Candid Charity Check - Beta

Candid Charity Check - Beta Release

Overview

Foundation Cloud includes a feature called "Charity Evaluator", which allows users to verify the tax-exempt status of a Grant Recipient using IRS data files. Foundation Cloud has begun a transition away from this file-based "Charity Evaluator" solution to a new "Candid Charity Check" solution, which will verify Grant Recipients using real-time data from Candid (formerly GuideStar). Customers who use this new feature will not incur any additional licensing costs (neither from NPact nor from Concur).

Foundation Cloud Grants 2.9.1 (released on March 23, 2024) includes the Beta Release of the new Candid features, but it will leave the current file-based "Charity Evaluator" functions enabled during this transition. Customers will be able to use the new feature and will have the option to make the switch when they are ready. The IRS-based "Charity Evaluator" module will eventually be taken offline, but an official sunset date has not yet been set.

Note that Candid only provides data for domestic (USA) charitable organizations, so our Canadian customers will not be using this new feature. An integration with Ajah will be coming in a future release.

Note that this new feature will not be made available in GE Classic. The IRS-based "Charity Evaluator" functions in GE Classic will continue to work until that module taken offline.

New Candid Charity Check Tile

Candid Charity Check is available on a new "Candid Charity Check" tile on the Constituent record screen.

This tile allows users to perform charity checks using the Candid (GuideStar) API. The Candid API lookup will only work if the Constituent record has the organization's EIN. Users will have the option to manually approve an org if Candid can’t approve it.

Candid returns one of two Status values for the organization it validated:

• Revoked (Candid says the org is no longer in good standing with the IRS)

• Verified (Candid says the org is eligible to receive grants)

If Candid reports that a Recipient is Verified, Foundation Cloud will look at additional criteria and either set the status to Verified or Ineligible. See the "Business Rules" section below for configuration options.

A fourth status of "Manually Approved" should be expected when a Foundation Cloud user manually approved the recipient.

A full audit trail of each Candid verification action (including the detailed results) is available for users to review. Clicking the "View Details" link will generate a PDF from Candid with their full report.

Check Run Processing

For customers using our IRS-based Charity Evaluator functionality, FCG Check Run processing currently validates that each grant’s recipient has been approved. This will NOT automatically change as part of the 3/23/2024 release. Foundations can update their Business Rules to switch over to Candid Charity Check on their own timeframe, and once this change is made the Check Run validation function will rely on the Candid status and not the IRS status.

Business Rules Settings

Foundation administrators can manage these Charity Evaluator and Charity Check tools by navigating to the Settings menu, selecting “System”, opening the “Business Rules” tab, and selecting the “Constituents” tab. There are separate options for Charity Evaluator and Candid Charity Check. Turn on the Candid Charity Check option to explore the new functionality, but be sure to turn it off before processing check runs (until the change is to be made permanent).

Candid’s report for an organization’s tax status includes fields for Pub 78 Verification Status and for BMF Status. When one or both of these options are set to True, Foundation Cloud will look at these fields to perform additional validation, and will set an organizations Candid Charity Check status to “Ineligible” if the organization fails the additional check(s).

This Business Rules screen also now includes a list of “Foundation Code” values. This should be seen as a “whitelist” of the IRS classifications which a customer considers to be eligible to receive Grant payments, and Foundation Codes to which a customer does not want to grant should be removed from this list. For example, Foundation Code 17 represents organizations of type 509(a)(3). To block grants to organizations with this Foundation Code, it should be removed from the list of codes. A Candid Charity Check on those organizations will show a status of “Ineligible”, even if they’re in good standing with the IRS.