For Grantmakers

How it works

Chariot Disbursements helps grantmakers send grants to nonprofits without building and maintaining their own nonprofit compliance database, electronic payment directory, check operations, or delivery tracking system.

You tell Chariot which eligible nonprofit to pay, how much to send, and the grant identifier from your system. Chariot handles the operational work required to deliver and track the funds.

This guide focuses on the Chariot dashboard. Every dashboard workflow described in this section is also available through the Chariot API, so your organization can integrate disbursements directly into its existing systems. See https://docs.givechariot.com/guides/disbursements

Getting Started

Fund Your Account

Grant Letters

Grantmaker Programs

Create Disbursements

Tracking & Delivery

Eligibility and Requests

Search Nonprofits

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Key concepts

Chariot separates the movement of money from the underlying grant or donor data. This distinction is core to how Disbursements works:

• A disbursement is the money Chariot sends to one nonprofit through one delivery workflow.

• A transaction is an underlying gift or donation record associated with that disbursement.

For example, if five donors each give $100 to the same nonprofit, you can send one $500 disbursement with five $100 donation records attached. Chariot moves the money efficiently while preserving the donor, fund, purpose, designation, note, and other remittance details the nonprofit needs.

Object	Definition	Example
Disbursement	Money delivered to the nonprofit	One $500 payment
Donation	The underlying gift or grant data	Five records of $100 each

The disbursement has its own recipient, amount, ID, funding source, delivery method, status, and timeline. Its donation records provide the detail the nonprofit uses for gift entry, donor recognition, reconciliation, and reporting.

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The disbursement process has four main stages:

1

Create Disbursement

Provide the recipient nonprofit's EIN, the amount, and your unique grant ID. You can create disbursements in the dashboard with a CSV upload or send them through the API.

2

Confirm Eligibility

Chariot checks the nonprofit against the eligibility criteria required for disbursement. If the organization is ineligible or is not yet listed in Chariot's database, you will receive an error with next steps.

3

Approve Disbursement

If approvals are enabled for your organization, eligible disbursements enter the Needs approval queue before they are released.

4

Tracking & Delivery

Chariot delivers funds electronically when the nonprofit has a claimed Chariot account. Otherwise, Chariot contacts the nonprofit, gives it an opportunity to claim its account, and mails a check if the account is not claimed in time

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What Chariot handles

Once a disbursement is approved, Chariot manages the delivery workflow, including:

• Nonprofit eligibility checks

• Electronic delivery to nonprofits with claimed Chariot accounts

• Nonprofit contact and mailing-address research

• Account-claim outreach

• Check printing and mailing when electronic delivery is not available

• Your customized grant letter

• Delivery and deposit tracking

• Returned-check handling and address follow-up

• Disbursement history and nonprofit-level reporting

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Electronic and check delivery

If the recipient has a claimed Chariot account, funds are delivered through an account transfer to the nonprofit's Chariot Deposit Account. Because the funds move within Chariot's account network, delivery can occur immediately after the disbursement is approved and released.

If the recipient has not claimed its Chariot account, Chariot sends an email sequence inviting the nonprofit to claim its account and receive the funds electronically. If the nonprofit does not claim its account within the claim window, Chariot mails a check with your customized grant letter.

For the nonprofit's view of this process, see For Nonprofits.

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