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.

While you work to reinstate your “good standing”, you’re prohibited from soliciting donations from California residents.

Create a query that excludes constituents with a California or blank address

  1. In the database view, from Query, create a constituent query and filter for records to include as email recipients.

  2. Create a query of constituents with a California or blank address using the following filters:

    • Addresses > Preferred Address > Preferred State equals California

    • OR Addresses > Preferred Address > Preferred State is blank

  3. From Query, select New Query List, and open the query of email recipients.

  4. Select Remove from List, A Group of Constituents, and then select the query of constituents with a California or blank address.

  5. Remove the constituents and save the query.

Use the query to send email from Raiser’s Edge NXT

  1. In the web view, from Lists, Constituents, select Add, Start with a Static Query, and select the query that excludes constituents with California or blank addresses.

  2. Select Save, and then save the query as a new list.

  3. From Marketing, Email, create an email.

  4. Under Finalize your email, in the Recipient list field, select the list.

Beginning January 1 2024, Blackbaud will fail 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.

From the Blackbaud Merchant Services Web Portal, you can create a list to identify failed Blackbaud Merchant Services 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.

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 after January 1, 2024 from California residents. To identify upcoming recurring donations at risk to fail, follow these steps:

  1. In the database view, from Query, create a gift query.

  2. Configure the query to include records where:

    • Constituent > Addresses > Preferred Address > Preferred State equals California

    • OR Addresses > Preferred Address > Preferred State is blank

    • AND Gift > Next Transaction Due Date equals Next month

      Note: Your organization's processing schedule might differ from this example. If so, change "next month" to the date that fits your schedule.

  3. From the Output tab, include the constituent fields you plan to use to contact donors and schedule future payments.

  4. Save the query.