Changes to the Payments API for California Assembly Bill 488

Stephanie Thomas · November 2023

The State of California recently enacted legislation, California Assembly Bill 488 (CA AB 488), which regulates online charitable fundraising in the state. Specifically, the law prohibits charitable fundraising platforms, like Blackbaud, from assisting organizations not in “good standing” in California with making charitable solicitations to and receiving funds from California residents. Continue reading to learn about the required actions.Consistent with our legal obligation, beginning January 2024, transactions made through Blackbaud solutions by California donors to organizations that are not in “good standing” will no longer be accepted.

Note: Any U.S. registered charitable organization that operates or solicits donations in California is subject to this law.

We recommend that SKY developers using the Payments API take the following actions:

Include the new transaction_category parameter, such as tuition or membership, in your API requests. The transaction category defaults to donation.
To identify the payer's location, submit country with zip or country with state.
Ensure your application handles transactions that are declined due to California Assembly Bill 488. The Payments API will return a “400 Bad Request” response with an error code of 812: “California state law prohibits this transaction. Contact the organization to donate”.

For compliance with California state law, we added transaction_category to the following endpoints:

Transaction Categories

Transaction categories are now required, case-sensitive, and defined as: Category Description contract A fee charged by a party to a party for the execution of a contract. donation A charitable contribution to a nonprofit or organization. event A payment for a non-ticketed event registration, such as a conference, fundraiser, or gala. grant A payment awarded to an organization by a government agency or private institution for a specific purpose. membership A payment for a time-specified membership that can include access to events, benefits, or programs. merchandise A payment for branded products or items sold or given as benefits, such as clothing or gift certificates. other A payment that is not represented by an existing category in this list. platform The fee charged to a customer to use a software platform. pledge A payment toward a pledge commitment. property A gift deed or document recording the transfer of ownership of property from one party to another. purchase A payment for non-branded goods, such as an auction purchase. service A fee for services, such as consulting, training, or education from a nonprofit. sponsorship A payment made by businesses or individuals to sponsor a specific part of a program, event, or project. stock As deferred compensation, a one-time payment in the form of Common Stock shares or an option or other right to purchase shares. ticket A payment for an event that requires a ticket to gain access, participate, or attend, such as a raffle, concert, play, or exhibition. tuition A payment made to a school or institution for tuition fees associated with education.

For more information about the assembly bill or to check an organization’s status, see California Assembly Bill 488: Impact to Charitable Organizations.