New startup ideas ยท collection
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Direct giving, without the middlemen
Startup ideas for moving money from a donor to a verified need with almost nothing skimmed on the way, and for catching fraud before the money moves.
Americans gave $592.50 billion in 2024 and crowdfunded 80 million times in 2025, yet the money still passes through platforms that take a percentage and a tip, fiscal sponsors that take 5%, donor-advised funds holding $328 billion at 0.60 to 1.00% a year, and federated intermediaries built for the era before a hospital could confirm an invoice by API. Three things changed in the last twelve months. From tax year 2026 the 86% of filers who never itemized can deduct $1,000 of cash gifts. Federal money left the sector: one in three nonprofits lost government funding and AmeriCorps cancelled 41% of its grants, so needs are met directly or not at all. And the fraud that follows every disaster now arrives with AI-generated faces, while California has started enforcing its platform law. This collection holds the infrastructure, APIs, agents and software that move money from a donor to a verified need with almost nothing skimmed, and stop fraud before the money moves. United States only. No marketplaces.
What changed in the last twelve months
Dated facts the collection is built on; each links to where it was read.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets standard-deduction filers, about 86% of taxpayers in 2026, deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities ($2,000 on a joint return) starting with tax year 2026. Itemizers lose the first 0.5% of AGI, top-bracket donors get 35 cents per dollar instead of 37, and corporations face a 1% floor. Tax Foundation puts the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion of revenue over 2025-2034 and expects donations frontloaded into 2025.
Tax Foundation, Changes to Charitable Giving Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
GoFundMe Giving Funds: a no-fee DAF for everyone
In July 2025 GoFundMe launched Giving Funds, a donor-advised fund with $0 to open, $5 minimum contributions and grants and no admin fees, against the 0.60% to 1.00% a year that Fidelity, Schwab and National Philanthropic Trust charge. The largest crowdfunding platform now holds donors' charitable balances itself.
Donor-advised funds hold $327.87 billion
The 2025 Annual DAF Report (IRS Form 990 data for fiscal 2024) counts 3.59 million DAF accounts holding $327.87 billion, up 27.9% in a year: contributions of $90.57 billion (+38.6%), grants of $64.60 billion (+17.9%), a 25.2% payout rate and an average account of $91,300, across 1,512 sponsors, 803 of them community foundations.
DAFpay: three-click DAF giving at checkout
Chariot's DAFpay, a TIME Best Invention of 2025, puts DAF giving into donation forms next to cards and Apple Pay. DAFpay volume grew 46% in 2025 to over $5 million, with an average gift near $1,000 and a median of $250, through Fundraise Up, DonorDrive and Almabase integrations.
FBI: $96 million lost to fake charities and crowdfunding in 2024
The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert on charitable fraud after mass-casualty and disaster events counts more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million in losses in 2024 to fraudulent charities, crowdfunding accounts and disaster campaigns. During the Los Angeles wildfires, scam sites carrying the disaster's name went up within hours with stolen news photos, taking money through gift cards, peer-to-peer apps and crypto wallets, some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes.
FBI IC3, Beware of Charitable Fraud Related to Mass Casualty and Disaster Events (PSA250116)
California enforces its fundraising-platform law
Under AB 488, charitable fundraising platforms must register with the California Attorney General (since June 12, 2024), solicit only for charities in good standing with the AG, the Franchise Tax Board and the IRS, and cut a charity off within five business days when it falls out. First annual reports were due July 15, 2025; in November 2025 the Attorney General issued a cease-and-desist to a platform, and other states are drafting platform rules of their own.
Federal money left the sector in 2025
Urban Institute found one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025; federal grants to everyday charities (not hospitals or universities) fell more than 40% in February-September 2025 against a year earlier, and the October 1, 2025 shutdown compounded it. Over $50 billion of foreign aid was eliminated with USAID; GiveDirectly lost $20 million of US-funded cash transfers to about 38,000 families.
Urban Institute, How Government Funding Disruptions Affected Nonprofits in Early 2025
AmeriCorps cancelled $400 million of grants
On April 25, 2025 AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants, about 41% of its grant funding, across 1,031 grantees, 32,000 members and senior volunteers and more than 1,000 local programs, weeks after discharging its 2,000-person NCCC cohort early. Twenty-four states sued and a federal judge in Maryland ordered the cuts reversed for them. Volunteer programs now plan around a federal partner that can vanish over a weekend.
Philanthropy News Digest, AmeriCorps dismisses corps, staff, cancels $400 million in grants
Stablecoin donations reached $32 million
The Giving Block's 2026 report counts more than $100 million of crypto donations through its platform in 2025, over $32 million of it in stablecoins (RLUSD 17% and USDC 11% of volume): a rail with no card fees and a receipt on a public ledger, under a federal statute since the GENIUS Act of July 18, 2025.
Giving USA: $592.50 billion in 2024
Americans gave an estimated $592.50 billion to charity in 2024, up 6.3% (3.3% after inflation). Individuals gave just over $392 billion (+8.2%), foundations $109 billion, corporations $44.40 billion; every recipient subsector grew in current dollars.
GoFundMe: 80 million donations, essentials up 20%
GoFundMe's 2025 Year in Help report (December 9, 2025) counts nearly 80 million donations, 47 million to individual fundraisers and 32 million to nonprofits, with essential-expense fundraising up 20%, school-supply fundraising up more than 50%, and Charity the fastest-growing category ahead of Monthly Bills and Faith. Crowdfunding is how Americans cover bills now, and each one carries a processing fee and a tip.
Agentic giving named as a category
On July 30, 2026 Fundraise Up, used by thousands of nonprofits, announced Agentic Giving: a donor tells an AI assistant what they care about and it finds the organization, compares it against others and completes or proposes the gift, often without a website visit. AI-assisted giving is a small share of donations today; the platforms expect it to grow faster than nonprofits are ready for.
Graveyard: Open Collective Foundation dissolved
The fiscal sponsor behind 600 collectives froze them on October 1, 2024 and dissolved on December 31, 2024: its 5% host fee could not cover compliance and operations for hundreds of small groups. The intermediary that let informal groups take tax-deductible money died of its own cost structure; the groups did not.
What the directory shows
Companies across 15 accelerators whose pitch mentions each term: last two years / all-time / alive now.
- fundrais 4 / 50 / 41
- crowdfund 1 / 44 / 37
- nonprofit 1 / 35 / 32
- non-profit 1 / 23 / 21
- charit 1 / 21 / 13
- church 1 / 5 / 5
- humanitarian 1 / 4 / 4
- philanthrop 1 / 4 / 4
- donat 0 / 37 / 28
- donor 0 / 23 / 20
- volunteer 0 / 10 / 7
- disaster relief 0 / 4 / 3
- mutual aid 0 / 3 / 2
- giving platform 0 / 1 / 1
- 501(c) 0 / 1 / 1
Fresh concepts
Written for this collection, one call per sub-theme, from the dated developments above and what the directory shows from 2025 on; each names the development it rides and the 2025-26 signals it is grounded in. Each concept has its own page.
Set of 54, generated 2026-08-26 by claude-fable-5.
Direct rails: donor to need with nothing skimmed
Instant payments (RTP, FedNow), stablecoins under GENIUS, no-fee DAF plumbing, paying a verified biller instead of a person. What replaces the 2.9% plus $0.30, the tip and the sponsor's 5%, and what the operator charges instead.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Givewire
Pay-by-bank donation checkout that replaces the card fee with a flat quarter
A donation checkout button that moves gifts over RTP and FedNow directly from the donor's bank account to the charity's, settling in seconds.
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets the 86% of taxpayers who take the standard deduction deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts starting tax year 2026; Tax Foundation scores the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion over 2025-2034.
GoFundMe Giving Funds
Fundament
White-label DAF software that lets community foundations drop the 0.60% admin fee
Back-office software for community foundation DAF programs: account opening, grant due diligence against IRS and state charity data, statements, and Form 990 schedules, priced flat per account instead of basis points on assets.
grounded in In July 2025 GoFundMe launched Giving Funds with $0 to open and no admin fees against the 0.60% to 1.00% that Fidelity, Schwab and National Philanthropic Trust charge.
GoFundMe
Stewardpay
Benevolence bill-pay for congregations that pays the landlord, never the person
Software for church benevolence and deacon funds that pays a verified biller, the landlord, utility, hospital or pharmacy, directly against a confirmed invoice, and documents the need-based criteria that keep a hardship program inside a charitable class under IRC section 170.
grounded in GoFundMe's December 9, 2025 Year in Help report shows essential-expense fundraising up 20% and Faith among the fastest-growing categories; the FBI's January 16, 2025 alert counts about $96 million lost in 2024 to fraudulent charities and crowdfunding, taken through gift cards and peer-to-peer apps; Urban Institute found one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025.
Federal money left the sector in 2025
Reliefline
Section 139 disaster relief payments as an API for employers and payroll
An API that lets employers and payroll providers run qualified disaster relief programs under Section 139: it checks the federal disaster declaration, applies need-based eligibility criteria, pays employees over FedNow, and produces the documentation file.
grounded in Urban Institute found one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025 and federal grants to everyday charities fell more than 40% in February-September 2025; AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants on April 25, 2025.
Stablecoin donations reached $32 million
Clearalms
Headless stablecoin acceptance for giving platforms and DAF sponsors under GENIUS
An API that lets giving platforms, DAF sponsors and community foundations accept USDC and RLUSD donations, auto-convert to dollars, screen wallets, and issue a receipt anchored to the public ledger.
grounded in The Giving Block's 2026 report counts over $100 million of crypto donations in 2025, more than $32 million in stablecoins, with RLUSD at 17% and USDC at 11% of volume; the GENIUS Act became law July 18, 2025; YC's Fall 2026 Requests for Startups includes The Best Time to Build in Crypto.
Agentic giving named as a category
Almoner
A donor-side giving agent that verifies the charity and pays it directly
A subscription agent for individual donors: state what you care about and it verifies the organization beyond the 501(c)(3) letter, checking IRS qualification, state regulator good standing under the AB 488 standard, filing history and domain age, then executes the gift over a bank rail straight to the charity and keeps the substantiation file for the new $1,000 deduction.
grounded in On July 30, 2026 Fundraise Up announced Agentic Giving, where an AI assistant finds the organization and completes the gift without a website visit.
Proof of need as infrastructure
Verifying a hospital bill, an eviction notice, an insurance denial, a disaster address or a school roster by API; registries of verified needs that any donor app or giving agent can read; the biller as the verifier of last resort.
GoFundMe
Veribill
The biller confirms the bill before the donor's money moves
An API that asks the hospital, utility or pharmacy to confirm an invoice is real, outstanding and payable by a third party, then routes payment straight to the biller.
grounded in GoFundMe's 2025 Year in Help report (December 9, 2025): nearly 80 million donations, essential-expense fundraising up 20%, school-supply fundraising up more than 50%, Monthly Bills among the top categories.
FBI
Groundproof
One API call that says the disaster victim and address are real
A verification API for disaster giving: is this address inside the federally declared disaster footprint, does the claimant actually control that address, and is the photo or video in the appeal stolen from news coverage or AI-generated.
grounded in FBI IC3 alert of January 16, 2025: more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million lost in 2024 to fraudulent charities, crowdfunding accounts and disaster campaigns; during the Los Angeles wildfires, scam sites carrying the disaster's name went up within hours with stolen news photos, some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes.
Federal money left the sector in 2025
Docketline
A benevolence agent that checks the eviction docket and pays the landlord
An agent for congregations and mutual-aid groups: a member uploads an eviction notice or shutoff notice, the agent confirms the case on the county court docket or the utility account, and pays the landlord or utility directly from the benevolence fund, filing the need-based record that keeps the program a charitable-class program.
grounded in Urban Institute: one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025, and federal grants to everyday charities fell more than 40% in February-September 2025 against a year earlier, compounded by the October 1, 2025 shutdown.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Reliefwire
Verification that keeps employer disaster relief tax free under Section 139
Software for employers and payroll providers running disaster relief for employees: it confirms the employee's address sits in a federally declared disaster area, checks that claimed expenses fit Section 139's qualified categories, and documents everything so payments stay tax-free, with the same rail supporting an employer's 501(c)(3) employee relief fund.
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets standard-deduction filers, about 86% of taxpayers in 2026, deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 joint) starting with tax year 2026; Tax Foundation scores the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion over 2025-2034.
Agentic giving named as a category
Needcast
The registry of verified needs that giving agents can actually trust
A machine-readable registry of verified needs: each record is a biller-confirmed invoice held inside a sponsor charity's need-based program, with the charity's state and IRS standing attached, exposed by API so donor apps and giving agents can read and fund it.
grounded in On July 30, 2026 Fundraise Up announced Agentic Giving: a donor tells an AI assistant what they care about and it finds the organization and completes or proposes the gift, often without a website visit.
California enforces its fundraising-platform law
Goodstand
Continuous good-standing and deepfake screening for regulated fundraising platforms
Monitoring software for state charity regulators, with platforms as the second seat: it continuously cross-checks every charity a platform solicits for against the state registry, the Franchise Tax Board and the IRS, watches filing history and domain age to catch Form 1023-EZ shells, and runs a deepfake test on solicitation media.
grounded in Under AB 488, first annual platform reports were due July 15, 2025; in November 2025 the California Attorney General issued a cease-and-desist to a platform, and other states are drafting platform rules of their own (Charity Lawyer Blog, December 22, 2025).
Fraud caught before the money moves
Fake campaigns and fake charities in the hours after a disaster: organizer identity, domain age, stolen-photo and deepfake detection, good-standing checks under AB 488, takedown and clawback workflows. The platform and regulator side of the FBI's $96 million.
FBI
Emberline
Catches fake disaster campaigns in the first hours, before donations move
A monitoring queue for crowdfunding and giving platforms that scores every new campaign referencing an active disaster: domain and account age, reverse-match of images against wire and news photography, a deepfake test on the appeal video, and payout details that resolve to gift cards, peer-to-peer apps or fresh crypto wallets.
grounded in The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert (PSA250116) counts more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million in 2024 losses; during the Los Angeles wildfires scam sites went up within hours with stolen news photos, some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes.
California enforces its fundraising-platform law
Docketry
Casework software for state charity regulators policing platforms and fake charities
Case management built for state charity bureaus: intake from complaints and platform reports, automated evidence capture of scam pages before they vanish, domain and registration lookups, cease-and-desist and takedown letter workflows, and cross-state referral when the organizer sits elsewhere.
grounded in AB 488 first annual reports due July 15, 2025; November 2025 cease-and-desist from the California AG; spread of platform regulation to other states (Charity Lawyer Blog, December 22, 2025).
Agentic giving named as a category
Almscheck
The verification call a giving agent makes before it completes a gift
An API that AI giving assistants and agentic checkout flows call before finishing a donation: is this charity in good standing with its state regulator, the FTB and the IRS, does the payout account belong to the charity of record, how old is the domain, and has this appeal been flagged.
grounded in Fundraise Up introduced Agentic Giving on July 30, 2026 and expects AI-assisted giving to grow faster than nonprofits are ready for.
Donor-advised funds hold $327
Grantsieve
Grantee screening for DAF sponsors that goes beyond the IRS determination letter
Screening software for DAF sponsors and community foundations that scores every grantee before a grant is approved: state good standing and filing history, age and consistency of the organization's web presence, officer identity across filings, and overlap with known scam patterns from disaster fraud alerts.
grounded in The 2025 Annual DAF Report counts 3.59 million accounts, $327.87 billion in assets (+27.9%), $64.60 billion in grants (+17.9%) across 1,512 sponsors, 803 of them community foundations.
FBI
Stewardly
An agent that vets hardship appeals before a church or employer pays
An investigation agent for congregations, mutual-aid groups and small employers running Section 139 disaster programs: given an appeal, it verifies the organizer's identity, reverse-searches the photos, checks domain and account age, and, following the pay-the-bill-not-the-person pattern, contacts the hospital, landlord or utility to confirm the invoice so the group pays the biller directly.
grounded in The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert: 4,500 complaints, $96 million, AI-generated deepfakes fronting appeals.
The 2026 deduction as a product
The 86% of filers newly able to deduct $1,000 or $2,000 of cash gifts: receipts and substantiation for people who have never itemized, bank and payroll integrations, counting toward the cap, and making direct help deduction-eligible through compliant charitable-class programs.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Givetally
Tracks a household's $1,000 charitable deduction and builds the proof automatically
A consumer app that connects bank and card accounts, identifies cash gifts to qualifying charities, keeps a running total toward the $1,000 single and $2,000 joint cap, and stores the contemporaneous written acknowledgment each gift needs under IRC 170(f)(8).
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets standard-deduction filers, about 86% of taxpayers in 2026, deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 joint) from tax year 2026; Tax Foundation scores the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion over 2025-2034.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Netgood
Payroll rails that make the 2026 deduction automatic in every paycheck
An API for payroll providers and employers that runs post-tax payroll giving: the employee picks charities, money moves by ACH directly from payroll to the charity, and the pay stub shows the running total toward the $1,000 or $2,000 cap with a compliant receipt issued per gift and a consolidated year-end acknowledgment.
grounded in OBBBA signed July 4, 2025, non-itemizer deduction effective tax year 2026 for about 86% of taxpayers, $2,000 on a joint return.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Attestly
Receipts, acknowledgments and good-standing proof for charities facing first-time deductors
Software for small nonprofits that automatically issues IRC 170(f)(8)-compliant contemporaneous written acknowledgments, produces the January statement donors will need for the new deduction, and maintains a live good-standing pack: state charity registration, IRS status, filing history.
grounded in OBBBA deduction effective tax year 2026 for 86% of filers.
Agentic giving named as a category
Standwell
One API call telling a checkout or giving agent if this gift qualifies
An eligibility and fraud API for donation platforms and agentic giving providers, called before a gift completes.
grounded in Fundraise Up announced Agentic Giving on July 30, 2026.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Substantia
An agent that substantiates the new charitable deduction for CPA clients
An agent service for CPA firms preparing 2026 returns: with client permission it reads bank transactions and email receipts, matches each cash gift to a charity that was qualifying and in good standing on the gift date, validates that the acknowledgment meets IRC 170(f)(8), applies the $1,000/$2,000 cap and the itemizer 0.5% AGI floor correctly, and produces workpapers.
grounded in OBBBA signed July 4, 2025, deduction effective tax year 2026; itemizers lose the first 0.5% of AGI and top-bracket donors get 35 cents per dollar, details preparers must apply.
Unbundling the $328 billion in donor-advised funds
DAF checkout everywhere a card is accepted, grant payment and reconciliation for the 1,512 sponsors, sponsor software at GoFundMe's price, payout transparency, DAF-to-verified-need flows, moving idle balances to where the need is.
Agentic giving named as a category
Granton
The DAF grant rail for AI giving agents
An API that lets AI giving assistants initiate, document and track DAF grant recommendations on a donor's behalf, returning sponsor confirmation and grant status to the agent.
grounded in 'On July 30, 2026 Fundraise Up announced Agentic Giving'; 'DAFpay volume grew 46% in 2025 to over $5 million, with an average gift near $1,000'; '3.59 million DAF accounts holding $327.87 billion' per the 2025 Annual DAF Report
California enforces its fundraising-platform law
Remitgrant
ACH grant payment and reconciliation for DAF sponsors still mailing checks
A disbursement rail for DAF sponsors and community foundations that pays grants by ACH against a verified charity record, auto-reconciles to the fund ledger, and blocks payment when a charity falls out of good standing.
grounded in 'grants of $64.60 billion (+17.9%)...
GoFundMe Giving Funds
Hostfund
White-label DAF back office so community foundations can charge zero admin fees
Sponsor-in-a-box software for community foundations: account opening, contribution receipts, grant due diligence, Form 990 schedules and donor portal, priced flat per account instead of a percentage of assets.
grounded in 'In July 2025 GoFundMe launched Giving Funds, a donor-advised fund with $0 to open, $5 minimum contributions and grants and no admin fees, against the 0.60% to 1.00% a year that Fidelity, Schwab and National Philanthropic Trust charge'; '1,512 sponsors, 803 of them community foundations' and 'average account of $91,300' (2025 Annual DAF Report)
California enforces its fundraising-platform law
Payoutline
DAF payout and flow-through reporting for state charity regulators
Analytics built from Form 990 filings and sponsor disclosures that shows each state's regulator which DAF sponsors and fundraising platforms hold money longest, which charities they pay, and which payees are not in good standing.
grounded in 'First annual reports were due July 15, 2025; in November 2025 the Attorney General issued a cease-and-desist to a platform' (AB 488 update, December 22, 2025); 'a 25.2% payout rate' across '1,512 sponsors' (2025 Annual DAF Report); 'under 1% of exempt organizations are examined in a year'
Federal money left the sector in 2025; hardship programs must replace lost government funding with private dollars
Billclear
Lets DAF dollars pay verified hospital, rent and utility bills legally
Invoice verification and payment infrastructure for public charities running need-based hardship programs: the biller confirms the invoice by API, the charity's charitable-class criteria are applied, and a DAF grant to the charity funds direct payment to the hospital, landlord or utility.
grounded in 'one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025' (Urban Institute); 'essential-expense fundraising up 20%' and 'Charity the fastest-growing category ahead of Monthly Bills' (GoFundMe 2025 Year in Help, December 9, 2025); 'a 25.2% payout rate' on $327.87 billion
Agentic giving named as a category
Quickenalms
An agent that puts your idle DAF balance to work on verified needs
A donor-side agent that reads DAF statements from any sponsor, flags money sitting beyond the donor's intended pace, and proposes ready-to-approve grants to charities it has checked against state good standing, filing history and domain age.
grounded in 'On July 30, 2026 Fundraise Up announced Agentic Giving'; '3.59 million DAF accounts holding $327.87 billion, up 27.9% in a year' with 'a 25.2% payout rate and an average account of $91,300' (2025 Annual DAF Report); FBI's January 16, 2025 alert counting 'about $96 million in losses in 2024' to fraudulent charities
Mutual aid, congregations and employer hardship funds
Neighborhood funds, church benevolence, union and employer relief under Section 139, disaster funds run by the community itself, with verification, audit and receipts that stand up without a national intermediary.
'Universal charitable deduction from 2026'
Steepled
Benevolence fund software that pays the landlord, not the parishioner
Case management for church benevolence funds: need-based intake against a written charitable-class policy, direct payment of rent, utility and pharmacy bills against verified invoices, and a board-ready audit trail.
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, with the deduction starting tax year 2026; GoFundMe's 2025 Year in Help report (December 9, 2025) showing essential-expense fundraising up 20% with Charity the fastest-growing category ahead of Monthly Bills and Faith; the Open Collective Foundation graveyard (dissolved December 31, 2024) as proof that a 5% human-run intermediary cannot administer small funds, software has to.
'FBI
Veriplea
Screens disaster appeals for deepfakes and fake organizers before funds open
A screening API for giving platforms, community foundations and community-run disaster funds.
grounded in FBI IC3 alert of January 16, 2025 counting more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million lost to fraudulent charities and crowdfunding in 2024, with Los Angeles wildfire scam sites fronted by AI-generated deepfakes; YC Fall 2026 Requests for Startups 'Proving You're Human' and 'AI-Native Compliance Infrastructure'; AB 488 enforcement including a November 2025 cease-and-desist.
'Universal charitable deduction from 2026'
Commonhearth
Fiscal host software so community foundations can shelter mutual aid groups profitably
A back office that lets a community foundation host informal mutual-aid groups as charitable-class programs.
grounded in Open Collective Foundation freezing 600 collectives on October 1, 2024 and dissolving December 31, 2024 because its 5% fee could not cover compliance; the 2025 Annual DAF Report counting 803 community foundations among 1,512 DAF sponsors; the deduction starting tax year 2026 under the act signed July 4, 2025.
'California enforces its fundraising-platform law'
Foundwatch
Gives state charity regulators radar on pop-up disaster funds
Monitoring software for state charity regulators.
grounded in AB 488 first annual reports due July 15, 2025 and the November 2025 cease-and-desist from the California Attorney General, with other states drafting platform rules (Charity Lawyer Blog, December 22, 2025); the FBI's January 16, 2025 alert on Los Angeles wildfire scam sites going up within hours with AI-generated deepfakes.
'Stablecoin donations reached $32 million'
Payvouch
An agent that confirms the bill with the biller, then pays it directly
An AI agent service for mutual-aid networks, congregations and union relief funds.
grounded in The Giving Block's 2026 report counting over $32 million of stablecoin donations in 2025 (RLUSD 17% and USDC 11% of volume) under the GENIUS Act of July 18, 2025; GoFundMe's December 9, 2025 report of essential-expense fundraising up 20%, meaning rent and utility bills are what community funds now pay; the FBI's January 16, 2025 alert showing appeal-side verification alone lost $96 million in a year.
After the federal money
One in three nonprofits lost government funding and AmeriCorps cut 41% of its grants: replacing grant income with direct community funding, a shared back office for the nonprofits that lost staff, agents that do the compliance and reporting a grant officer used to.
Rides 'AmeriCorps cancelled $400 million of grants' and 'Federal money left the sector in 2025'
Granform
An AI grant officer for nonprofits that lost the staff who did compliance
Granform runs the grant back office for small nonprofits: it drafts federal and state financial reports, tracks drawdowns and match requirements, preps single-audit documentation, and monitors award terms for clawback risk.
grounded in 'On April 25, 2025 AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants, about 41% of its grant funding, across 1,031 grantees.' 'One in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025.' YC Fall 2026 RFS 'AI-Native Compliance Infrastructure'.
Rides 'Graveyard
Hearthhost
Fiscal sponsorship software so community foundations can host groups at cost
Hearthhost gives community foundations a hosting stack for small unincorporated groups: fund accounting per collective, expense approval, 1099 and receipt automation, organizer identity verification, and state registration tracking.
grounded in 'The fiscal sponsor behind 600 collectives froze them on October 1, 2024 and dissolved on December 31, 2024: its 5% host fee could not cover compliance and operations.' 'One in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025.' '1,512 sponsors, 803 of them community foundations' (Annual DAF Report 2025).
Rides 'Universal charitable deduction from 2026'
Steadygive
Converts a defunded nonprofit's mailing list into recurring direct ACH donors
Steadygive is replacement-revenue software for nonprofits that lost government funding: it runs campaigns pitched around the new $1,000 non-itemizer deduction, signs supporters up for monthly ACH gifts straight to the nonprofit's bank account, and issues the acknowledgment letters and year-end tax summaries.
grounded in 'The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets standard-deduction filers, about 86% of taxpayers in 2026, deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 joint) starting with tax year 2026.' 'One in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025.' Tax Foundation puts the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion over 2025-2034.
Rides 'GoFundMe
Parishline
Hardship programs for congregations that pay the landlord, not the person
Parishline lets a congregation run a compliant charitable-class hardship program: members apply with need-based criteria, an agent collects the rent, utility or pharmacy invoice, confirms it with the biller, and the church pays the biller directly.
grounded in 'GoFundMe's 2025 Year in Help report (December 9, 2025) counts nearly 80 million donations...
Rides 'Federal money left the sector in 2025'
Reliefrail
Employee hardship grants through payroll, paid to verified billers
Reliefrail is an API that payroll and benefits platforms embed to give employers hardship programs: Section 139 qualified disaster payments and charitable-class employee relief funds, with coworker contributions collected pre-tax-receipted and grants paid directly to the landlord, hospital or utility against an invoice the biller confirms.
grounded in 'Federal grants to everyday charities fell more than 40% in February-September 2025' and 'the October 1, 2025 shutdown compounded it.' 'Essential-expense fundraising up 20%' (GoFundMe, December 9, 2025).
Rides 'AmeriCorps cancelled $400 million of grants'
Servestack
Runs state service programs that can no longer count on a federal partner
Servestack is program software for state service commissions and the local programs AmeriCorps used to fund: member enrollment and eligibility, stipend disbursement, hour tracking, and reporting that satisfies whichever funder is paying this year, federal, state or philanthropic.
grounded in 'On April 25, 2025 AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants...
Evidence a dollar arrived
Receipt-level transparency, recipient-reported outcomes, cash-transfer evidence, ledgers that donors and regulators both accept, ratings and good standing served as APIs to every app that moves a gift.
Universal charitable deduction from 2026
Ackfold
Every small gift receipted and deduction-ready for the new $1,000 write-off
A consumer app that collects contemporaneous written acknowledgments from every place a person gives, church envelope, payroll, donation form, and verifies each recipient qualifies before the gift by checking IRS and state standing, not just the determination letter.
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, lets standard-deduction filers deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts ($2,000 joint) starting tax year 2026; Tax Foundation scores the non-itemizer deduction at $74 billion over 2025-2034.
Stablecoin donations reached $32 million
Chainstub
Turns stablecoin gifts into IRS-grade receipts and proof the dollar arrived
An API for nonprofits that accept stablecoins directly: it watches the charity's wallet, matches each inbound RLUSD or USDC transfer to a donor, issues the IRC 170 acknowledgment automatically, and publishes a ledger view tying the on-chain receipt to the program expenditure it funded.
grounded in The Giving Block's 2026 report counts over $100 million of crypto donations in 2025, more than $32 million in stablecoins, with RLUSD at 17% and USDC at 11% of volume, 'a rail with no card fees and a receipt on a public ledger, under a federal statute since the GENIUS Act of July 18, 2025.' YC's Fall 2026 RFS includes The Best Time to Build in Crypto.
FBI
Vouchline
A verification agent for employer disaster grants that pays bills, not people
An agent service for employers running Section 139 disaster-relief and employee hardship programs.
grounded in The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert counts more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million lost in 2024 to fraudulent charities, crowdfunding accounts and disaster campaigns, with Los Angeles wildfire scam sites up within hours, 'some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes.' YC's Fall 2026 RFS includes Proving You're Human.
Donor-advised funds hold $327
Grantecho
Proof a DAF grant landed and did something, sold to sponsors
Software for community foundations and DAF sponsors that confirms each grant's arrival at the grantee's bank, checks the grantee's state good standing and filing history before the next disbursement, and collects short recipient-reported outcome and receipt-level spend updates.
grounded in The 2025 Annual DAF Report counts $327.87 billion across 3.59 million accounts, grants of $64.60 billion up 17.9%, and 803 community foundations among 1,512 sponsors.
Giving agents, and the nonprofit side of agentic giving
An agent that gives on a donor's behalf under a budget and a values statement, checks the fraud signals, completes the gift and files the receipt; the catalog of needs a nonprofit exposes to agents; scoped payment tokens and consent records for donations an agent initiated.
Rides 'Agentic giving named as a category'
Needstack
Publishes a nonprofit's verified needs as a catalog giving agents can read and pay
A small nonprofit gets a hosted, machine-readable endpoint listing its programs and specific fundable needs, each carrying verification metadata: EIN, state attorney general good standing, 990 filing history, domain age, and for bill-pay needs the biller's confirmed invoice.
grounded in Fundraise Up introduced Agentic Giving on July 30, 2026, with gifts completed 'often without a website visit.' Urban Institute found one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025, pushing them toward individual donors.
Rides 'Agentic giving named as a category' and 'FBI
Grantscrip
Scoped payment tokens and signed consent records for donations an agent initiates
An API for giving platforms and agent builders that issues single-use payment credentials scoped to a verified EIN and a dollar cap, bound to a signed record of the donor's mandate: budget, values statement, approval mode.
grounded in The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert counts 4,500+ complaints and about $96 million lost in 2024, with LA wildfire scam sites live within hours, some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes.
Rides 'Donor-advised funds hold $327
Grantport
Sponsor-side software that takes grant recommendations from donors' giving agents
Community foundations and other DAF sponsors get an endpoint where a donor's agent submits a grant recommendation; Grantport verifies the grantee is a 501(c)(3) in good standing with state regulators, enforces the no-grants-to-individuals rule, checks filing history and domain age, and queues the approval for sponsor staff.
grounded in The 2025 Annual DAF Report counts $327.87 billion across 3.59 million accounts and 1,512 sponsors, 803 of them community foundations, with grants of $64.60 billion up 17.9%.
Rides 'California enforces its fundraising-platform law' and 'FBI
Vetgate
Fraud pre-flight API a giving agent calls before any money moves
One API call on a payee returns a go/no-go built from signals beyond the 501(c)(3) letter: state charity regulator standing, IRS and Franchise Tax Board status, 990 filing history, domain age, organizer identity match, and a deepfake test on the appeal's photos and video.
grounded in AB 488 first annual reports were due July 15, 2025, and in November 2025 the California AG issued a cease-and-desist to a platform, with other states drafting platform rules.
Rides 'GoFundMe
Benevos
Benevolence agent for congregations that pays verified bills instead of people
Congregations and mutual-aid groups run hardship assistance through an agent that takes intake requests, applies the need-based criteria of a documented charitable class, confirms the invoice with the landlord, utility, hospital or pharmacy directly, pays the biller rather than the person, and keeps the records the board and the IRS need.
grounded in GoFundMe's December 9, 2025 report counts 47 million donations to individual fundraisers with essential-expense fundraising up 20%, Monthly Bills and Faith among the top categories.
Volunteers and in-kind, after AmeriCorps
Matching verified volunteers to verified needs, skills-based volunteering for nonprofits that lost staff, in-kind goods with proof of delivery, time tracked and verified as a contribution an employer or a court will accept.
'AmeriCorps cancelled $400 million of grants'
DocketHours
Community service hours that courts accept without paper logs
Verification software for court-ordered community service.
grounded in 'On April 25, 2025 AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants, about 41% of its grant funding, across 1,031 grantees, 32,000 members' and 'more than 1,000 local programs'.
'Federal money left the sector in 2025'
Benchfill
An agent that staffs gutted nonprofits with verified pro bono professionals
An agent a small nonprofit runs when it loses a funded position: it converts the vacancy into scoped pro bono tasks, screens volunteer credentials against state license registries, and verifies delivered work before hours are certified for the volunteer's employer.
grounded in Urban Institute found 'one in three community-serving nonprofits lost government funding in early 2025' and federal grants to everyday charities 'fell more than 40% in February-September 2025'.
'Federal money left the sector in 2025'
PalletProof
Proof of delivery and IRS paperwork for donated goods
An API for corporate donors and the food banks, shelters, and schools receiving goods: the nonprofit confirms the need, a carrier scan plus recipient photo confirm delivery, and the system generates the donor's IRC section 170 substantiation and fair-market-value record.
grounded in Federal grants to everyday charities 'fell more than 40% in February-September 2025' (Urban Institute).
'AmeriCorps cancelled $400 million of grants'
Muster
Back-office software for states running service corps without AmeriCorps
Enrollment, background checks, stipend disbursement, verified hour ledgers, and education-award tracking for state service commissions and city corps standing up programs after the federal cuts.
grounded in 'On April 25, 2025 AmeriCorps terminated nearly $400 million in grants, about 41% of its grant funding', weeks after 'discharging its 2,000-person NCCC cohort early'; 'twenty-four states sued and a federal judge in Maryland ordered the cuts reversed for them'; 'volunteer programs now plan around a federal partner that can vanish over a weekend'.
'Universal charitable deduction from 2026'
MatchStub
Verified volunteer hours that release employer match dollars
An API for payroll providers and corporate giving programs: an employee's volunteer hours are confirmed by the nonprofit's supervisor, the charity is checked for good standing with its state regulator and the IRS rather than trusted on its determination letter alone, and only then does the dollars-for-doers match release.
grounded in The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, 'signed July 4, 2025', gives standard-deduction filers a $1,000 deduction 'starting with tax year 2026'.
'FBI
Kindsig
Screens volunteer and goods appeals before your congregation responds
A screening tool for congregations and mutual-aid groups that field requests for volunteers and donated goods after a disaster: it checks the organizer's identity, the appeal domain's age, runs a reverse-image match against news photos, applies a deepfake test to video appeals, and confirms any named charity's standing with its state regulator, all before anyone deploys or ships.
grounded in The FBI's January 16, 2025 alert counts 'more than 4,500 complaints and about $96 million in losses in 2024', with Los Angeles wildfire scam sites up 'within hours with stolen news photos', 'some fronted by AI-generated deepfakes'.
The deck's pool has no cards in this field yet; the fresh concepts above are the collection for now.