Data License

Last Updated: September 18, 2026

This license covers the state compliance records published on 501c3.help and served through our API: about 5,700 records across all fifty states, each one mapped to an official government source and carrying a verification status.

It does not cover the rest of the site. Course material, articles, design, and software are not included here.

You may use this data for free

There is no fee and no application. Use it in a product, in research, in teaching, or in client work. Quote it, display it, build on it, and put it in front of the people you serve.

We want this data used. The whole point of publishing it is that a founder somewhere gets a correct answer instead of a guess.

Three conditions

Name the source and link to it. Each record arrives with an attribution line and a page_url. Show them wherever you show the data. A footnote is enough. A link is better.

Keep the verification status attached. Every record says whether it is source verified or still under review. That label travels with the claim. Showing a requirement while hiding that it is unsettled is the one use of this data that can cause real harm, and it is not permitted.

Keep the citation with the claim. Each record carries the statute, the agency, and the document it came from. Do not separate a requirement from its source.

Three things you may not do

Do not republish the compilation. Using records to answer questions is what this is for. Copying the set as a whole, or a substantial part of it, to stand up a competing database is not. The line is ordinary use versus wholesale reproduction, and if you are unsure which side you are on, write to us and ask.

Do not strip the labels. Removing or altering the attribution, the verification status, or the citation is a breach of this license, however the data reached you.

Do not present this as advice or as official. It is neither legal advice nor tax advice, and it does not come from any government agency. Do not describe it as any of those things.

Facts, and our wording of them

We want to be straight about what is and is not ours.

The underlying facts belong to nobody. That Kansas charges a particular fee, or that a report is due on a particular date, is not something anyone can own, and researching it carefully does not change that. If you look these things up yourself and write them in your own words, you owe us nothing.

What is ours is the expression and the arrangement: our wording of each answer, the way the records are organized, the taxonomy, and the mapping of claims to sources. That is what the conditions above protect.

What the verification statuses mean

source_verified means the record is mapped to an official source cited in the record itself, and that source states what the record says.

review_required means we have found a conflict, a gap, or an ambiguity that is not resolved. The record is published because knowing a question is open is more useful than silence, but it is an open question and must be shown as one.

Confidence is reported separately as high or medium.

Access and limits

The API is open without registration at 50 calls a day, which is enough to try it and enough for personal use.

For steady use, write to [email protected] with what you are building. Keys are free. We ask because we want to know who is using this and to be able to reach you if a record changes materially, not to charge you.

Limits exist so that a single caller cannot make the service unusable for everyone else. If yours is too low for honest use, tell us and we will raise it.

A key can be revoked if it is used to breach this license. We will say why.

No warranty

Compliance requirements change, agencies reorganize, and fees are revised. Every record carries the date it was last verified. Check the cited source before acting, and check it again before advising anyone else.

This data is provided as is. We are not liable for what happens when it is used, and we are not a law firm or an accounting firm.

Changes

We may revise this license. The date at the top is the version in force. Material changes will be noted on this page, and if you hold a key we will write to you.

Contact

Questions about use, requests for a higher limit, and reports of an error in a record all go to [email protected]. Errors get priority.