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About us
NatureDonate started in 2018 as a spreadsheet. One of us had spent a decade doing grants administration for a land trust and kept getting the same question from people who wanted to give to conservation groups they had never heard of: is this one real, and where does the money actually go. The spreadsheet answered it for about sixty organizations. This site answers it for around 1,900.
What we are
A registered index and a grant-making intermediary. Donations go to NatureDonate Giving Fund, a 501(c)(3) (EIN 83-1207744), which grants them on to the organization you named on a fixed cycle. That structure is what lets us take a card, issue one receipt, and pay out to a small group that has no card processing of its own.
What we are not
We are not an evaluator. We check that an organization is registered and that its financials say what it says they say. We do not rank groups by impact and we do not have a view on whether nest patrol beats litigation. The description on a listing is written by the organization; the registration status, the financial figures and the score beside it are compiled by us. See How we vet organizations for exactly where that line falls.
How we are paid for
Six staff, four of them part time, out of Asheville. Roughly two thirds of our budget is foundation grants and the rest is donors who give to the operating fund directly. The 2.2% + 30¢ on a donation covers processing and the payout and is not a margin — the breakdown is on Where your money goes. Our own Form 990 is public and we will email you the audited statements if you ask.
Press and partnership questions: help@naturedonate.org.