How to Handle a Possible OFAC Name Match When Screening a Nonprofit

Q: What field should trigger the OFAC review path?

Use `ofac_status` according to your organization's policy.

Direct answer

When ofac_status indicates a result that your compliance policy considers concerning, route the nonprofit through the appropriate review or hold path.

The supplied current schema does not expose the underlying matched OFAC name, candidate list or similarity score. Therefore, your application should not invent a name-match explanation from the current response.

Recommended verification flow

Confirm organization identity.
Read ofac_status.
Classify the returned status according to your policy.
Continue automatically only when your policy allows.
Route concerning results for review.
Preserve ein and organization_name.
Preserve organization_name_aka when available.
Do not create a synthetic OFAC match score.
Keep IRS BMF, Pub. 78 and revocation signals separate.
Record the application-level review outcome according to your policy.

Example request(s)

curl --request GET \
  --url https://entities.pactman.org/api/entities/nonprofitcheck/v1/us/ein/YOUR_EIN \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

Implementation note: The endpoint name above reflects the Pactman single-EIN Nonprofit Check endpoint used in Pactman's Production/Customer Environment.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://entities.pactman.org/api/entities/nonprofitcheckbulk/v1/us/eins \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '[
    "YOUR_EIN_1",
    "YOUR_EIN_2",
    "YOUR_EIN_3",
    "YOUR_EIN_4",
    "YOUR_EIN_5"
  ]'

Implementation note: The endpoint name above reflects the Pactman bulk-EIN Nonprofit Check endpoint used in Pactman's Production/Customer Environment. You can have at most 50 EINs in a bulk-EIN Nonprofit Check endpoint request.

What your application should evaluate

Signal	Why it matters	Typical application decision
`ofac_status`	Supplies the organization-level OFAC result.	Drive clear, review or stop behavior according to policy.
`ein` / `organization_name`	Identifies the screened nonprofit.	Preserve identity with the review record.
`organization_name_aka`	Provides an alternate nonprofit name when available.	Retain as identity context, not OFAC match evidence.
Current schema limits	No matched-name or similarity-score fields are exposed.	Do not fabricate match rationale.
IRS signals	Answer tax-status and deductibility questions separately.	Keep sanctions review independent.

Example decision logic

A possible-match workflow might:

inspect ofac_status;
allow clear results according to policy;
route concerning results for manual or enhanced review;
retain nonprofit identity fields;
avoid presenting unsupported matched-name details; and
preserve IRS status separately.

The supplied samples all show a not-included OFAC result, so they do not provide a positive or ambiguous match example.

Important: The absence of match-detail fields means the current response supports the screening outcome, not an independent reconstruction of how the name was matched.

Why use a consolidated nonprofit verification API?

A review workflow can use the organization-level OFAC result alongside IRS verification without mixing the two domains.

One normalized response

Receive organization identity and OFAC status with IRS signals.

Separate source signals

Keep sanctions review independent from tax-status decisions.

Reusable compliance rules

Apply the same OFAC escalation policy across donations, grants and fintech workflows.

Developer-friendly automation

Automatically route concerning OFAC outcomes without inventing unsupported match metadata.

Frequently asked questions

What field should trigger the OFAC review path?

Use ofac_status according to your organization's policy.

Can I show the matched OFAC name from the current response?

No. The supplied response does not expose a matched-name field.

Can I calculate a similarity score from the current response?

Not from the supplied fields alone.

Should a possible OFAC concern be merged with IRS status?

No. Keep OFAC and IRS decisions separate.

Next step

Use ofac_status to route review, preserve organization identity, and avoid inventing match-detail evidence that is not returned.

Ready to build an OFAC review path?

Use Pactman Nonprofit Check Plus API to drive organization-level OFAC review while keeping unsupported match-detail assumptions out of your workflow.

Get an API Key →