Like approximately 1 million other 501(c)(3) public charities listed on Charity Navigator, your organization is eligible to receive donations via the Giving Basket because it is (1) in good standing with the IRS and the California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, (2) is not a private foundation, and (3) does not have a Giving Not Recommended alert.
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If for whatever reason, you prefer not to receive funds through the Giving Basket, please let us know by emailing info@charitynavigator.org, and we’ll disable the donate button on your organization’s profile.

There are two forms of disbursement: via mailed paper checks and as a direct deposit.

Giving Basket donor data can be downloaded as a CSV file (a plain text “comma-separated values” file) from the secure portal.

To do this:

Giving Basket donor and donation data is available in the Reports Portal, powered by Give Lively. Information is posted soon after each donation. For Give Lively members with a Stripe account in good standing, new information will be added after each donation. For organizations that are not Give Lively members or do not have a Stripe account in good standing, new information will be added after the disbursement has been successfully initiated.

The secure Reports Portal is also where you can track disbursement when that information becomes available. The 'Line Items (Giving Basket)' report in the portal in the portal includes two columns that describe “Disbursement Method” (“check”, “transfer” or “not yet disbursed”) and “Payment Status” (“succeeded”, “pending” or “failed”), and let you know what to look for and when to start looking for it. This information, along with other more detailed donor, payment, and disbursement data, is also available in the CSV download.

Additionally for Give Lively members, Stripe provides limited data once the Stripe transfer has been initiated. This includes the amount of the transfer, any subtracted fees and both the “Account” and “Transfer” IDs. Learn more about what you can see in Stripe. To keep nonprofits up to date on the donations received through the Giving Basket, we send an email transfer notification the first time (and only the first time) a Stripe Transfer is initiated.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Access to data will almost always precede access to donated funds, though there are many variables, including the date of the donation, payment method and type of disbursement. Please keep in mind the standard timelines for disbursement.

Give Lively issues receipts to donors with all the necessary tax information. There is no need for you to do so. That said, we strongly encourage organizations to reach out to donors to thank them for their gifts and steward a relationship with them and their giving.

If for whatever reason, you prefer not to receive funds through the Giving Basket, please let us know by emailing info@charitynavigator.org, and we’ll disable the donate button on your organization’s profile.

No. Charity Navigator charges no administrative fees and Give Lively’s fundraising technology is free for nonprofits. However, there are the usual fees charged by third-party services used to process and disburse each donation.

If you are not a Give Lively member, the check is for the net value of one or more recent contributions directed to your organization via the Giving Basket, powered by Give Lively. It’s a lump sum, minus third-party payment and check processing fees, and can be used for general purposes, unless otherwise designated. Importantly, there are no other conditions attached to these funds, and the donors have already received tax acknowledgements. Data about donations disbursed via check is available in a secure Reports Portal.

If you are a Give Lively member, the check is for the net value of one or more recent contributions directed to your organization via the Giving Basket only by users who donated using PayPal. While all other donations are disbursed monthly directly to you through Stripe -- and all donations made through your regular Give Lively fundraising pages (both Stripe and PayPal) are disbursed as usual -- PayPal donations made through the Giving Basket, specifically, must be paid out by lump-sum check at this time, minus third-party payment and check processing fees. Give Lively is exploring ways to streamline this process and Give Lively members will benefit from any improvement as soon as it’s available. Once again, there are no conditions attached to these funds, and donors have already received tax acknowledgements. Data about donations disbursed via check is available in a secure Reports Portal. Learn how to access your “Checks” report..

Remember: As well as the payment promising fees, there is a $0.92 check processing fee per monthly check. This is subtracted from the lump-sum check, applied proportionally across all donations included in the check (see the “Fractional Disbursement Fee” column in your CSV export of donor data). At present, it is not eligible to be covered by donors.

As a Give Lively member, you receive direct deposits for the net value of one or more recent contributions directed to your organization via the Giving Basket ( except those made via PayPal ). It’s a lump sum, minus third-party payment processing fees, and can be used for general purposes, unless otherwise designated. Importantly, there are no other conditions attached to these funds, and the donors have already received tax acknowledgements.

Notably, Give Lively utilizes a “Stripe Transfer” to send batches of funds generated by Giving Basket donations. This is different from the “Stripe Direct Charge” typically used when disbursing individual donations generated from Give Lively fundraising pages. Learn more about how Giving Basket transfers are logged by Stripe.

Donation data about contributions disbursed via directly deposited Stripe Transfers is available in a secure Reports Portal.

To keep you up to date on the donations you receive through the Giving Basket, starting in February 2022 (for donations made in the month of January 2022) we send an email transfer notification the first time (and only the first time) a Stripe Transfer is initiated.

The lump-sum check is for the net value of one or more recent contributions directed to your organization via the Giving Basket. This means the check amount includes the donations received through the Giving Basket minus the following:

Ready for direct deposits, not checks? Learn how you can receive future Giving Basket payments via automatic transfers.

Giving Basket donor data is available through a secure portal and reports powered by Give Lively. There are two ways to access the data, depending on whether you are a Give Lively member.

If you are a Give Lively member: Details about the contributions directed to your nonprofit via the Giving Basket are available within the Give Lively Nonprofit Admin Portal. (This is the back-end management system where Give Lively members customize and oversee their use of Give Lively technology.) Once you are logged in, click on “Line Items (Giving Basket)”, “Checks” or “Transfers” listed under “Data Reports” in the left-hand navigation.

If you would like to be added as a Nonprofit Admin Portal user on behalf of your nonprofit, contact a current admin user and request to be added as a new user.

If you are not a Give Lively member, claim your nonprofit’s account using the claim code (sent via letter) you received from Give Lively:

If you do not complete the email confirmation process right away, when you return to this process at a later time you should log in to the established account and may see minor differences in the order of events outlined above.

If your nonprofit already has claimed your nonprofit's account using the claim code, you can be added as a user. Ask a current admin user to log in to the Reports Portal and add additional Reports Portal users.

The check is from the Give Lively Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization (tax ID 81-0693451) established in 2016 that serves the public by facilitating charitable gifts to nonprofits across the United States, including donation disbursement for platforms like the Giving Basket. The Give Lively Foundation works in tandem with Give Lively LLC, a tech company that builds practical and easy-to-use fundraising solutions that are free for nonprofits and intuitive for donors. Charity Navigator embraced Give Lively’s secure and intuitive platform to power the Giving Basket.

When a contribution to your nonprofit is received through the Giving Basket, we also receive your contact information -- including the address to which checks are mailed -- from GuideStar by Candid, a clearinghouse of information about nonprofits.

If you wish to update the contact/postal details we have on record for your nonprofit, please do so through contact Give Lively support and include your organization's EIN and correct mailing address in your message

You may also wish to review and update the contact/postal details for your nonprofit in GuideStar: check or change your email address and/or your mailing address.

Apply for free Give Lively membership and, if approved, you’ll receive most future donations ( except those made via PayPal ) through monthly direct deposits via Stripe. Give Lively membership requires an active Stripe account connected to Give Lively. All direct deposits are arranged as Stripe Transfers and take 2-7 business days from the time each transfer is initiated. Importantly, Give Lively membership also provides full and free access to all of their digital fundraising products.

How to apply
If you already have a Reports Portal account with Give Lively:
​Log in here. At the top of the left-hand menu, under “Give Lively Membership,” click “Ready for direct deposit, not checks? Learn more.”
Scroll down to the application (though the information above it is useful too!) and follow the instructions.

If you do NOT have a Reports Portal account:
Go to https://www.givelively.org/apply-for-membership to get started.

IMPORTANT: Give Lively manually screen all applications. Although filling out the application is a quick process, the usual review period is 7-10 business days from the moment you connect your Stripe account to Give Lively.

Details about the lump sums are available via a secure portal, also powered by Give Lively. The portal includes data like the donors’ first and last names (when not anonymous), the donation dates, amounts and frequencies, and more.

For free and instant access to the data:

If your nonprofit already has an account and you would like to be added as a user, learn how a current admin user can add additional Giving Basket donor data portal users.

Until you register for access to Giving Basket donor data, you will receive a claim code with every lump-sum check mailed to you. It will be the same claim code for six months from the time the first check is sent. After every six-month period, that code will expire and a new code will be issued. You will stop receiving codes once you have registered and you will not need to remember it; once you use your claim code, you can forget it.

If you are unable to log in and access Giving Basket donor data, contact Give Lively support.

Giving Basket donor data is available through a secure portal powered by Give Lively. It includes details about the lump-sum payments (made by check or by Stripe transfer) generated by Giving Basket donations.

Through the Giving Basket, a donor may make one or more contributions at the same time (in one single “order”). In the case of multiple donations, they may all be to your nonprofit or to several nonprofits. When a donor makes multiple contributions, even if they are all to your nonprofit, each donation is catalogued as a separate line item in the larger order. (Your donor data reports will always only show donations/line items benefitting your nonprofit, never those of other nonprofits, even if they were made in the same order.)

Line items can vary in amount and frequency, and have different dedications and Giving Basket special causes (called Give Now lists). Line Items can also indicate financial information such as the gross amount a donor contributed, payment processor transaction fees and any refunds that may have been applied.

There are two levels of data:

Yes. In the Giving Basket, the donation form allows users to “Donate in honor or memory of a loved one.” By clicking on the plus sign, users open a box with options to donate “In Honor Of” or “In Memory Of” someone and a field for the “Dedicatee’s name”. There's also an optional field for a “Recipient email” address if donors wish to share word of the donation with another party. The recipient’s email identifies the donor but does not specify the amount of the gift.

Yes, donors can give anonymously. On every “Make Your Donation” form in the Giving Basket, donors can choose which details to share with the nonprofit(s) to which they are donating: their name, email address and/or mailing address. While this blocks nonprofits from receiving any information donors choose to keep anonymous, these details must be provided on the donation form, and both Charity Navigator and Give Lively will retain them in order to run the Giving Basket.

Charity Navigator charges no administrative fees and Give Lively’s fundraising technology is free for nonprofits. However, the fees charged by the third-party services used to process and disburse each donation are as follows (as of February 2023):

These figures are based on special nonprofit rates offered by Stripe and PayPal, the primary payment processors. All nonprofits receiving donations via the Giving Basket automatically benefit from these special rates through Give Lively. Standard rates are slightly different.

Again, these fees do not go to Charity Navigator or Give Lively. They are automatically deducted from each donation by the third-party payment processors. That said, depending on the payment method, donors may have the option of covering some processing fees (as an additional tax-deductible gift) during the Giving Basket checkout. Note that, at present, donors are not able to cover the $0.92 check processing fee.

The processing fee is proportional to each donation amount in the Giving Basket.

Yes, donors see an optional “This donation is for ” checkbox on the Add to Basket form, but only for nonprofits that are listed for a particular Where To Give Now list. By checking the box, donors’ contributions will be assigned for use on programs directed toward that program. Nonprofits will be made aware of donor designations through donor data, in which a column called “program designation” will indicate the Where to Give Now List.

In most cases, yes. At present, this is possible (as an additional tax-deductible gift) when donors pay by bank/ACH transfer, credit/debit card and PayPal. On the “Choose a Payment Method” page of the Giving Basket donation form, all donors are advised that “You will have the opportunity to cover the payment processing fees on the next screen.” Once a payment method is selected (“Credit Card” or “Bank Account” or “PayPal”), the form displays a check box where donors may elect to “Add to cover payment processing fees so that the nonprofits in your basket will receive the full donation.” Note that, at present, donors are not able to cover the $0.92 check processing fee.

For all questions about donations, including refunds, cancellations and changes, contact Giving Basket support at givingbasket@charitynavigator.org. Please note that refunds, if possible, can only be issued during the same calendar month of the completed transaction.

All nonprofits receiving donations through the Giving Basket have access to a secure donor data portal called the Reports Portal. This is true of both Give Lively member nonprofits and nonprofits that are not Give Lively members.

Any nonprofit can manage who has access to this data. The first person to establish access can add new users. Importantly, all approved users gain full admin access to the portal, including the ability to add and remove users.

If you are a Give Lively member

New users may be added to or deleted from the full Nonprofit Admin Portal, which includes access to the Reports Portal. Here is how to do that.

If you are not a Give Lively member

To see current portal users and pending invitations
1. Log in to the Nonprofit Admin Portal.
2. Select “User Management” in the left-hand navigation bar.
3. “Current Users” are listed in the body of the page, with all “Pending Invitations” directly below it. You can also see which of your fellow account administrators have confirmed their email addresses, an important step to maintain security.

To add a new portal user
1. Follow the instructions above to get to the “User Management” page.
2. Select the “+ Add New User” button at the top right of the screen.
3. Fill out the pop-up form with the new user's first name, last name and email address. Keep in mind that new users will have full access to your Giving Basket donor data. They will have the same administrator rights as you do. This includes viewing and downloading data, and inviting and deleting users.
4. To add more than one new user, select “+ Add another” at the bottom left of the pop-up and provide that new user’s details in the new line that appears. There is no limit to the number of users you can add and no limit to how many individuals can be logged in at once for the same nonprofit.
5. If you change your mind and choose not to add a user, select the garbage can icon to the right of that user’s details.
6. Once you have completed filling out new users’ details, select “Send Invitation(s)” at the bottom right of the pop-up.
7. If the invitation is successful, a confirmation will appear advising that “Your invitation has been sent!” and that “[New user] will receive an email inviting them to log into Give Lively or will immediately be granted access if they already have a Give Lively account.” Note that these invitations expire after one week. Click the “x” at the top right of this pop-up to close it, or just click outside of it.
8. If the invitation was not successful you will see a notice that “[New email] is already associated with another nonprofit organization in the Give Lively system. Please use a different email address.”

To remove a current portal user or pending invitation

Remember: Removed users will no longer have any access to the full Reports Portal. And for deleted “Pending Invitations,” the invite email that was sent out, which already expires after a week, will immediately become invalid.

Follow the instructions above to get to the “User Management” page:
1. Search for the user(s) you wish to remove.
2. Select the garbage can icon to the right of each user’s details.
3. A “Remove User” pop-up will appear asking you to confirm your action: “Are you sure you want to remove [(new user)] as a user?” Selecting “Remove [new user]” will immediately complete the action, while “Cancel” will stop it.

Vital security considerations

‍As part of our ongoing effort to be rigorous about privacy, security and transparency, the power extended to nonprofits to add and delete users of the Giving Basket donor data portal is a critical security enhancement.

It allows nonprofits to see who has access, but it also places with them direct responsibility for staying vigilant about maintaining portal access.

We recommend regular review of the current users. This will allow you to add new users if you have new team members, to ensure fellow account administrators have confirmed their email addresses and, more importantly, to delete users who have moved on to other positions or jobs.

Notably, for all active users, our system does not ask for or store any personal information beyond the username and email address of each user.
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