# What are the Charleston Principles? *Reviewed 2026-07-30* ## Short answer The Charleston Principles are nonbinding guidelines adopted by the National Association of State Charity Officials in 2001 on when internet fundraising triggers state registration. In short, a charity with an interactive donation page should register in a state if it specifically targets that state's residents or receives contributions from them on a repeated and substantial basis. States are not bound by them, but many follow the approach. The Charleston Principles are guidance adopted in 2001 by the National Association of State Charity Officials to answer a question the fundraising statutes were written too early to address: when does soliciting donations over the internet require registration in a state? They are advisory, not law. No state is bound by them, and they were never enacted as a uniform act. They remain the most widely referenced framework for online fundraising because nothing better replaced them. What they actually say The guidance starts from an easy case. An organization domiciled in a state, or one that has employees or a physical presence there, registers in that state if it solicits at all, online or otherwise. The harder case is the out-of-state charity whose only contact with a state is a website that residents can reach. For that situation the guidance draws a line around targeting and results. Registration is expected when the charity uses an interactive website to solicit, meaning donors can give through the site rather than merely read about the organization, and either specifically targets residents of that state or receives contributions from that state on a repeated and ongoing basis or in a substantial amount. A purely passive site, one that describes the organization without soliciting and without aiming at any particular state, sits outside the expectation. The guidance also addresses email, treating targeted email to residents much like other direct solicitation, and asks charities to identify themselves clearly in online appeals. Why nonbinding still matters Because the Principles were written by the officials who run state charity programs, they reflect how those offices tend to think even where the statute says nothing about the internet. Some states cite them informally. Others apply their own solicitation statute more broadly than the Principles would suggest, on the theory that an accessible donate button is an ask directed everywhere. Courts have not turned the Principles into law. The practical effect is that they are a good starting analysis and a poor substitute for reading the state's actual statute. Applying them to how fundraising works now Online giving in 2001 meant a donate page. The same reasoning now has to cover email lists, geographically targeted advertising, peer-to-peer campaigns run by supporters, crowdfunding pages, donate buttons inside social platforms, text-to-give, and recurring gift programs. When you run the analysis, the questions worth asking are concrete: Do we buy ads or send email that target residents of this state specifically? Do we maintain pages, chapters, or events aimed at this state? Do we receive gifts from this state repeatedly, year after year, rather than once by accident? Is the total from this state substantial relative to our budget? Do we follow up with donors there to ask again, which is its own solicitation? Answering yes to targeting, or to repeated and ongoing or substantial giving, is the signal to register. Document the analysis and the numbers you relied on, and revisit it annually, because a state that produced two small gifts last year can produce a recurring donor base this year. A workable approach Most charities do not register everywhere on day one and do not need to. A common practice is to register in the home state immediately, register in any state where a campaign is deliberately targeted, and add states as the donor data crosses the thresholds you set for yourself. Keep the giving report by state and the registration list in the same review, so the two never drift apart. State-specific rules, including which regulator handles online solicitation questions and how each state treats out-of-state charities, are in our charitable registration state laws guides. Our nonprofit licensing team runs the registrations that follow from the analysis, and keeps them renewed as the donor map changes. ## Related - [Nonprofit licensing and registration](/nonprofit-licensing) - [Charitable registration requirements by state](/charitable-registration-state-laws) - [Talk with our team](/contact) --- ## How to cite this page Cite as: "What are the Charleston Principles?." Cornerstone Licensing. https://cornerstonelicensing.com/answers/what-are-the-charleston-principles Published by Cornerstone Licensing. When quoting figures or legal requirements, link the canonical URL above and note the last-updated date (2026-07-30). The full content index for this site is at https://cornerstonelicensing.com/llms.txt.