Before a funder reads your proposal, they look you up. They find your IRS record: your status, your last return, your size, your filing history. Most nonprofit leaders have never seen that record the way a stranger sees it. It was assembled by someone else, it speaks for the organization, and the organization has no say in it.
This week we opened The Alleviate Index: a free public profile for every US public charity, more than 1.16 million of them, built from IRS public records and refreshed every month. Every profile can be claimed, for free, by the organization it describes.
Why build another directory
The honest question first. ProPublica and Candid already let anyone look up a Form 990, and they do it well. We did not set out to build another lookup. We built the Index around three things that matter to a nonprofit leader and that nobody makes simple.
The first is the compliance clock. Every profile shows the organization's next federal filing date, the extension date, the return it is likely to file, and the charitable registration rule of its home state. Thirty-seven states require charities to register before they ask the public for money, and most small organizations have never heard of it. Each state rule links to the regulator's own page.
The second is what is new. Every month the IRS approves thousands of new public charities, and the Index shows them state by state, the month they arrive. The third is peers: how an organization compares with others of the same focus, in the same state, at a similar size.
A record, not a rating
We were careful about what a profile does not say. It never shows a street address, because for many small charities that address is a founder's home. It never shows the IRS "in care of" name. It never shows a score the organization did not publish itself. And it never uses the word late. The IRS public file runs months behind what organizations actually file, so a return not yet on the file is shown as exactly that, not yet on the file. A public record should not accuse anyone of something it cannot see.
Our tagline says it plainly: every US public charity, on the record. The record is the IRS record. Once an organization claims its profile, its own words go on the record beside it.
What claiming gives you
Claiming takes a few minutes. We confirm it with an email at your organization's own domain, a reply from the address your website publishes, or the IRS letter that assigned your EIN, never with a detail anyone could look up. Once your claim is confirmed, you can add your mission, your programs and your logo, and correct your name, your city or your focus where the IRS has them wrong.
You also get your compliance calendar, free: your federal dates and your home state's rule, with reminders 60, 30 and 7 days ahead, and a note when the IRS file shows your return has arrived. And you can take the free NGO Readiness Assessment and decide whether your scores appear on your profile. Three badges mark what an organization has done, each one a fact rather than a judgment: Profile Claimed, Readiness Assessed and Readiness Published.
Why we built it
For fifteen years I watched good organizations go unfunded because their work was hard to see. More than 430 organizations across 33 countries have now taken our Readiness Assessment, and the pattern holds everywhere we look: mission is strong, and evidence and positioning are where most fall short. The Index starts one step earlier. Before an organization can show what changed, it needs a clear, accurate public record, and the means to stand behind it.
It is built for the people around nonprofits too. Funders can scan a state or a focus area. Consultants and accountants can see a client's next date at a glance. Journalists and researchers can follow the new organizations month by month. And because every profile is written to be read by search engines and AI assistants as well as people, an organization's record travels wherever someone asks about it.
Find yours
Search your organization's name or EIN at index.alleviate.org. Look at your record the way a funder would. If it is yours, claim it. If something is wrong, tell us. The Index belongs to the sector it describes, and it gets better every time an organization goes on the record.
Robert Okine is the Founder and CEO of Alleviate Technologies and a UN SDG Pioneer for Digital Innovation and Inclusion. He has spent fifteen years building digital systems across 60+ countries for UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, the World Bank and FAO.
