all) for a complete list of what donor data Give Lively collects.