Evaluating Pactman's Nonprofit Check Plus API
Muneeb ur Rehman
Enterprise-Grade Charity Validation for Fintech and Grantmaking Platforms
Overview
In an age where regulatory compliance, donor trust, and audit trails are non-negotiable, platforms handling charitable contributions must validate nonprofits with speed and precision. The Nonprofit Check Plus API by Pactman provides a real-time, multi-source verification service built for high-volume use cases across fintech, donor-advised funds, CRMs, and government grant systems.
Chapter 1: Architecture That Covers All Bases
Multi-Layered Validation Sources
Pactman stands out by integrating four key U.S. government data pipelines:
SourcePurposeIRS BMFEIN status, subsection, revocationsIRS Pub 78Eligibility for tax-deductible contributionsOFAC ListSDN screening for sanctionsAutomatic RevocationsDetects revoked charities
Sample output from an actual lookup:
{
"code": 200,
"message": "OK",
"errors": null,
"data": {
"pactman_org_url": "https://pactman.org/profile/nonprofit/aborjaily-bannish-foundation-r5U9r8yRcZ",
"organization_info_last_modified": "5/02/2025 1:01:39 AM",
"ein": "996589560",
"organization_name": "ABORJAILY BANNISH FOUNDATION",
"organization_name_aka": null,
"address_line1": "50 LOWELL AVE",
"address_line2": null,
"city": "WESTFIELD",
"state": "MA",
"state_name": "Massachusetts",
"zip": "01085-2643",
"filing_req_code": "00",
"pub78_church_message": null,
"pub78_organization_name": "Aborjaily Bannish Foundation",
"pub78_ein": "996589560",
"pub78_verified": true,
"pub78_city": "Westfield",
"pub78_state": "MA",
"pub78_indicator": "0",
"organization_types": [
{
"organization_type": "Deductions for donations to private non-operating foundations are generally limited to 50 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). This limit increases to 60% of AGI for cash donations. For Non-Cash assets held for more than one year, the limit is 30% of AGI.",
"deductibility_limitation": "50%",
"deductibility_status_description": "PF"
}
],
"most_recent_pub78": "3/10/2025 12:00:00 AM",
"bmf_church_message": null,
"bmf_organization_name": "ABORJAILY BANNISH FOUNDATION",
"bmf_ein": "996589560",
"bmf_status": true,
"most_recent_bmf": "3/10/2025 12:00:00 AM",
"bmf_subsection": "03",
"subsection_description": "501(c)(3) Public Charity",
"foundation_code": "04",
"foundation_code_description": null,
"ruling_month": "07",
"ruling_year": "2024",
"group_exemption": "0000",
"exempt_status_code": "01",
"ofac_status": "This organization was NOT included in the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.",
"revocation_code": null,
"revocation_date": null,
"reinstatement_date": null,
"irs_bmf_pub78_conflict": false,
"foundation_509a_status": "N/A",
"report_date": "6/04/2025 6:39:07 PM",
"foundation_type_code": "pf",
"foundation_type_description": "Private non-operating foundation (section 509(a))"
},
"took": 5,
"nonprofit_check_count": 1
}
Compliance Confidence: Every record cross-verifies real-time tax-exempt status and OFAC clean standing.
Chapter 2: Performance Under Pressure
Latency Benchmarks From 2,143 API Calls
Request TypeAvg Latency95th PercentileError RateSingle EIN (GET)217ms412ms0.9%Bulk (500 EINs)8.2s14.7s1.2%Cache-Hit (Repeat)89ms132ms0%
Cache Advantage: Repeat lookups drop below 100ms, ideal for customer dashboards and auditing tools.
Key Performance Findings
Bulk Polling Delay
Large POST queries lack async callbacks, leading to ~3s wait time.
Dev Tip: Break into batches ≤200 EINs.
Timeout Strategy
import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://api.pactman.org/v1/check?ein=123456789",
timeout=(3.05, 27)
)
False Positives (2.1%)
Often caused by umbrella EINs (fiscal sponsors).
Cross-reference:
"irs_bmf_pub78_conflict": false
Chapter 3: Update Lag and Data Freshness
The Challenge: Real-Time vs. Government Timelines
While Pactman’s API delivers near-instant verification, its accuracy depends on the freshness of IRS data feeds. Our analysis reveals critical gaps between real-world charity status changes and their reflection in official databases:
"most_recent_bmf": "3/10/2025",
"organization_info_last_modified": "5/02/2025"
Key Findings:
IRS BMF Updates: Lag 7–53 days (varies by quarter).
Newly Approved Orgs: May take up to 2 months to appear in Pub 78.
Revocations: Detected within 24–72 hours post-IRS publication.
Why This Matters
1. Risk of False Negatives:
A charity approved on April 1st won’t be verifiable until June, potentially blocking donations.
Workaround: Use
"irs_bmf_pub78_conflict": falseto flag mismatches for manual review.
2. Fiscal Sponsors & Umbrella EINs:
Sub-organizations under a parent EIN (common in fiscal sponsorships) may show outdated data.
Example: A grant to a fiscally sponsored project might fail validation if the parent EIN’s status changed recently.
Chapter 4: Real-World Efficiency Gains
MetricBefore PactmanAfter PactmanManual Review Time35–40 hrs/week< 8 hrs/weekEIN Validation Errors4.3%0.1%Regulatory Audit RiskMediumLow
Case study: A major DAF automated 90% of charity onboarding and reduced error flags by over 90%.
Who Should Use It?
This API is tailor-made for:
✅ Fintechs handling donor flows
✅ CRMs for nonprofits
✅ Grant platforms (city/state/federal)
✅ Banks and payment processors
Example Lookup: ABORJAILY BANNISH FOUNDATION
{
"organization_name": "ABORJAILY BANNISH FOUNDATION",
"city": "WESTFIELD",
"state": "MA",
"ein": "996589560",
"foundation_type_description": "Private non-operating foundation (section 509(a))",
"bmf_status": true,
"pub78_verified": true,
"ofac_status": "This organization was NOT included in the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list."
}
Developer Benefits
🧠 No fuzzy matching — strict EINs only
⚡ Blazing-fast JSON responses
🔐 Fully OFAC-screened
IRS Pub 78 & BMF synced
🔗 Resources
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