501(c)(3) Status Check by EIN: IRS Pub 78, Auto-Revocation and OFAC Grantee Verification

Grantee Eligibility Verifier checks nonprofit grantees in bulk by EIN before money moves. Paste a roster of EINs and get one flat row per organization: whether it is on the IRS Publication 78 list, its Business Master File (BMF) subsection and 509(a) foundation status, whether the IRS auto-revoked its exemption (and whether it was reinstated), and whether its legal name exactly matches an OFAC SDN entity. Each row ends with grant_eligible (true or false), a reasons list for every "no", and the as-of date of every source. It uses free public IRS and Treasury files and needs no login or API key.

Input

{
  "mode": "verify",
  "eins": ["530196605", "131635294", "135562351"],
  "names": [],
  "require_501c3": true,
  "max_eins": 10000
}

• mode: verify (default) or refresh_index (publisher maintenance, free).
• eins: one EIN per entry; dashes, spaces and dropped leading zeros are tolerated.
• names: exact IRS legal names, resolved to EINs through the BMF. A name shared by several EINs returns candidates as AMBIGUOUS.
• require_501c3: when true (default), subsection 03 is required; turn off to accept any Pub 78-listed organization.
• max_eins: hard cap per run (default and maximum 10000).

Output

One row per EIN, then a free SUMMARY row. Real example row (shortened here to the main fields):

{
  "ein": "530196605",
  "match_status": "FOUND",
  "bmf_name": "AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS",
  "bmf_city": "WASHINGTON",
  "bmf_state": "DC",
  "pub78_listed": true,
  "pub78_deductibility_codes": ["PC"],
  "pub78_deductibility_labels": "Public charity",
  "subsection_code": "03",
  "subsection_label": "501(c)(3) Charitable, religious, educational, scientific",
  "foundation_code_509a": "15",
  "foundation_label": "Publicly supported charity 170(b)(1)(A)(vi)",
  "ruling_date": "1938-12",
  "ntee_code": "P210",
  "latest_tax_period": "202506",
  "revoked": false,
  "ofac_name_hit": false,
  "private_foundation": false,
  "supporting_organization": false,
  "grant_eligible": true,
  "reasons": [],
  "pub78_asof": "2026-10-13",
  "bmf_asof": "2026-10-13",
  "revocation_asof": "2026-10-13",
  "ofac_asof": "2026-10-13",
  "url": "https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530196605"
}

match_status is FOUND, NOT_FOUND, AMBIGUOUS or INVALID_EIN. Full rows also include revenue and asset amounts, classification and exempt-status codes, all revocation fields, reasons_text, notes and an IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search link.

Use cases

Search phrases this actor is built for:

• "Verify 501(c)(3) EIN": check a single EIN or a whole grant docket and read grant_eligible and reasons_text.
• "IRS Pub 78 bulk check for grantee eligibility": run a 100 to 500 EIN docket before the board meeting, or re-run monthly to catch grantees that lost exemption mid-grant.
• "Nonprofit auto-revocation list check": read revoked, revocation_date and reinstatement_date for every grantee, plus private_foundation and supporting_organization flags for expenditure-responsibility cases.

Typical users are foundation grants managers, donor-advised fund sponsors, corporate giving and matching-gift programs, fiscal sponsors and AI agents that need a yes or no on a charity before approving a payment.

Pricing

Pay per result: $0.05 per EIN verified ($50 per 1,000), charged for every FOUND or NOT_FOUND EIN row. SUMMARY, AMBIGUOUS and INVALID_EIN rows are free, and so is a refresh_index run. A docket of 300 EINs costs $15.

Limits

• The actor loads a pre-built index of the IRS Pub 78, Auto-Revocation, BMF and OFAC files that the publisher refreshes weekly. If no index is reachable, a run rebuilds it inline (3 to 6 minutes). The *_asof columns show how fresh each source is.
• The OFAC check is an exact normalised-name match meant to catch obvious hits, not full sanctions screening; for fuzzy matching see the exclusion-debarment-screener actor by the same publisher.
• Churches and some government units are not in Pub 78; review notes and foundation_label for them instead of relying on grant_eligible alone.
• BMF "in care of" names and street addresses are not stored or returned. This is not legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Why is an organization in Pub 78 but missing from the BMF, or vice versa? The IRS updates the files on different cycles; each row keeps every source's as-of date.

Can I verify by name only? Yes, through names, but it must equal the IRS legal name. Common names return AMBIGUOUS with candidate EINs.

Does revoked: false with a revocation_date mean the organization is fine? It was auto-revoked once and later reinstated; check reinstatement_date and notes.