Nonprofit Certification Policy

(Last updated on Sept 10, 2025)

About Our Directory

We believe that a wide array of charity choices is central to increasing overall charitable giving. As such, we provide donors with a large directory of charities to which PayPal Giving Fund may grant funds. All donations are made to PayPal Giving Fund, an IRS-registered 501(c)(3) public charity (Federal Tax ID: 45-0931286) and are subject to our donor terms of service.

The PayPal Giving Fund directory includes Participating Nonprofits (hereinafter "enrolled charities") that have opened a PayPal business account, confirmed their charity’s account with PayPal, and agreed to the PayPal Giving Fund Nonprofit User Agreement.

For certain partner programs, our directory may also include unenrolled charities that have not agreed to the PayPal Giving Fund Nonprofit User Agreement terms. We receive information about charities from the charities themselves and from public sources, including through our partnership with Candid, a 501(c)(3) public charity that collects, organizes, and presents information about nonprofits in an easy-to-understand, neutral format. Some charities opt out of Candid sharing their information with third parties, and we do not receive information about these organizations from Candid.

Inclusion within the PayPal Giving Fund directory requires:

  1. Verification of the tax-exempt status of the charity in the United States through regular checks of Candid's database of charities in good standing with the IRS and other relevant regulators.
  2. Verification of the charity’s eligibility to benefit from PayPal Giving Fund’s grants through confirmation that it is a 501(c)(3) public charity or equivalent, rather than (for instance) a private non-operating foundation or ineligible supporting organization.
  3. Confirmation through Candid's database that the charity has not been identified by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control as being subject to sanctions.
  4. Verification by PayPal that a charity has not previously breached PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy, rendering it ineligible to benefit from donations processed by PayPal.

Inclusion in our directory is not a guarantee of the charity’s compliance with the registration requirements of individual US states.  

Further information on eligibility and how to enroll is available in the PayPal Help Center.  

Removal of a Charity from our Directory

As a public charity itself, PayPal Giving Fund retains ultimate discretion over all donations it receives and reserves the right to conduct additional vetting of charities in our directory on an ongoing basis. For example, PayPal Giving Fund may investigate suspicious activity, and may remove any charity from its directory based on the outcome of such investigation. PayPal Giving Fund may remove any charity from its directory if it determines that the charity promotes violence, hate, or racial intolerance, or is engaged in money laundering or other illegal activities. As part of its ongoing review and monitoring process, PayPal Giving Fund removes charities from its directory that are found not to be in good standing with regulators in individual US states, such as California. PayPal Giving Fund also confirms through regular checks of Candid data that the above inclusion standards continue to be met, and PayPal Giving Fund removes charities that appear on OFAC lists or lose their charitable status from its directory.

As PayPal Giving Fund's payments processer, PayPal may request that PayPal Giving Fund remove any charity from its directory for breach of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy or other relevant policy or regulatory obligation. In addition, from time to time, PayPal Giving Fund may enter into agreements with merchant partners to enable customer giving programs through their own websites. Such partners may choose to remove charities from their websites and programs at any time. Finally, a charity may request to be removed from PayPal Giving Fund's directory and merchant partner websites and programs at any time by visiting our partner page (more information is available here).

Delivery of Donations to Charities within our Directory

We take multiple steps to grant funds to charities recommended by our donors, as set out in our Donation Delivery Policy. However, the listing of a charity in our directory is not a guarantee that it will ultimately receive funds from PayPal Giving Fund's fundraising programs. In the rare event that we determine not to grant funds to a charity recommended by a donor because they are no longer tax exempt or for some other reason, we will seek to consult the donor and to fund an alternative charity. The tax-deductible status of the original donation does not change because PayPal Giving Fund is the charitable organization of record for the original donation.

How Funds are Used by Charities

PayPal Giving Fund typically makes unrestricted grants to charities. We do not verify how a charity uses funds it receives from PayPal Giving Fund, and assume no responsibility with respect to the use of funds beyond that required by our regulatory obligations. Donors may obtain information about the charities' programs and use of funds by consulting their profiles as presented in the customer giving programs we enable and/or the charity's website.