canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/orghunter.com/orghunter

# Orghunter Charity Search API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Charity Search API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. OrgHunter's Charity Search API exposes a directory of around 2.5 million US 501(c)(3) charities and 87,000 Canadian charities, drawn from IRS and CRA filings. The six endpoints range from lightweight name-and-EIN search through geo lookup, financial detail, and a premium endpoint with full filing data, plus a categories endpoint for IRS NTEE classifications. It is suitable for nonprofit verification, donation matching, and grant-making workflows.

## For AI agents

Search and enrich US and Canadian charity records by name, EIN, geography, and IRS classification.

## Scope

Does not handle donation processing, grant management, or fundraising CRM - use for charity directory search and IRS classification lookup only.

## Capabilities

- Search the charity directory by name or EIN through GET /charitysearch
- Pull lightweight charity records including address and registration status via GET /charitybasic
- Find charities within a geographic radius using GET /charitygeo
- Retrieve financial filings such as revenue, assets, and expenses with GET /charityfinancial
- Access the full premium charity profile including officers and program detail through GET /charitypremium
- List the IRS NTEE category codes used to classify charities via GET /categories

## Use cases

### Donation Matching Verification

Corporate donation-matching programs need to confirm a recipient is an active 501(c)(3) before disbursing funds. GET /charitybasic or GET /charitysearch verifies registration and returns the EIN and address, removing manual IRS lookups from the matching workflow.

Example prompt: GET /charitysearch?searchTerm=American+Red+Cross and confirm the matching record's deductibility status before approving the match.

### Geographic Charity Discovery

Community foundations and grant-makers building local funding programs use GET /charitygeo to enumerate eligible charities within a service area. Combined with /categories filtering, the result feeds a grants pipeline scoped to a specific geography and mission area.

Example prompt: GET /charitygeo with a zip code and 25-mile radius, then filter by NTEE category code B for education.

### Nonprofit Financial Due Diligence

Donors and watchdog projects evaluating a charity want quick access to revenue, expense, and asset figures from the most recent 990 filing. GET /charityfinancial returns those figures keyed by EIN, and GET /charitypremium adds officer detail and program descriptions for deeper analysis.

Example prompt: GET /charityfinancial?ein=53-0196605 and surface revenue, total expenses, and program services ratio in a donor brief.

### Agent-Driven Charity Verification via Jentic

AI agents handling grant intake, donor advice, or compliance can verify charities through Jentic without provisioning the OrgHunter API key in the agent environment. Jentic exposes the six operations by intent and isolates the key.

Example prompt: Use Jentic to search 'verify a charity by EIN', load the GET /charitybasic schema, and execute with the EIN to return registration status.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/charitysearch` | Search charities by name or EIN |
| GET | `/charitybasic` | Retrieve a lightweight charity record |
| GET | `/charitygeo` | Find charities within a geographic radius |
| GET | `/charityfinancial` | Retrieve 990 financial figures |
| GET | `/charitypremium` | Retrieve full charity profile |
| GET | `/categories` | List IRS NTEE category codes |

## Key resources

- **Charity Search** — Directory search by name or EIN
- **Charity Basic** — Lightweight charity record with status and address
- **Charity Geo** — Geographic radius search
- **Charity Financial** — Revenue, expense, and asset figures from 990 filings
- **Charity Premium** — Full profile including officers and programs
- **Categories** — IRS NTEE classification codes

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Charity Search API by hand means passing its user_key query-parameter key on every call and mapping the several charity-detail tiers yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Charity Search from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** You choose which OrgHunter operations the agent may call, so you can limit it to the operations it needs, such as searching charities and reading basic or geo detail, while the financial or premium detail lookups stay out of the allowed set unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** Your OrgHunter API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find charities near a zip code' or 'look up a charity's IRS classification', and Jentic returns the matching OrgHunter operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Candid API** — Candid (formerly GuideStar) provides an alternative directory of US nonprofits with deeper editorial profiles.
- **Abstract API** — Abstract offers email and phone validation that complements charity contact records returned by OrgHunter.
- **Stripe API** — Stripe processes the donation payments that follow a successful charity verification.

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Charity Search API?

OrgHunter publishes documentation but not a maintained OpenAPI document. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Charity Search API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the Charity Search API use?

The API uses an API key passed as a query parameter (apiKey scheme). Through Jentic the key is stored encrypted in the vault and never enters the agent's context.

### Can I look up a charity by EIN with the Charity Search API?

Yes. GET /charitysearch and GET /charitybasic both accept an EIN parameter and return the matching charity record including registration status.

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

The OpenAPI spec does not declare numeric rate limits. OrgHunter throttles requests by plan tier - confirm the per-minute cap on charityapi.orghunter.com before running large enrichment batches.

### Is the Charity Search API free?

OrgHunter offers a free tier for basic search and tiered paid plans for premium endpoints like /charitypremium and /charityfinancial. Pricing and rate caps are listed on charityapi.orghunter.com.

### How do I find charities within a geographic radius through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'find charities near a zip code', load the GET /charitygeo schema, and execute with the zip code and radius in miles.

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

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, you decide which OrgHunter operations your agent may call and which stay off limits. You can allow only the search and lookup endpoints it needs, such as GET /charitysearch, GET /charitybasic, and GET /charitygeo, while keeping the richer GET /charityfinancial and GET /charitypremium detail out of the allowed set until you add them. Your own rules also govern the encrypted API key, so the agent invokes those operations without ever seeing the credential.