The need for discretion within the U.S. nonprofit sector has never been greater, given the current challenges in a data-driven society. Stress points include managing financial records, governmental information management, keeping donor records secure, and making regulatory filings. Nonprofits must maintain public trust, commitment to legal obligations, and remain accountable. It is, therefore, no surprise that for developers, grantmakers, and technology platforms, integrating nonprofit data into their applications is not an easy task, but is necessary for due diligence, compliance, and transparency.

Fortunately for those who need the data, the nonprofit data gap is being addressed by an emerging ecosystem of APIs. The network of nonprofit APIs allows access to charity records, tax-exempt status, financial abstracts, and other data on the nonprofit sector. This article is for developers who need data for regulatory submissions or to achieve social impact. We’ll provide an objective overview of the U.S. nonprofit data API landscape, comparing key services and considerations.

Why Nonprofit Data APIs Matter

Nonprofits maintain a unique legal and social position: tax-exempt status. To this end, they must maintain files with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and could also appear on third-party charity monitoring platforms. They must file annual returns, like any other business, disclose board members, and publish their key financial metrics. Some of this information can be leveraged through APIs.

APIs offer granular access to this data, allowing developers and software platforms to verify nonprofit status and make queries in real-time, facilitating due diligence for grantmakers and funders. Financial services firms or donation platforms can use the APIs to support regulatory compliance with fraud checks and measures to counter money laundering. APIs promise to democratize nonprofit data by providing transparency and public accountability, which could be ideal for civic tech apps, such as GiveWell or Benevity.

Key U.S. Nonprofit Data APIs: A Comparative Overview

With the above considerations in mind, let’s break down several major U.S. nonprofit data APIs that are now operational. Each of these APIs provides unique data coverage, technical structures, and use cases.

1. IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS)

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) maintains a public directory of organizations permitted to accept tax-deductible gifts, including 501(c) nonprofit entities. While sometimes misidentified as an API, the Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) system is essentially a manual search tool available through the IRS website that provides limited public data via a browser-based interface. Instead, the IRS offers developers a series of downloadable flat files providing exempt organization data that may be manually searched or incorporated into new apps.

These data files contain essential information such as EIN, organization name, tax-exempt status, ruling date, and revocation history. However, the IRS does not offer an official public API for this information. The flat files are usually updated monthly and made available in CSV and XML formats.

This data might be helpful for apps that undertake contribution eligibility checks, nonprofit status verification, or basic compliance screening. The main drawbacks include the lack of real-time updates, the absence of specific financial or operational details, and the requirement for developers to handle file ingestion and querying operations themselves. Despite these limitations, the IRS nonprofit data files remain the most reliable source for certifying 501(c) tax-exempt status in the United States.

2. Candid API

Candid provides one of the most comprehensive nonprofit data systems in the United States, including IRS filings, self-reported data, and third-party financial records.

• Data coverage: IRS Form 990 information, financial summaries, program descriptions, leadership details, and organizational metrics.
• Use cases: Grant management software, donor research platforms, and financial services regulation.
• Strengths: Aside from IRS filings, the data is rich and organized, and it contains operational facts and transparency scores.
• Limitations: Commercial API access, rate limitations, and tiered pricing.

Candid’s API allows for sophisticated due diligence operations, but unlike the nonprofit data it delivers, it is a commercial API, which needs careful control of access rights and licensing in order to use.

3. Charity Navigator API

This API delivers a kind of “credit rating” for charities. Charity Navigator specializes in reviewing nonprofits based on their financial stability, accountability, and openness. The API delivers the rating data and financial benchmarks for thousands of U.S. charities.

• Data coverage: Charity ratings, financial efficiency indicators, program expense ratios, and accountability measures.
• Use cases: Donation platforms, grant review systems, and philanthropy dashboards.
• Strengths: Pre-calculated charity ratings that are trusted by donors.
• Limitations: Covers only rated organizations, with little financial detail for unrated nonprofits.

These capabilities make the Charity Navigator API ideal for applications that require basic, easy-to-understand nonprofit quality metrics.

4. Nonprofit Check Plus API

The Nonprofit Check Plus API is a consolidated nonprofit verification service that combines various public data sources into a single, developer-friendly API endpoint. It provides EIN-based lookup features that integrate IRS tax-exempt status and revocation history to simplify due diligence and eligibility checks for applications that manage nonprofit transactions or awards.

• Data coverage: Tax-exempt status, revocation history, ruling dates, financial indicators (if available), and IRS and Secretary of State compliance checks.
• Use cases: Crowdfunding platforms, donor screening tools, grant administration systems, and financial services compliance interfaces.
• Strengths: Consolidates heterogeneous nonprofit records into a single, lightweight API, reducing the need for developers to connect different public databases separately.
• Limitations: It is not a financial rating service and is dependent on the freshness and availability of its source records. The frequency of updates varies by data type.

This service leads by example, showing how nonprofit data APIs can reduce integration complexity for civic tech, philanthropic, and compliance applications by replacing the overhead of maintaining direct connections to government and regulatory data sources.

Choose the Right Nonprofit API

Developers and product managers must evaluate each API’s scope, reliability, and interoperability before selecting the best fit for integration into their workflows. Data authority, whether the information is sourced directly from authoritative records such as the IRS or official filings or aggregated from secondary sources, is a critical consideration, as making the wrong choice may introduce inconsistencies or outdated content to your database.

The update frequency is another crucial aspect. Some compliance applications may require data that is refreshed daily to remain accurate and effective, while donor research tools or analytic dashboards might only need quarterly updates.

Data depth varies across APIs. Whether your API must have access to operational metrics, financial breakdowns, or board member disclosures may be necessary for thorough due diligence or reporting, and it is critical to consider how deep the data is from a particular API.

API rate limits and associated costs could be important for your organization. For those on a tight budget, some APIs offer free tiers, while others operate on paid models that may or may not be sustainable depending on the scale or purpose of the app that needs the data.

Licensing and usage rights must be examined with due diligence. Commercial APIs that aggregate or enhance nonprofit data may impose specific licensing terms that affect how the data can be stored, displayed, or redistributed. Understanding these legal obligations is essential to building a reliable, scalable app for nonprofit transparency while minimizing potential disputes down the line.

Integration Opportunities and Use Cases

The charitable API ecosystem provides new opportunities for developers and API strategists to create apps with a social effect.

• Donation processing platforms: Before processing contributions, automatically check the charity’s tax-exempt status.
• Grantmaking tools: Pre-populate grant applications with verified nonprofit data to reduce applicant mistakes.
• Due diligence dashboards: Gather financial and operational information for foundation boards and investment committees.
• Civic transparency apps: Map your local charitable activities or spotlight underfunded community groups.
• Regulatory compliance systems: Integrate nonprofit verification into financial service organizations’ Know Your Customer (KYC) operations.

APIs contribute to the modernization of nonprofit infrastructure by decreasing friction in data verification and providing access to transparency indicators.

Conclusion: A Promising, Evolving Ecosystem

Nonprofit data APIs enhance operational transparency and accountability, generating donor trust and complying with regulations, which in turn feed back into successful grant awards. This is transforming how nonprofit organizations and their data interact with the broader digital infrastructure in the U.S.

That said, developers must navigate a patchwork of services, balancing data coverage, licensing, and reliability. This makes choosing the right API critical and requires clarity on technical requirements, interoperability, and business models.

Demand for nonprofit transparency is growing, which in turn is driving the nonprofit API ecosystem. Developers who understand this ecosystem will be in a better position than their peers to build apps that avoid legal pitfalls, strengthen public trust, and boost social good, which, of course, is also great for the developer.