Two emails land in the same organizational inbox on the same day. The first: "your verification is approved," and access to Google for Nonprofits opens up right behind it. The second, from a different verifier: "we weren't able to confirm your organization's information," and a second chain of benefits sits frozen.
The difference between these two emails is almost never about luck or the quality of the mission. It's about how carefully the data was prepared for that specific verifier, and about the fact that these are genuinely two different verifiers with different jobs, not one check wearing two names.
TechSoup and Goodstack are two independent verifiers, and each one unlocks its own set of benefits. Goodstack is the broader one today: Google for Nonprofits runs through it, along with Zoom, Asana, OpenAI, and some of Adobe's direct offers. TechSoup remains a separate, valuable channel, strongest on QuickBooks, part of Adobe, and hardware. Both are worth going through, but you need to prepare for each separately.
Thousands of companies are willing to offer nonprofits discounts, but none of them want to verify every single application's status themselves. That's where verifiers come in: they confirm once that you're a real organization with active status, and dozens of programs then trust that confirmation instead of checking you all over again.
TechSoup used to be an almost universal entry point into nearly everything. That picture has shifted: Goodstack, formerly Percent, has become the main broad gateway that verification for Google, Zoom, Asana, OpenAI, and a growing list of platforms runs through. TechSoup hasn't gone anywhere, but it's narrowed to its own catalog, where QuickBooks and part of Adobe's offerings still win out strongly.
One thing worth knowing separately: as of last year, TechSoup no longer verifies organizations for Microsoft for Nonprofits. Microsoft moved that verification to its own separate registration, unconnected to either TechSoup or Goodstack. If you specifically need Microsoft, plan to go through it on its own.
Both verifiers look at the same core: whether the organization's data matches official IRS registries, whether the organization is genuinely real, and whether the address and legal name are current. A single letter off between your application and the IRS registry is a classic rejection reason for both.
From there, the differences start. TechSoup runs its own qualification process with a determination letter upload and usually confirms status in about two business days. After that, your status is called "qualified," and eligibility for each specific program, like QuickBooks or Adobe, gets checked separately.
Goodstack verifies an organization at a specific partner's request, for instance when you apply to Google for Nonprofits. Turnaround is usually one to five business days, and for applications going through Google specifically, it's most often three to five days. The key requirement here is the same one from the previous lesson: email on the organization's domain, not a personal Gmail address.
The set is the same for both verifiers, and it's worth gathering before you apply, not while you're already emailing support back and forth.
Your determination letter and EIN. Your organization's exact legal name, word for word as it appears in IRS documents, including punctuation and suffixes like "Inc." Your organization's address, current and matching what's on file with the IRS. A working website. Email on the organization's domain for the contact person submitting the application.
A mismatch on any of these items doesn't kill the application outright, but it adds a round of back-and-forth and weeks of waiting. It's easier to check everything once before applying than to explain it after the fact.
Below is a readiness checklist that covers both verifiers in parallel: what each one needs, and exactly what they check.
Your organization's verification status: where you've applied, what's already approved, what's still pending. Update this document as you go, it'll be useful to you and to any new team member who continues unlocking benefits down the line.
Can TechSoup and Goodstack verification happen at the same time?
Yes, these are independent processes, and applying for both at once is faster than doing them one after the other.
What do I do if I get rejected?
The most common cause is a mismatch with the IRS registry, or a personal email instead of an address on your domain. Fix the specific cause and reapply.
TechSoup or Goodstack, which one first?
If you need Google for Nonprofits first, start with Goodstack. If you need QuickBooks or hardware first, start with TechSoup.
Is verification a one-time thing, or does it need repeating?
Basic status is usually long-lived, but individual programs within each ecosystem sometimes ask for reconfirmation after significant changes to the organization.
Verification unlocks access to software, discounts, and Google for Nonprofits. But benefits alone aren't the same as trust from funders and donors, and for that, the sector has its own shared space where organizations are visible to each other and to foundations. The next lesson is about your Candid profile, and why an empty one reads as no profile at all.