Charity Validation & Due Diligence

How our validation process works

Enhanced Expenditure Responsibility (EER)

Enhanced Expenditure Responsibility is our proprietary validation protocol for vetting previously ineligible organizations. The goal is to establish the charitable purpose of a specific project as defined in section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Once an organization passes EER, we guarantee that the organization is operating in compliance with all relevant international, American, and local laws.

Equivalency Determination (ED)

If a donor wishes to support capital campaigns, endowments, or construction, Equivalency Determination may be a more appropriate method of establishing an organization’s eligibility.

During ED, we collect detailed information on a foreign charitable organization in order to make a “good faith determination” as to whether or not the organization itself is the equivalent of a US public charity described in sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code.

As the leader in cross-border giving, CAF America offers two ED services:

• Internal Review: We manage both the due diligence and the grantmaking.
• Equivalency Determination Certificate: We issue an ED certificate so the donor can give directly.

All domestic charities are automatically eligible with CAF America. However, we conduct a reputation review on the organization to verify their charitable status and collect banking details. If a donor would like us to perform extra due diligence, our Enhanced Validation goes deeper and looks at board members and senior staff and collects a grant purpose for the use of potential funds.