Disbursements

How It Works

Platform Onboarding

1. Set up account

Create a Chariot Deposit Account

2. Link your bank

Link your bank account to fund disbursements

3. Send a payment

Send your first disbursement to a verified nonprofit

To get started with Chariot Disbursements, you’ll need to register for an account with Chariot, open a Chariot Deposit Account, and go through the onboarding processes for both.

After you are approved and verified, you’ll be given access to a dashboard where you will be able to manage and create API Keys.

You’ll also need to fund your Chariot Deposit Account with the amount of money you’d like to send in disbursements.

Send a Disbursement

This section provides the steps required to send a disbursement via API. Note, you can also initiate and send disbursements directly from your dashboard.

1

Find an Organization

Search for the nonprofit organization using their name or EIN:

GET
/v1/organizations/search
1curl https://api.givechariot.com/v1/organizations/search \
2     -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>"
2

Create a Disbursement

Next, create a Disbursement to the Organization with the amount that you want to send.

You can create multiple Transactions for a single Disbursement to attribute multiple individual donations to the same Disbursement.

POST
/v1/disbursements
1curl -X POST https://api.givechariot.com/v1/disbursements \
2     -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
3     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4     -d '{
5  "organization_id": "org_01j8rs605a4gctmbm58d87mvsj",
6  "amount": 25000,
7  "transactions": [
8    {
9      "amount": 15000,
10      "type": "donor_advised_fund_grant",
11      "description": "Grant from Doe Family Fund",
12      "donor_advised_fund_grant": {
13        "organization_name": "Miami Charitable",
14        "fund_name": "Doe Family Charitable Fund",
15        "purpose": "General Operating Support",
16        "donors": [
17          {
18            "first_name": "Jane",
19            "last_name": "Doe",
20            "email": "jane.doe@example.com"
21          }
22        ]
23      }
24    },
25    {
26      "amount": 10000,
27      "type": "donor_advised_fund_grant",
28      "description": "Grant from Smith Family Fund",
29      "donor_advised_fund_grant": {
30        "organization_name": "LA Charitable",
31        "fund_name": "Smith Family Legacy Fund",
32        "purpose": "Program Support",
33        "donors": [
34          {
35            "first_name": "John",
36            "last_name": "Smith",
37            "email": "john.smith@example.com"
38          }
39        ]
40      }
41    }
42  ],
43  "description": "February 2025 Disbursement"
44}'

Once you receive a successful response, Chariot will use the funds in your account to push a payment to the organization. You can call the GET Disbursement endpoint to see the status of the submission.

To learn more about how to handle errors, please refer to the FAQ.

Chariot Disbursements for Nonprofits

Chariot provides a service to nonprofits to facilitate receiving disbursements from grantmakers and other platforms.

If a nonprofit has a Chariot Deposit Account, Chariot is able to present a consolidated view of all payments received by the nonprofit in their dashboard across all grantmakers. In this case, a payment should settle instantly.

If a nonprofit does not have a Chariot Deposit Account, they can still receive payments via Chariot’s Disbursements. In this case, Chariot will mail a paper check to the nonprofit’s verified postal address.