In June the National Council of Nonprofits, with its network of state and regional associations, published four principles for online fundraising platforms. The document asks platforms to get written permission before raising money in a nonprofit's name, to show donors what a gift nets, and to move the money on a clock. On October 20 the Council named the platforms that signed. It counts fifteen and lists fourteen, among them Every.org, Raisely, Submittable, SoapBox Engage, and 4aGoodCause.
Fifteen is a small number against the market, and the named signers run toward its specialized end. Look up your own vendor before assuming anything. The document is still worth your time, because it puts numbers on what a platform owes the nonprofit whose name is on the donation page, and you can put those numbers in front of your vendor at renewal.
The Principles Are Four Words. The Operating Terms Are the Point.
The four headings are nonprofit consent, transparency, partnership, and accountability. The detail underneath them is where the work sits.
On consent, a platform should get written permission from someone authorized to give it before soliciting in your name or using your logo, branding, images, or messaging, and should use only the materials you affirmatively handed over.
On transparency, the donation page should show tax deductibility, which organization receives the gift, every fee and suggested tip, and the net amount that reaches you. Suggested tips should never be the default, fee disclosures should be set no smaller than the surrounding type, and a donor whose chosen nonprofit cannot be reached should be able to pick another or get a full refund including fees.
On partnership: notice to you of a new campaign within 7 days, donations sent within 30 days, no paid search optimization without your consent, donor information shared with you by default, campaign information kept on the platform for at least a year, and removal without registering or accepting the platform's terms. A reported fraudulent campaign should be frozen until resolved.
On accountability: compliance with state law, support for measures that hold bad actors accountable, annual public reporting of net dollars given to each nonprofit and all fees collected, and regular engagement with nonprofits and state charity officials.
Endorsement Is Not Verification, and the Council Says So
The announcement states that recognizing a platform does not endorse its products or services or verify that the platform complies with the principles. It describes no audit, certification, or complaint process. What a signature establishes is intent.
The useful move is not to switch platforms because one signed. It is to treat the principles as the question list and judge the answers. On the nonprofit side, 52 state and regional associations endorsed it in June.
The 30-Day Clock Exists for a Reason
The timing language is not abstract. In November 2025 California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent the Oakland platform Flipcause a cease and desist order demanding it halt operations, account for charitable assets held since 2015, and move its cash into a blocked account. The Attorney General put the donations whose transfer had been delayed at roughly $500,000 as of that date. Flipcause filed for Chapter 11 on December 19, 2025, and the case docket shows it converted to Chapter 7 liquidation in April 2026. Its bankruptcy filings put the amount owed above $29 million, to more than 3,200 organizations, most of them nonprofits. At a December 22 hearing, Nonprofit Quarterly reported, cofounder and executive chairman Emerson Ravyn testified that a donor giving through the platform was paying Flipcause rather than the charity.
These are allegations and filings, not findings against anyone. You cannot audit a vendor's books. You can ask when the money moves, get the answer in writing, and watch whether it holds. A gap between a promised transfer date and the deposit you see is the earliest warning a nonprofit gets, and tracking it costs a calendar reminder.
In California, Some of This Is Already Law
Start with what is handled for you. The obligations fall on the platform. You do not register as a platform, and AB 488 puts no filing on you, unless your own site solicits for other charities, which can make you a platform or a platform charity in your own right.
Platforms soliciting in California have had to register with the Attorney General's Registry since June 12, 2024. The operating numbers live in the implementing regulations, sections 314 through 323 of title 11, not in the statute: tax receipts within five business days, and donations sent no later than 30 days after the end of the month for a consenting charity, 45 days if it has not consented. Those timing and receipt rules took effect January 1, 2025.
One piece does land on you. California lets a platform solicit for, and pay out to, only a charity in good standing, so your own registration and annual filings keep the money flowing. Check your Registry status before year-end, not after a disbursement stops.
The framework is also moving. The governor amended the platform rules on September 27, 2026, revising the good-standing definition, the delinquency and cure process, the payout deadline where a platform sets a minimum threshold, and consent for customer donation campaigns, with some provisions dated to January 1, 2028. If you raise money in California, work from the amendment rather than the 2024 regulations, and treat anything turning on your own facts as a question for counsel.
Three Questions for Your Next Renewal
Ask when donations leave the platform and when they land in your account, and get a number in days, in writing. Ask whether you receive donor names and email addresses by default, on request, or not at all. Ask whether you can remove a page that solicits in your name without first accepting the platform's terms or handing over banking details.
If the answers fall short of what the principles ask, you have a negotiating position. Price the gap against what you pay: our what free platforms cost and the donation checkout lawsuit both come down to money and data you may not realize you are handing over.
The Takeaway
A voluntary national code now exists, nobody verifies compliance with it, and it is still useful, because it states terms in numbers: 7 days to notify, 30 days to send, donor data by default, removal without strings. Look up whether your platform is on the Council's list, ask the three questions, confirm your own good standing if you fundraise in California, and get the transfer timeline in writing before your year-end campaign goes live.