What is the difference between GiveRadar and CHnet?

Different jobs. CHnet (Charity Network, charitynet.org) is a small free fundraising and CRM toolkit for nonprofits that has been operating since 1993, providing engagement tools, email, donation processing, supporter management, and a directory of roughly 5,800 charities. GiveRadar is a free global research database covering 7 million+ charities across 65+ countries from 50+ official government registries, with an automatic Integrity Assessment, red flag detection, sanctions screening, and per-charity news context. CHnet is operational software for nonprofits running campaigns; GiveRadar is research and verification infrastructure for donors, journalists, researchers, and grant-makers.

Is GiveRadar a CHnet alternative for finding charities to donate to?

Yes. CHnet's directory lists roughly 5,800 charities; GiveRadar covers 7 million+ charities across 65+ countries from official charity regulators, with verification, scoring, and red flag detection that CHnet does not provide. For donor-side discovery and due diligence, GiveRadar is the broader option. For US-only fundraising-page or campaign-running needs from the nonprofit side, CHnet's tools may be more directly useful than GiveRadar.

Does CHnet verify or score charities?

CHnet operates primarily as a fundraising and engagement platform; we have not seen them publish a transparency score, integrity assessment, or red flag system comparable to GiveRadar's Integrity Assessment 0-100 across registration, financial transparency, organizational transparency, third-party assessment, and community signals. CHnet's directory is a listing, not a verification database. For donor-side verification, GiveRadar is built for that job; for nonprofit operational tooling, CHnet is built for that job.

CHnet has historically positioned itself as a free service for nonprofits, with engagement tools, email, and donation handling at no cost. Pricing for premium features should be verified directly on charitynet.org as it may change. GiveRadar's research database is free for browsing, with a free API tier (100 requests/day) and paid Pro and Enterprise tiers for high-volume use.

How long has CHnet been around?

CHnet (Charity Network) has been operating since 1993, making it one of the longest-running nonprofit-focused web services, predating most modern fundraising platforms by over a decade. Longevity is a notable strength. GiveRadar was founded in 2026 and is much younger; we are explicitly building for the AI-search and structured-data era rather than the early-web era CHnet was originally built for.

Should I use CHnet or GiveRadar?

If you are a nonprofit running campaigns and want a free toolkit covering email, donation pages, and supporter management, CHnet is one option to consider alongside larger platforms. If you are a donor, journalist, researcher, grant-maker, or compliance team that needs to verify a charity, compare options across countries, run sanctions screening, or pull official-registry data via API, GiveRadar is purpose-built for that job. The two platforms are not really substitutes for one another.

Comparison

GiveRadar vs CHnet (Charity Network): an honest comparison

Two free nonprofit-sector services with very different jobs. CHnet (Charity Network) is a small free fundraising and CRM toolkit operating since 1993, with engagement tools and a directory of roughly 5,800 charities. GiveRadar is a research and verification database covering 7 million+ charities across 65+ countries with an automatic Integrity Assessment.

Skip to verdict All comparisons

GiveRadar

Free global charity research database. 7 million+ charities across 65+ countries from 50+ official government registries. Automatic Integrity Assessment 0-100, red flag detection, sanctions screening, per-charity news, financial-ratio analysis. Built for donors, journalists, researchers, grant-makers, and compliance teams; not a fundraising platform.

CHnet (Charity Network)

Small free fundraising and CRM toolkit for nonprofits, operating since 1993. Engagement tools, email, donation processing, supporter management, and a directory of roughly 5,800 charities. Built for nonprofits running campaigns rather than donors verifying them.

The 30-second verdict

If you are a nonprofit looking for free fundraising and supporter-management tools, CHnet is one option to consider alongside larger fundraising platforms; we do not provide those tools. If you are a donor, journalist, researcher, grant-maker, or compliance team trying to verify a charity, compare options across countries, or pull official-registry data via API, GiveRadar is purpose-built for that job and CHnet's directory of about 5,800 charities is too narrow to serve as a research database.

Dimension	GiveRadar	CHnet
Primary purpose	Charity research and verification (donor-side)	Fundraising and CRM toolkit (nonprofit-side)
Charity records	7 million+ charities	~5,800 charities (directory)
Geographic coverage	65+ countries	Primarily US-focused
Per-charity scoring	Integrity Assessment 0-100	No
Red flags / sanctions / news	Yes (auto + GDELT + Open Sanctions)	No
Fundraising / donation tools	Not provided	Email, donation pages, CRM, supporter management
Public API	Yes (REST + OpenAPI)	No documented public API
Pricing	Free site; free API tier 100 req/day; Pro 99 USD/month	Free for nonprofits (verify on charitynet.org)
Operating since	2026	1993

Primary sources

CHnet (Charity Network) main site

All figures sourced from each platform's published documentation and observable directory size at time of writing. CHnet figures should be verified directly on charitynet.org as their offering may have evolved.

Written by GiveRadar; we built it and we believe in it. CHnet is a long-running nonprofit-side toolkit and we view it as adjacent rather than competitive. Email [email protected] for corrections.