eBay Trading APIVersion 1311
 

GetCharities

Note: This call is deprecated, and will be decommisioned on September 18, 2023. The alternative for this API is Charity API, which has a getCharityOrg method to retrieve details on a specific Charity, and a getCharityOrgs method to retrieve multiple charities based on search filters.
The GetCharities call is used to search for nonprofit organizations that are registered with the eBay for Charity program. This call allows users to search for a specific nonprofit organization, or to search for multiple nonprofit organizations from a particular charitable domain, and/or geographical region, or by using a search string.

See Identifying Listings that Benefit Nonprofits.



Input

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are (or soon will be) non-operational.

The XML prototype does not include requester credentials. This is a documentation limitation only (see Standard Requester Credentials for Making Calls).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCharitiesRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Call-specific Input Fields -->
  <CharityDomain> int </CharityDomain>
  <CharityID> string </CharityID>
  <CharityName> string </CharityName>
  <CharityRegion> int </CharityRegion>
  <Featured> boolean </Featured>
  <IncludeDescription> boolean </IncludeDescription>
  <MatchType> StringMatchCodeType </MatchType>
  <Query> string </Query>
  <!-- Standard Input Fields -->
  <ErrorLanguage> string </ErrorLanguage>
  <MessageID> string </MessageID>
  <Version> string </Version>
  <WarningLevel> WarningLevelCodeType </WarningLevel>
</GetCharitiesRequest>
Argument Type Occurrence Meaning
Call-specific Input Fields [Jump to standard fields]
CharityDomain int Optional This field can be used to search for registered nonprofit organizations within a specified charitable domain. Each charitable domain will have an integer value associated with it. This integer value is what is passed in to this field. Nonprofit organizations can be associated with multiple charitable domains.
CharityID string Optional The unique identifier that eBay creates and assigns to each nonprofit organization. This is NOT the unique identifier used by the PayPal Giving Fund. This eBay unique identifier is returned in the Charity.CharityID field of a GetItem call for charitable listings.

If a CharityID value is used in the request, all other search filters set in the call request will be ignored, as the call will only search for the specified nonprofit organization.
CharityName string Conditional This field will accept the full or partial name of a registered nonprofit organization. For example, if you pass in a value of heart, all registered nonprofit organizations with "heart" in their name may be returned in the response. If the MatchType field is used and set to StartsWith (default value), or is not used at all, the phrase "heart" must come at the beginning of the nonprofit organization's name to be returned. However, if the MatchType field is used and set to Contains, all registered nonprofit organizations with "heart" in their name should be returned in the response. The string passed in this field is not case-sensitive.

Max length: 150.
CharityRegion int Optional This field can be used to search for registered nonprofit organizations within a specified geographical region. Each geographical region will have an integer value associated with it. This integer value is what is passed in to this field.
Featured boolean Optional This boolean field is used and set to true if the user wants to search for nonprofit organizations currently featured on the eBay for Charity site.

Default: false.
IncludeDescription boolean Optional This field should be included and set to true if a user wants the charity's description to appear in the response. Note that not all charitable organizations will have defined descriptions.

Default: false.
MatchType StringMatchCodeType Optional This filter is used if the user wants to specify where to look for the string specified in the CharityName field. The enumeration value input into this field controls the type of string matching to use when a value is submitted in the CharityName field. If this field is omitted, and a CharityName string is used, this parameter value defaults to StartsWith.

This field is not applicable when a Query value is used.

Default: StartsWith.

Applicable values:

Contains
(in) Matches strings that contain the submitted value. For example, submitting a CharityName value of "heart" matches both "Heart of Gold" and "Open Hearts."
CustomCode
(in) Reserved for internal or future use.
StartsWith
(in) Matches strings that begin with the submitted value. For example, submitting a CharityName value of "heart" matches "Heart of Gold," but not "Open Hearts." Default behavior if no value is specified.
Query string Conditional This field accepts any string up to 350 characters in length. The functionality of this field is similar to the CharityName field, except that the call will also search for the supplied query string within the charity's mission statement (which is returned under the Charity.Mission field in the response). If you pass in a value of heart, all registered nonprofit organizations with "heart" in their name or in their mission statement may be returned in the response.

The string passed in this field is not case-sensitive. The MatchType field will have no effect if the Query field is used, as the MatchType field will only have an effect if a CharityName string field is included.

Max length: 350.
Standard Input Fields  
ErrorLanguage string Optional Use ErrorLanguage to return error strings for the call in a different language from the language commonly associated with the site that the requesting user is registered with. Below are some examples from different countries.

ID Country
en_AU Australia
de_AT Austria
nl_BE Belgium (Dutch)
fr_BE Belgium (French)
en_CA Canada
fr_CA Canada (French)
zh_CN China
fr_FR France
de_DE Germany
zh_HK Hong Kong
en_IN India
en_IE Ireland
it_IT Italy
nl_NL Netherlands
en_SG Singapore
es_ES Spain
de_CH Switzerland
en_GB United Kingdom
en_US United States
MessageID string Optional Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note: GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Version string Conditional The version number of the API code that you are programming against (e.g., 1149). The version you specify for a call has these basic effects:
  • It indicates the version of the code lists and other data that eBay should use to process your request.
  • It indicates the schema version you are using.
You need to use a version that is greater than or equal to the lowest supported version.
For the SOAP API: If you are using the SOAP API, this field is required. Specify the version of the WSDL your application is using.

For the XML API: If you are using the XML API, this field has no effect. Instead, specify the version in the X-EBAY-API-COMPATIBILITY-LEVEL HTTP header. (If you specify Version in the body of an XML API request and it is different from the value in the HTTP header, eBay returns an informational warning that the value in the HTTP header was used instead.)

See:
    HTTP Headers
    eBay Schema Versioning Strategy
    Lowest Supported Version

WarningLevel WarningLevelCodeType Optional Controls whether or not to return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request.

An unrecognized element is one that is not defined in any supported version of the schema. Schema element names are case-sensitive, so using WarningLevel can also help you remove any potential hidden bugs within your application due to incorrect case or spelling in field names before you put your application into the Production environment.

WarningLevel only validates elements; it doesn't validate XML attributes. It also doesn't control warnings related to user-entered strings or numbers, or warnings for logical errors.

We recommend that you only use this during development and debugging. Do not use this in requests performed in the Production environment.

Applicable values:

High
(in) The WarningLevel value is set to High if the user wishes to receive warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in an API call request. Setting the WarningLevel value to High is not recommended in a production environment. Instead, it should only be used during the development/debugging stage.
Low
(in) The WarningLevel value is set to Low if the user does not wish to receive warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in an API call request. This is the default value if WarningLevel is not specified in the call request.

See Warning Level.



Output

See also Samples.

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are not returned (or soon will not be returned) or are not operational (or soon will be non-operational).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCharitiesResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <!-- Call-specific Output Fields -->
  <Charity id="string"> CharityInfoType
    <CharityDomain> int </CharityDomain>
    <!-- ... more CharityDomain values allowed here ... -->
    <CharityRegion> int </CharityRegion>
    <Description> string </Description>
    <DisplayLogoSelling> boolean </DisplayLogoSelling>
    <EIN> string </EIN>
    <LogoURL> anyURI </LogoURL>
    <LogoURLSelling> anyURI </LogoURLSelling>
    <Mission> string </Mission>
    <Name> string </Name>
    <PopularityIndex> int </PopularityIndex>
  </Charity>
  <!-- ... more Charity nodes allowed here ... -->
  <!-- Standard Output Fields -->
  <Ack> AckCodeType </Ack>
  <Build> string </Build>
  <CorrelationID> string </CorrelationID>
  <Errors> ErrorType
    <ErrorClassification> ErrorClassificationCodeType </ErrorClassification>
    <ErrorCode> token </ErrorCode>
    <ErrorParameters ParamID="string"> ErrorParameterType
      <Value> string </Value>
    </ErrorParameters>
    <!-- ... more ErrorParameters nodes allowed here ... -->
    <LongMessage> string </LongMessage>
    <SeverityCode> SeverityCodeType </SeverityCode>
    <ShortMessage> string </ShortMessage>
  </Errors>
  <!-- ... more Errors nodes allowed here ... -->
  <HardExpirationWarning> string </HardExpirationWarning>
  <Timestamp> dateTime </Timestamp>
  <Version> string </Version>
</GetCharitiesResponse>
Return Value Type Occurrence Meaning
Call-specific Output Fields [Jump to standard fields]
Charity CharityInfoType Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*]
Each Charity container consists of information about a specific nonprofit organization. The eBay unique identifier of each nonprofit organization is shown in the id attribute of the container. If no nonprofit organizations are found that match the input criteria, no Charity containers are returned.
Charity
  [ attribute id ]
string Conditionally Each Charity container consists of information about a specific nonprofit organization. The eBay unique identifier of each nonprofit organization is shown in the id attribute of the container. If no nonprofit organizations are found that match the input criteria, no Charity containers are returned.
Charity.CharityDomain int Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..3]
Integer value that indicates the domain (mission area) of the nonprofit charity organization. A nonprofit charity organization does not have to specify a charity domain, so it is possible that this field will not be returned in GetCharities. Each nonprofit charity organization can belong to as many as three charity domains.
Charity.CharityRegion int Conditionally Integer value that indicates the nonprofit charity organization's region. Each nonprofit charity organization may only be associated with one region.
Charity.Description string Conditionally This field provides a description about the nonprofit charity organization's primary purpose. "I want to support" will be added to the beginning of the contents of this field. For example, if the description is "the fight against cancer", then on the checkout page "I want to support the fight against cancer" will be displayed. This field is returned if available for the nonprofit organization.

Max length: 4000.
Charity.DisplayLogoSelling boolean Always This boolean value indicates if the LogoURLSelling image will appear in the eBay for Charity section of the View Item page for a charitable listing.
Charity.EIN string Conditionally This value is the Employer Identification Number (EIN) of the nonprofit charity organization. A nonprofit company's EIN is used for tax purposes by the Internal Revenue Service. This value is returned if the nonprofit organization has an EIN and it has been set.
Charity.LogoURL anyURI Conditionally The URL to the nonprofit charity organization's logo image. The image file will be in JPG or GIF format. This logo is displayed in charitable listings in the eBay for Charity section of the View Item page. This field is returned if available for the nonprofit organization.
Charity.LogoURLSelling anyURI Conditionally An alternative to the LogoURL value. This URL indicates the location of the nonprofit charity organization's logo image. The image file will be in JPG or GIF format. This URL will be used if the LogoURL value points to a broken link or if that location either contains no image or contains an image that does not meet the eBay requirements - GIF or JPG file; maximum size of 50 KB. A nonprofit charity organization's logo is displayed in the eBay for Charity section of the View Item page for a charitable listing.
Charity.Mission string Conditionally The mission statement of the nonprofit charity organization. This field will be returned if the organization's mission statement is available.


Max length: 511.
Charity.Name string Always The name of a nonprofit charity organization.


Max length: 150.
Charity.PopularityIndex int Conditionally An integer value that indicates a nonprofit charity organization's popularity rank in comparison with other registered eBay for Charity organizations. This value is determined and managed by PayPal Giving Fund and is based on various factors. This value is always returned for nonprofit organizations registered with PayPal Giving Fund.
Standard Output Fields  
Ack AckCodeType Always A token representing the application-level acknowledgement code that indicates the response status (e.g., success). The AckCodeType list specifies the possible values for the Ack field.

Applicable values:

CustomCode
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
Failure
(out) This value indicates that the call request processing failed.
Success
(out) This value indicates that the call request was processed successfully without any issues.
Warning
(out) This value indicates that the call request was successful, but processing was not without any issues. These issues can be checked in the Errors container, that will also be returned when one or more known issues occur with the call request.

(Not all values in AckCodeType apply to this field.)

Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
Build string Always This refers to the specific software build that eBay used when processing the request and generating the response. This includes the version number plus additional information. eBay Developer Support may request the build information when helping you resolve technical issues.
CorrelationID string Conditionally Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note: GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.
Errors ErrorType Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*]
A list of application-level errors (if any) that occurred when eBay processed the request.
Errors.ErrorClassification ErrorClassificationCodeType Conditionally API errors are divided between two classes: system errors and request errors.

Applicable values:

CustomCode
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
RequestError
(out) An error has occurred either as a result of a problem in the sending application or because the application's end-user has attempted to submit invalid data (or missing data). In these cases, do not retry the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be made again. If the problem is due to something in the application (such as a missing required field), the application must be changed. If the problem is a result of end-user data, the application must alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for the end-user to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, resend the request to eBay with the corrected data.
SystemError
(out) Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side, such as a database or server down. An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.

Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
Errors.ErrorCode token Conditionally A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms.

See Errors By Number.

Errors.ErrorParameters ErrorParameterType Conditionally,
repeatable: [0..*]
This optional element carries a list of context-specific error variables that indicate details about the error condition. These are useful when multiple instances of ErrorType are returned.
Errors.ErrorParameters
  [ attribute ParamID ]
string Conditionally This optional element carries a list of context-specific error variables that indicate details about the error condition. These are useful when multiple instances of ErrorType are returned.
Errors.ErrorParameters.Value string Conditionally This is the value of the request parameter noted in the ParamID attribute. So, if the ParamID value was ItemID, the value in this field would be the actual value of that ItemID.
Errors.LongMessage string Conditionally A more detailed description of the condition that raised the error.
Errors.SeverityCode SeverityCodeType Conditionally Indicates whether the error is a severe error (causing the request to fail) or an informational error (a warning) that should be communicated to the user.

Applicable values:

CustomCode
(out) Reserved for internal or future use.
Error
(out) The request that triggered the error was not processed successfully. When a serious application-level error occurs, the error is returned instead of the business data.

If the source of the problem is within the application (such as a missing required element), change the application before you retry the request.
  • If the problem is due to end-user input data, please alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, you can attempt to re-send the request to eBay.
  • If the source of the problem is on eBay's side, An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.


See the Compatible Application Check section of the eBay Features Guide for more information.
Warning
(out) The request was processed successfully, but something occurred that may affect your application or the user. For example, eBay may have changed a value the user sent in. In this case, eBay returns a normal, successful response and also returns the warning.

When a warning occurs, the error is returned in addition to the business data. In this case, you do not need to retry the request (as the original request was successful). However, depending on the cause or nature of the warning, you might need to contact either the end user or eBay to effect a long term solution to the problem to prevent it from reoccurring in the future.

Code so that your app gracefully handles any future changes to this list.
Errors.ShortMessage string Conditionally A brief description of the condition that raised the error.
HardExpirationWarning string Conditionally Expiration date of the user's authentication token. Only returned within the 7-day period prior to a token's expiration. To ensure that user authentication tokens are secure and to help avoid a user's token being compromised, tokens have a limited life span. A token is only valid for a period of time (set by eBay). After this amount of time has passed, the token expires and must be replaced with a new token.
Timestamp dateTime Always This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. The time zone of this value is GMT and the format is the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See the Time Values section in the eBay Features Guide for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone.

Note: GetCategories and other Trading API calls are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, this time value reflects the time the cached response was created. Thus, this value is not necessarily when the request was processed. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, this time value does reflect when the request was processed.
Version string Always The version of the response payload schema. Indicates the version of the schema that eBay used to process the request. See the Standard Data for All Calls section in the eBay Features Guide for information on using the response version when troubleshooting CustomCode values that appear in the response.



Detail Controls


DetailLevel

This call does not support varying Detail Levels. You do not need to pass DetailLevel in the request.



Samples

Code samples not yet added for this call's documentation.



Change History

Change Date Description
1145
2020-03-13
  • CharityID (doc change): Clarified in the field description that the CharityID request field takes the eBay unique identifier for a charity, and not the PayPal Giving Fund identifier for a charity.
  • Charity (doc change): Clarified in the field description that the id attribute value returned in each Charity container in the response is the eBay unique identifier for a charity, and not the PayPal Giving Fund identifier for a charity.
  • Charity.ExternalID (doc change): Clarified in the field description that the ExternalID field returned under each Charity container in the response is the PayPal Giving Fund identifier for a charity.
0759
2012-02-01
  • Charity.NonProfitAddress (added): A NonProfitAddress container is returned if address information is set for the nonprofit charity organization.
  • Charity.EIN (added): The Employer Identification Number for the nonprofit charity organization.
  • Charity.NonProfitSecondName (added): An alternative name for the nonprofit charity organization.
  • Charity.PopularityIndex (added): A nonprofit charity organization's popularity rank in comparison with other registered eBay Giving Works organizations.
0579
2008-08-20
  • CharityInfoType.DisplayNameInCheckout (added): When DisplayNameInCheckout is set to true, the nonprofit company name will be displayed on the Review Your Purchase page during checkout. The value for the DisplayNameInCheckout field is returned with the GetCharities response.
0557
2008-03-19
  • Featured (added): When Featured is set to true, featured charities will only be returned in the response. If it is set to false, the existing logic of returning all charities will be returned in the response. Featured is not required in the request, thus not supplying it will set the value to false.
0443
2006-01-11
  • WarningLevel (doc change): The I/O Doc has been updated to indicate that WarningLevel is an applicable input.