Shadow Donation

Published by Whole Whale

The register

GiveFreely

GiveFreely is a for-profit browser extension that turns retail commissions into donations to a charity the user picks. Page 4950 reports an auto-generated directory of IRS-listed organizations with more than 36,700 profile pages in its public sitemap. Whole Whale has no evidence bundle for it.

Tier
Listed
Payouts via
Change (getchange.io), stated payout partner; the receiving charitable entity is not published
Platform
givefreely.com
Scale
36,700 charity-directory pages in public sitemap (lower bound, reported as 36,700+), as of 21 Jul 2026
Checked
6 of 6 checks · 0 on dated evidence
Evidence
No evidence bundle yet

The checklist

What we have checked on GiveFreely, what we found, and what it rests on.

No evidence bundle on file. Checks marked here rest on Whole Whale’s published article or the incumbent directory, not on dated captures. We will replace them with captured evidence, or remove them.

  1. Present, research only
    1. Off-domain Present, research only

    Profiles are served at givefreely.com/charity-directory/nonprofit/ein-<EIN>/.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com
  2. Present, research only
    2. Auto-generated Present, research only

    Page 4950 describes an auto-generated directory of 1M+ IRS organizations.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com
  3. Present, research only
    3. No consent Present, research only

    Page 4950 states the directory has no charity opt-in.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com
  4. Unresolved
    4. Takes gifts Unresolved

    Funding comes from shopping commissions directed to a chosen charity; neither source states whether a profile page takes a direct gift.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com
  5. Unresolved
    5. Intermediary Unresolved

    Commissions are paid out through Change, but which charitable entity legally receives and regrants the money is not published.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com
  6. Present, research only
    6. Search-indexed Present, research only

    Exposure, not ranking: page 4950 reports 36,700+ charity-directory pages enumerated in sitemap-0.xml (fetched 2026-07-21); no page HTML was saved to check for noindex.

    Basis: Shadow Donation Directory, nonprofitnewsfeed.com

Event log

Everything that has happened on the record, newest first.

  1. Published

    NNF Shadow Donation Directory published

    WordPress page 4950 on nonprofitnewsfeed.com was published on 2026-07-23 with evidence dated 2026-07-21; this platform's row carries that date. The page revision history was not checked to confirm the row existed on day one.

    Source: NNF Shadow Donation Directory (page 4950)
  2. Capture

    Page 4950 capture

    Page 4950 dates its screenshots and sitemap column for this platform to 2026-07-21: the Move for Hunger profile, a Google search, and a sitemap count of 36,700+ directory pages.

    Source: NNF Shadow Donation Directory (page 4950)
  3. Published

    Named in Whole Whale's source article

    Whole Whale's article "The Rise of Shadow Donation Pages", dated 2025-11-06, discusses GiveFreely in its current text. The saved copy carries later updates (one marked July 2026), so presence in the first version is not separately confirmed.

    Source: Whole Whale, The Rise of Shadow Donation Pages

If your organization is on GiveFreely

We have not verified a removal or claim route for GiveFreely yet. Search the platform for your legal name and EIN, and contact the platform directly.

Reply and corrections

GiveFreely can reply to anything on this page by writing to letstalk@wholewhale.com. We publish replies and log corrections with the date they were made.