Building on Public Infrastructure

A charitable institution should make it possible to follow the money entrusted to it.

Making a charitable gift changes who owns an asset and how it can be used. When a donor contributes to a donor-advised fund, the sponsoring nonprofit takes legal ownership. The money is committed to charity, even if the donor has not yet recommended where it should go.

We believe that responsibility should come with a practical form of accountability: people should be able to track how charitable funds are held in custody. An annual report matters, but it shouldn't be the only opportunity to see how an institution is using the money entrusted to it.

At Endaoment, that belief shapes how we accept assets, keep records, and make grants. Our donors give cash, stock, private assets, and digital assets. The forms of those gifts differ, but the questions are the same. How much is available for charity? What fees were charged? Has the grant moved? Where is the money invested?

We built on public infrastructure to make more of those answers independently verifiable. For the full picture of the nonprofit responsible for this work, start with What Is Endaoment?

A shared record of charitable money

Like other nonprofits, we keep double-entry books. Each transaction has corresponding debit and credit entries, which let accountants track changes in assets, income, and expenses. We file a Form 990 and have our finances independently audited.

Our public transaction record adds another way to check those books. When funds move through our payment system, the network records the amount, the accounts involved, and the time of the transfer. That record exists outside our own database. A donor, auditor, journalist, or regulator can inspect it without asking us to produce a copy.

We call this triple-entry accounting: double-entry books supported by a shared transaction record. Auditors can reconcile the entries in our books against the transfers recorded on the network. Publishing that record also lets people examine activity between annual reports.

The distinction matters because publishing a number and letting someone verify it are different things. We want to do both.

Different assets, a single way to make grants

Consider a donor contributing appreciated stock. We receive and sell the shares, credit the proceeds to the donor's fund after applicable fees, and record the contribution. Later, the donor recommends a grant. Our team reviews the recipient and purpose before approving the payment.

Our software uses programs called smart contracts to process transfers and apply the permissions and fees set in the system. Each fund has its own account, and the network preserves its transaction history. We use Base, a network built on Ethereum, for this work.

For donors giving stock, cash, or another asset, this is part of the administration we handle. They don't need to learn a new financial vocabulary to recommend a grant.

The public record covers the transactions that take place on the network. Asset sales, investments held elsewhere, and payments into a nonprofit's bank account also require other records. Our smart contract-based accounting brings those records together.

The institution still has to do its job

A transaction record can show that money moved. It cannot decide whether a recipient is eligible for a grant, resolve a complex gift agreement, or determine whether a donor would receive a prohibited personal benefit.

Endaoment retains legal ownership and variance power over the charitable assets. Our staff vets grants, issues receipts, manages records, and helps donors and advisors with unusual gifts. Our board oversees the nonprofit. Those responsibilities remain with us regardless of the technology we use.

The software deserves scrutiny as well. Our code is public, and the security reviews by OpenZeppelin and Least Authority are available to read. Independent reviews of our finances and code address different parts of the same obligation to administer charitable assets carefully.

Better records should help money reach nonprofits

Public accounting is useful when it improves the work. A shared transaction record provides our team with a common reference for reconciliation and reduces the administrative work required to confirm transfers. Digital settlement can also shorten the time between grant approval and release. Recipient onboarding and bank delivery still affect when the nonprofit receives the funds.

In August 2026, we reported that most grants left Endaoment in under 36 hours, with some leaving immediately. That month, about 84% of all impact generated to date had already gone out as paid grants. We publish our activity on impact.endaoment.org so people can follow how much reaches nonprofits and how much comes in.

We think giving institutions should be judged on that movement. Accepting a wide range of assets is valuable because it makes more wealth available for charitable use. Faster processing matters because a nonprofit can put the money to work sooner. Better records help donors and advisors see whether those things are happening.

The same system supports our Endaoment API. Other platforms can offer giving while using Endaoment's charitable administration and transaction records. That extends the service to people making financial decisions in other products.

You can explore our services at endaoment.org or read the documentation. For a closer look at the technology, our contract documentation lists the deployed programs. If you have questions about what you're looking at, our partnerships team can help.

Endaoment does not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult your own CPA or attorney about your specific situation.