On DonationMatch all users are vetted—holders of both nonprofit and donor company accounts. Approval of donor company accounts requires:
- An active, updated website
- Satisfactory ratings on public feedback sites (like Yelp, Google Business, and the BBB)
- Verifiable account holder (uses an email address that matches the website or is found on the site, or is validated by one that is)
Companies in regulated industries (such as CBD & hunting) are researched more according to their respective industry regulations.
Per our Terms of Use, donor companies are required to state in their item descriptions or instructions all terms, conditions, and material requirements related to their donations or products so that potential requestors/recipients are aware of them before accepting an offer or requesting an item. Please read those carefully and feel free to message companies to ask questions if you are unsure about something.
PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Once live, we rely on feedback from members to alert us of any suspicious or questionable activity, especially related to fulfillment and engagement to which we do not have exposure. If you experience issues with a company, we encourage you to let us know as soon as possible so we can assist with investigating any problems.
Companies that receive claims of fraud and potentially illegal activity are put on hold immediately and/or removed permanently, and recent recipients of their donations notified. Other complaints are researched and tracked, and those companies may be removed if the issues are ongoing.
Of course, sometimes things don’t go as planned, such as a donor running out of inventory, COVID causing temporary closures, or, sadly, even businesses closing, which would happen whether the donation was facilitated on or off of DonationMatch. However, the negative impact of these events is minimized and rare in our network because our members uniquely benefit from being a part of a large network of nonprofits (25k+) that interact with the same companies and can provide feedback if anything goes awry. All companies in our system are here because our research leads us to believe they are legitimate and have donations that benefit nonprofit organizations, and their experience with other organizations has not shown otherwise.