canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/ebay.com/commerce-charity

# Ebay Charity API

The eBay Charity API lets third-party applications search and look up nonprofit organisations registered with eBay for Charity, the donation programme that lets sellers route a percentage of sale proceeds to a vetted charity. Two endpoints cover the full surface - keyword search across all supported organisations on a marketplace, and detail lookup by charity_org_id - returning legal name, EIN/registration number, logo, and mission summary. Applications use it to power charity pickers in listing flows and to verify a charity reference attached to a listing or sale.

## For AI agents

Search and look up nonprofit organisations registered with eBay for Charity by keyword or charity_org_id. Two read-only endpoints.

## Scope

Does not handle charity registration, donation processing, or seller opt-in - use for searching and looking up registered eBay for Charity nonprofits only.

## Capabilities

- Search registered eBay charities by keyword across a marketplace to populate a picker UI
- Retrieve full charity details - legal name, EIN, logo, mission - by charity_org_id
- Filter charity search results by registration ID to disambiguate similarly named organisations
- Validate a charity reference on a listing draft before submitting it to the Inventory API
- Power charity-aware checkout flows that show donation recipient details to buyers

## Use cases

### Charity picker in a seller listing flow

Sellers building listings via the Inventory API need to attach a charity_org_id and a donation percentage. Listing tools call /charity_org with a search query to populate a typeahead picker, then resolve the chosen entry through /charity_org/{charity_org_id} to confirm the legal name displayed on the live listing matches what eBay holds on file.

Example prompt: Search /charity_org for keyword 'animal' on EBAY_US, return the top 5 results, and resolve the user's pick via /charity_org/{charity_org_id}

### Donation transparency widget for buyers

Marketplaces and shopping agents that surface eBay listings can render a donation panel - 'this listing donates 10% to Charity X' - by calling /charity_org/{charity_org_id} with the ID returned on the listing. The endpoint provides the verified mission and logo, so the buyer-facing badge does not depend on free-text seller copy.

Example prompt: For listing item ID 123456789012 with charityId 5678, call /charity_org/5678 and render its name, mission, and logo in a donation panel

### Periodic registry refresh for a CRM

Nonprofit-focused CRMs that maintain a directory of eBay-registered charities run a nightly sync - paging through /charity_org search results per marketplace and upserting changes into their database. Because the API only returns active organisations, deleted or delisted charities naturally fall out of the local mirror.

Example prompt: Page through /charity_org for EBAY_US with empty query and upsert every entry into the local nonprofits table

### AI agent integration via Jentic

An AI agent that helps a seller list an item with a charity donation queries Jentic with 'search eBay charities by keyword'. Jentic returns the /charity_org operation, the agent loads its schema, and executes it with the seller's marketplace_id and the keyword the seller entered. The agent then resolves the picked charity_org_id via /charity_org/{charity_org_id} for confirmation before passing it to the Sell Inventory API.

Example prompt: Use Jentic to search 'find eBay charity by keyword', load /charity_org, execute it with q='wildlife' and marketplace_id=EBAY_US, then look up the chosen ID via /charity_org/{charity_org_id}

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /charity_org | Search registered eBay charities by keyword on a marketplace |
| GET | /charity_org/{charity_org_id} | Retrieve full detail for a specific charity organisation |

## Key resources

- **charity_org** — Search and detail lookup for nonprofit organisations registered with eBay for Charity

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the eBay Charity API by hand means running the OAuth 2.0 client-credentials flow for the commerce.charity.readonly scope, caching the application token, and setting the marketplace parameters on each call. Through Jentic you install once, import the Charity API from the API Directory, store the client credentials once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The Charity API puts the charity org id in the URL path (/charity_org/{charity_org_id}), so a rule can pin your agent to one nonprofit lookup: it can search and read that charity and nothing else. Since these are read-only operations, the agent's reach stays limited to the charities you allow.
- **Credential handling:** Your eBay OAuth client credentials are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance, which exchanges them for a scoped token and injects it at execution time. The raw client secret never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'search eBay charities', and Jentic returns the /charity_org operation with its q and marketplace_id parameters so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **eBay Sell Account API** — Sell Account opts a seller into the eBay for Charity programme; Charity API resolves which charity to attach.
- **eBay Browse API** — Browse returns the charityId on a listing; Charity API resolves it to legal name and mission.
- **eBay Sell Fulfillment API** — Fulfillment returns charity attribution on completed orders; Charity API enriches it for reporting.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Charity API use?

The Charity API uses OAuth 2.0. The two read endpoints accept an Application access token issued via the Client_Credentials grant - no user-context token is required. Through Jentic, the OAuth client credentials sit in your Jentic One instance and the agent receives only a scoped access token for the commerce.charity.readonly scope.

### Can I create or register a charity through the Charity API?

No. The API is read-only - only GET /charity_org search and GET /charity_org/{charity_org_id} detail lookup are available. Charity registration with eBay for Charity happens through eBay's nonprofit onboarding process on charity.ebay.com, not through this API.

### What are the rate limits for the Charity API?

Commerce APIs share an application-level daily quota issued per partner. Use the Developer Analytics API to see the live remaining quota for the commerce.charity resource. Because both endpoints are simple lookups, most integrations stay well within the default allowance.

### How do I search for a charity by keyword through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'search eBay charities by keyword', load the /charity_org operation schema, and execute it with q (the keyword) and marketplace_id (e.g. EBAY_US). Install with pip install jentic. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### Are the same charities returned on every marketplace?

No. The Charity API is marketplace-scoped - eBay for Charity registers organisations per marketplace, so a US-registered nonprofit will only appear when searching with marketplace_id=EBAY_US. Always pass an explicit marketplace_id rather than relying on a default.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the eBay Charity API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which of the two read-only operations your agent may call: GET /charity_org keyword search and GET /charity_org/{charity_org_id} detail lookup. Since the charity_org_id sits in the URL path, you can pin the agent to a single nonprofit so it can search and read that charity and nothing else. The operations only read registered charities, so the agent can never register, edit, or process donations for any organisation.