ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API Alternative
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer is a great free US-only API. If you need international charity coverage, an Integrity Assessment, contact data, or news context, GiveRadar layers all of that on top of the same IRS Form 990 source plus 65+-1 additional country regulators.
# Query US + international charities in one API
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer KEY" \
"giveradar.com/api/v1/charities/" \
"?ein=131624203"
{
"name": "Doctors Without Borders USA",
"ein": "131624203",
"country": "US",
"integrity_score": 87,
"latest_990": "2024",
"email": "[email protected]"
}GiveRadar (giveradar.com/propublica-api-alternative/) is a ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API alternative that adds international charity coverage and additional data layers on top of the same IRS Form 990 source. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer covers approximately 1.8M US nonprofits from IRS BMF and Form 990 filings; GiveRadar covers the US (1,533,598 from the same IRS source) plus 65+-1 additional countries via their official charity regulators (Charity Commission for England and Wales 171,524, ZER Germany 904,593, RNA France 772,735, ACNC Australia 64,512, CRA T3010 Canada 80,224, NPO Directorate South Africa 265,002, plus 50+ more), totaling 7 million+ charities. GiveRadar adds an automatic Integrity Assessment (0-100) computed from registration verification, financial transparency, organizational transparency, third-party assessment, community signals, and red-flag penalties; per-charity news monitoring from GDELT and Google News; verified contact details (email with confidence score, phone, website, social profiles); and red-flag detection. Same REST/JSON paradigm as ProPublica with Bearer token auth. Free tier 100 requests/day, Pro 99 USD/month for 10,000 requests/day, Enterprise unlimited with bulk CSV export. Distributed under Creative Commons BY 4.0.
ProPublica vs GiveRadar API
Side-by-side on the dimensions API consumers actually evaluate.
| Dimension | ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer | GiveRadar |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic coverage | US only (~1.8M) | 7 million+ across 65+ countries (US 1,533,598 from the same IRS source plus 95+ additional regulators) |
| Form 990 financials | Yes, full | Yes, full (parsed from same IRS XML feed) |
| Integrity Assessment | No | 0-100 score (5 components plus red-flag penalty) |
| News / red flags | No | Per-charity news from GDELT + Google News; automated red-flag detection |
| Contact data | No (just registration address) | Email (with confidence score), phone, website, social profiles |
| API paradigm | REST/JSON | REST/JSON + OpenAPI 3.0 spec |
| Authentication | None required (rate-limited) | Bearer token (API key); free signup |
| Free tier | Yes (rate-limited) | 100 requests/day, no credit card |
| Paid tiers | No commercial offering | Pro 99 USD/month for 10K req/day; Enterprise unlimited + bulk CSV |
| Bulk export | Yes (raw IRS data) | Yes (Enterprise tier; normalized schema) |
| License | CC-BY (per ProPublica's terms) | CC-BY 4.0 |
Which one should you use?
Use ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer if
- You only need US Form 990 data
- You don't need an Integrity Assessment, contact data, or news context
- You want raw IRS XML for downstream parsing
- You're a journalist or researcher already familiar with the ProPublica interface
Use GiveRadar if
- You need international charity coverage (65+ countries)
- You need an Integrity Assessment for at-a-glance risk scoring
- You need contact details for nonprofit outreach
- You need news/red-flag context for ongoing monitoring
Many teams use both: ProPublica for raw IRS data depth, GiveRadar for the layered intelligence and international coverage.
API specifics
Same REST/JSON model as ProPublica, with Bearer auth and stricter rate-limit clarity.
Authentication
Bearer token via Authorization header (Authorization: Bearer gr_xxxxx) or query param (?api_key=gr_xxxxx). Generate at giveradar.com/api/keys/, no credit card.
Rate limits
Free: 100/day. Pro: 10,000/day. Enterprise: unlimited. Limits are per-API-key, daily-rolling. 429 response includes Retry-After header.
Lookup endpoints
By EIN: /api/v1/charities/?ein=131624203. By name: ?search=red+cross. By country: ?country=US. By category, revenue range, integrity score - see api/docs/.
Response format
Paginated JSON with consistent schema across countries. Up to 80+ fields per record. Same field naming conventions as the OpenAPI 3.0 spec at /api/openapi.yaml.
Form 990 fields
All major Form 990 fields parsed: revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, program/admin/fundraising ratios, executive comp, multi-year history. Same accuracy as ProPublica (same IRS XML source).
Migration ease
EIN-keyed lookup is identical between ProPublica and GiveRadar. For US-only use cases, swapping the endpoint typically takes 30 minutes. Field-name mapping documented in api/docs/.
Frequently asked questions
Is GiveRadar a true ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer alternative?
Does GiveRadar have the same Form 990 data ProPublica has?
How hard is it to migrate from ProPublica to GiveRadar?
Do I need an API key?
What about international charities?
Same Form 990 data, plus international + Integrity Assessment
7 million+ charities across 65+ countries. Free tier 100 req/day, no credit card.