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.

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

For an understanding of this categorization, see the FAQs in the Blackbaud topic, California Assembly Bill 488: Impact to Charitable Organizations.

When Blackbaud must decline transactions from California, Luminate Online evaluates transactions as follows:

  • A zip code is required on all transactions and is the primary verification of a Californian address. California zip code ranges are 90000 to 96199.

  • State is not used as a parameter.

  • If a country is not provided, the country is assumed to be the United States.

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 the Blackbaud topic, California Assembly Bill 488: Impact to Charitable Organizations.

Note: Any U.S.-registered charitable organization that operates or solicits donations in California is subject to this law. It does not impact organizations registered outside of the United States.

While you work to reinstate your “good standing,” you’re prohibited from soliciting donations from California residents. To avoid sending solicitation emails to constituents with a California primary mailing address, build a Query, then create a Group that you can suppress during your email send.

Create a selection of constituents with a primary California or blank address

  1. From Data Management, Query, select Create a new Query.

  2. Name, describe and choose a Security Category, then select Save.

  3. In Query Builder, select a Field Type of Address and a Field of State / Province.

  4. Select Add Field Clause.

  5. In field of, select Home Address, then equals, then CA.

    Note: Suppressing historical or secondary addresses is optional.

  6. Select Save.

  7. In Query Builder, set Field Type of Address and Field of State / Province again, then select Add Field Clause.

  8. In field of, verify the value is Home Address, then is blank.

  9. Select Save.

  10. Select Save Query.

  11. Select Run Query.

  12. Select Use Query.

  13. Select Create a Group and select Go.

  14. Complete the options to create the group.

  15. (While you are considered not in "good standing" by California only) Add this group to all active email campaigns to exclude the constituents:

    1. In Email Campaigns, Manage an email campaign, select the Audience tab, then select Do Not Email List.

    2. Select Add Groups from Related Actions and select the California suppression group, and select Finish.

    3. Repeat this action for all email campaigns. This ensures this suppression group is added to the do not email list of every email message from this campaign.

Consistent with our legal obligation, Blackbaud fails one-time and recurring credit card, debit card, and direct debit donations to your organization from California residents until your “good standing” is reinstated. These transactions will have a gateway decline code of 812.

To identify Blackbaud Merchant Services transactions that failed due to California Assembly Bill 488, follow these steps to check in both Blackbaud Merchant Services and Luminate Online:

  1. In the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal, create a list to identify failed Blackbaud Merchant Services transactions that returned gateway decline code 812 due to California AB 488. See Transaction Lists in Blackbaud Merchant Services help.

  2. In Luminate Online, run the Transaction Details Report with Error Code selected as a report column. See the Knowledgebase article, Why did a transaction decline? These failed transactions show the error code, "Declined due to non-compliance with California law."

    Example:

Until your “good standing” status is reinstated, Blackbaud will identify and fail recurring credit card, debit card, and direct debit donations made to your organization.

To reduce the risk to future transactions, contact donors to inform them of the impact on their donation. Consider rescheduling the affected payments to a delayed date, so you can process them after your organization is restored to good standing.

To identify upcoming recurring donations at risk to fail, follow these steps:

  1. From Data Management, Query, select Create a new Query.

  2. Name, describe and choose a Security Category, then select Save.

  3. Configure the query to include records where:

    • Constituent\Addresses\Country is equal to United States

      Field Type is Address, Fieldis Country, select Add Field Clause, then Any Address equals United States

    • Constituent\Addresses\State is blank or equal to California

      Field Type is Address, Fieldis State/Province, select Add Field Clause, then Any Address equals CA or Home Address equals and enter California in the text field.

    • Recurring gift next transaction is next month

      Field Type is Sustained Giving Information, Field is Planned End Date, select Add Field Clause, then select a date in the future.

  4. Select Save.

  5. Select Save Query.

  6. Select Run Query.

  7. Select Use Query.

  8. Select Create a Group and select Go.

Next, use the group to identify sustaining donors to inform them of the impact on their donation.

See also Querying on Recurring Gifts.