Maintaining access to Meta’s fundraising tools amidst CA AB488

Updated June 13, 2024: For the latest information on this topic, please review the Help Center article.

Meta is committed to helping nonprofits succeed. Therefore, we are publishing details about regular reviews Meta is conducting of nonprofits using our fundraising tools to remain in compliance with regulatory requirements in the US. This is meant to help your organization understand what these changes mean and help prevent your organization from losing access to Meta’s fundraising tools as we know they are crucial to the success of your nonprofit.

California’s AB488, a law regulating online fundraising platforms, came into force on January 1, 2023 and requires Meta to conduct daily checks of the Franchise Tax Board, Attorney General of California, and Internal Revenue Service blocklists. If your nonprofit organization is not in good standing and appears on any of these governmental agency blocklists, your organization will lose access to Meta’s fundraising tools. This includes the donate button on Facebook and Instagram. Note that this requirement is applicable to all US charities, not just those headquartered in California. The law requires that if you have been flagged by the State, regardless of your location, we will have to remove your access.

To see whether you are one of the blocklists, you can visit the following sites:

• Franchise Tax Board (FTB) blocklist: Download list here: Look at the “Revoked Exempt Organizations” list.
• Attorney General of California Verification Search: Download list here: Look at the “No” list.
• Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Revocation list: Download list here: Look at the “Chronological file.”

To help prevent this from happening, we suggest you frequently check your status with these agencies (Franchise Tax Board, Attorney General of California, Internal Revenue Service) to ensure you don’t have any paperwork coming due; the processing times may be long and could delay your prompt removal from the blocklists.

Additionally, Meta does not own or maintain any of these blocklists; they’re owned and maintained by the government agencies listed above.

If your organization loses access to Meta’s fundraising tools due to being out of compliance with the agencies listed, you will not be able to regain access until your organization is in good standing with all three government agencies and removed from all three official blocklists. Keep in mind that once an organization is in good standing, it may take several weeks to be removed from the official blocklists and you cannot proceed until you are removed from all blocklists.

How to gain access to Meta’s fundraising tools once you are off the blocklists:

• Request to reset your account and include evidence of good standing here.
• Re-apply to use our fundraising tools here.

We understand this may be inconvenient, but we’re required by law to implement this new process and it is important to Meta that nonprofits comply with their regulatory requirements. Publicly available information about this can be found in this Help Center article. Thank you for your partnership.