Best practices while impacted by California Assembly Bill 488

Consistent with our legal obligation, transactions made through Blackbaud solutions by California donors to organizations that are not in “good standing” are no longer accepted from California residents. If your organization is not in “good standing”:

• Consult your legal advisor for guidance.

• Suppress California residents from your charitable email solicitations.

• Some transactions, like donations, made through Blackbaud solutions from California residents will no longer be accepted.

All U.S. charitable organizations that operate or solicit donations in California must maintain "good standing" in California, even if they’re organized elsewhere. For more information or to check your status, see California Assembly Bill 488: Impact to Charitable Organizations.

Identify impacted transactions

Donors who reside in California are unable to make gifts to organizations that operate in California and do not maintain "good standing" with the state.

These gifts, when processed through Blackbaud Payment Services (BBPS) will produce an error (decline code: 812).

From the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal, you can create a list to identify transactions that returned gateway decline code 812 due to California AB 488. For information on how to create a list and apply filters, see Transaction Lists in Blackbaud Merchant Services Help.

While using Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS), if a recurring gift fails to process, the online solution automatically attempts to process the gift on the next scheduled date. (It does not make additional attempts on the day of the failed transaction.) In Recurring payments, the gift is listed under the Active payments; the most recent status is Declined.