CharityCAN
CharityCAN is a Canadian SaaS prospect research and relationship mapping platform that aggregates 15M+ donation records, 4M+ prospect profiles, and 85,000+ charity datasets to help registered charities identify, qualify, and connect with major-gift donors.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersWaterloo, Canada
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What CharityCAN does
CharityCAN is a Canada-only SaaS prospect research and relationship mapping platform operated by Charter Press Ltd. (O/A Third Sector Publishing) and headquartered at the Communitech Data Hub in Waterloo, Ontario. The platform aggregates approximately 15 million Canadian donation records, 4 million+ prospect profiles, 85,000+ registered charities, and 1.1M federal corporations with 2M director positions into a unified search interface with visual relationship graphs. Its proprietary prospect matching algorithm (using name frequency and geographic location for de-duplication) and custom relationship map engine are the core technical differentiators, supplemented by GPT-powered donor summaries (via OpenAI) and native integration into Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT CRM. Primary customers are Canadian registered charities across arts, education, healthcare, and social services (e.g., University of Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canadian Cancer Society, Covenant House Vancouver) with explicit positioning toward prospect development, major gift identification, foundation research, and donor database screening.
Revenue is generated primarily through tiered annual subscriptions—$3,400/year for a single user (or $2,200 for qualifying small charities), $10,200/year for a five-user team with bundled Donor Screening credits or Raiser's Edge integration, and a custom Organizations tier with API access for larger installations—supplemented by per-project Donor Screening transactions starting at $1,500. Distribution is product-led with a free 24-hour trial on charitycan.ca and self-serve signup for lower tiers, complemented by a dedicated account management function and sales-led enterprise engagement. Marketing leans on content (blog, YouTube video library, weekly newsletter, quarterly webinars) and customer power-user profiles. The company is privately held, appears bootstrapped with no disclosed external funding rounds, and in 2021 began developing an employee share ownership plan (ESOP). Matt Charters (son of founder Anderson) serves as CEO following a December 2018 leadership transition that marked CharityCAN's full pivot from publishing (Canadian Donor's Guide) to software.
CharityCAN firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- CharityCAN
- Legal name
- Charter Press Ltd.
- Website
- https://charitycan.ca
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- CharityCAN is a Canadian SaaS prospect research and relationship mapping platform that aggregates 15M+ donation records, 4M+ prospect profiles, and 85,000+ charity datasets to help registered charities identify, qualify, and connect with major-gift donors.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
CharityCAN industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Nonprofit Prospect Research Software
- NAICS
- Other Grantmaking and Giving Services (813219), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Investment Advice (6282)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Philanthropy & Foundations Advisory (Donor-Advised Funds, Endowments) (FSAAABAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Charitable Giving & Philanthropic Trust Advisory (FSAEAKAH), Public Charities & Grantmaking Intermediaries (BPAGAKAE), Grantmaking & Philanthropic Funds (Institutional Donors) (BPADAOAB)
Keywords
Where CharityCAN is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Waterloo
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
CharityCAN business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Software Subscription (Annual): Tiered annual subscription pricing for access to prospect research platform. Includes unlimited training and support, dedicated account manager. Additional user seats available for purchase.
- Donor Screening Service: One-time or per-project pricing for screening donor databases against external wealth and philanthropy data. Additional fees for demographic variables.
- Integration Services: API access and custom integration development for enterprise tier subscribers requiring connection to donor management systems like Raiser’s Edge NXT
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Single user with up to 3 additional users, unlimited training and support |
| Subscription | Annual | Team license for up to 5 users with bonus features |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise access for more than 5 users with full integrations |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Donor database screening with wealth and philanthropy data |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
CharityCAN product offering
Product offeringCore offering
CharityCAN provides prospect research software and donor screening services to Canadian charities, nonprofits, healthcare foundations, and universities. The platform combines curated charity and donor data with relationship-mapping and wealth-screening tools to support fundraising intelligence, and integrates with Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT CRM. An AI capability branded AI @ CharityCAN extends the offering with AI-assisted research features.
Product overview
CharityCAN is a Canadian prospect research and relationship mapping SaaS platform operated by Charter Press Ltd. (Third Sector Publishing). The core offering is the Prospect Research Software platform, which integrates multiple data sources including donation records (approximately 15 million), corporate Canada data, charity director data, and federal corporation registries. The platform is offered in three pricing tiers: CharityCAN for One User ($3,400/year), CharityCAN for Teams ($10,200/year for up to 5 users), and CharityCAN for Organizations (contact sales with API access). Add-on modules include Donor Screening, AI @ CharityCAN (AI-generated summaries), and a native integration with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT. Key features include Integrated Prospect Search, Prospect Profiles, Relationship Mapping, Relationship Path Search, Household Data, and Foundation Search. The platform also supports Custom Relationship Maps for building proprietary relationship graphs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Prospect Research Software
- Donor Screening
- AI @ CharityCAN
- CharityCAN for Raiser's Edge NXT
Quantifiable outcome
- One organization identified a donor giving at $1,000/month level who was actually capable of six-figure gifts, resulting in successful upgrade
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use CharityCAN
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
CharityCAN technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability4 records
Feature11 records
CharityCAN partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Corporations CanadacoreData source for all federally registered corporations and their directors including privately held corporations, not-for-profits, co-operatives and boards of trade. Covers over 1.1M corporations with nearly 2M director positions, updated monthly.
- Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXTcoreCRM integration bringing CharityCAN relationship data, donation records and postal code data directly into constituent record pages via custom add-ins. First foray into donor management system integrations.
- Thomson ReuterscoreData provider for comprehensive corporate compensation information including salary, bonus, short/long term compensation and stock options for directors and named executive officers of public companies in North America. Enables wealth capacity assessment for prospect research.
- Communitech Data HubminorCo-working facility in Waterloo, Ontario where CharityCAN maintains its office headquarters.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
CharityCAN competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Funraise: Funraise is a modern nonprofit fundraising platform with donor CRM, online giving and analytics — a partial overlap with CharityCAN's donor intelligence layer, especially for digital-first nonprofits.
Direct peers
- iWave: iWave (by BWF) is the closest direct competitor: a prospect-research and wealth-screening platform for nonprofits with similar donor screening, wealth indicators and relationship-mapping capabilities used by Canadian and US fundraising teams.
- ResearchPoint (by Blackbaud): ResearchPoint is Blackbaud's prospect-research solution for nonprofits, integrated with the Raiser's Edge ecosystem that CharityCAN also plugs into — directly competing for the same advancement-research budget.
- DonorSearch: DonorSearch is a leading US prospect-research and wealth-screening SaaS for nonprofits, comparable to CharityCAN in offering donor profiles, giving histories and screening for major-gift qualification, though focused on the US market.
- DonorPerfect: DonorPerfect is a fundraising CRM and donor-management platform for small-to-mid nonprofits, comparable to CharityCAN in serving Canadian/US charities with subscription SaaS at similar price points.
- WealthEngine: WealthEngine provides prospect research and wealth screening for nonprofits and higher education, overlapping directly with CharityCAN's wealth-identification and donor-screening modules.
- Candid (GuideStar / Foundation Directory): Candid operates GuideStar and the Foundation Directory, providing nonprofit and foundation intelligence data directly comparable to CharityCAN's foundation search and grantmaking data features.
Broad incumbents
- Blackbaud: Blackbaud is the dominant incumbent in nonprofit fundraising software (CRM, fundraising, payments, analytics). It is both a partner (Raiser’s Edge NXT integration) and a competitor, with ResearchPoint and embedded analytics that overlap with CharityCAN.
- Salesforce.org (Nonprofit Cloud): Salesforce.org offers a broad nonprofit CRM and fundraising platform with donor-management capabilities that can substitute for parts of CharityCAN's workflow, especially at larger enterprises.
- LexisNexis for Development Professionals: LexisNexis provides research databases (news, legal, biographical) widely used by nonprofit prospect researchers; comparable to CharityCAN as a data backbone for advancement research shops.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
CharityCAN social profiles
Digital presenceCharityCAN financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
CharityCAN leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
CharityCAN funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
CharityCAN M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about CharityCAN
What does CharityCAN do?
CharityCAN provides prospect research software and donor screening services to Canadian charities, nonprofits, healthcare foundations, and universities. The platform combines curated charity and donor data with relationship-mapping and wealth-screening tools to support fundraising intelligence, and integrates with Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT CRM. An AI capability branded AI @ CharityCAN extends the offering with AI-assisted research features.
Is CharityCAN a public or private company?
CharityCAN is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was CharityCAN founded?
CharityCAN was founded in 2016. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is CharityCAN based?
CharityCAN is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada, in the North America region.
How does CharityCAN make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Software Subscription (Annual) is the primary driver. The others are donor Screening Service and integration Services.
Who are CharityCAN's main competitors?
Funraise is listed as an emerging player. Direct peers are iWave, ResearchPoint (by Blackbaud), DonorSearch, DonorPerfect, WealthEngine and Candid (GuideStar / Foundation Directory). Broad incumbents are Blackbaud, Salesforce.org (Nonprofit Cloud) and LexisNexis for Development Professionals.
Does CharityCAN have an API?
Yes. API access is available as part of the CharityCAN for Organizations pricing tier. The API enables programmatic access to CharityCAN data and functionality.
What industry is CharityCAN in?
CharityCAN's product category is Nonprofit Prospect Research Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAAABAH, Philanthropy & Foundations Advisory (Donor-Advised Funds, Endowments), with a secondary code of FSAEAKAH, Charitable Giving & Philanthropic Trust Advisory. Its NAICS code is 813219 and its SIC code is 7372.