In October 2009, TechSoup Global, a San-Francisco-based technology non-profit, was selected by the Council of Foundations to host the NGO Equivalency Determination (ED) Repository, which will help US-based foundations provide grants to organizations around the world by streamlining the process of qualifying non-US grantees as the equivalents of US public charities. Pending approval from the IRS, the Repository is expected to launch in 2010.

The Repository aims to streamline the ED process for both international grantmakers and the NGOs they support by offering a web-based service that allows NGOs to submit an initial ED and keep their profile and financial information up to date, thus providing grantmakers with reliable and up-to-date EDs. TechSoup Global expects the new service to save valuable staff time and resources as well as reducing the overall costs associated with processing EDs.

The selection of TechSoup Global represents more than two years of close collaboration by the Council on Foundations, the Foundation Center, Independent Sector, Interaction, and a broad-based group of major international grantmakers, who began working together in early 2007 to design and establish a centralized NGO repository of ED information.

TechSoup Global was selected to build and maintain the Repository based on its 22 years of providing technology resources to NGOs and libraries worldwide. It currently assists more than 30 hardware and software companies to distribute more than $250 million in product donations annually to NGOs worldwide. TechSoup Global’s international network of in-country partners currently support NGOs in 23 countries, with new partners and affiliates added each month. Additionally, TechSoup Global has significant experience guiding NGOs through eligibility processing and to date has verified the legal charitable status of more than 120,000 organizations, 16,500 of which are non-US NGOs.

For more information
Contact ngorepository@techsoupglobal.org or visit http://www.techsoupglobal.org