The Candid Seals of Transparency on GuideStar help you demonstrate your transparency to potential funders and donors. Their updated look now fully reflects Candid’s organization-wide commitment to this work.
To earn the Gold Seal of Transparency, you must also complete the Bronze and Silver Seal requirements.
Required Gold Fields
Recent year (2021 or 2022) Financials: either upload an audited financial statement, or share your revenue, expenses, assets & liabilities (click here for full required list).
People: Name of Board Chair & Leader Demographics
Financials
Option #1: Upload an audited financial statement. The audited financial statement must be from within the past two years.
Please do not upload a Form 990 in this section. Navigate to the Additional Docs section to do so.
Please limit files to 20mb.
If you are having trouble uploading, you may need to compress your file to a smaller size if larger than 20 MB. Here is a link to assist you https://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf.
Don't have an audited financial statement? Not to worry! You have another option.
Option #2: Manually fill in the following fields: Fiscal Year, Revenue Expenses, Expenses, and Assets & Liabilities. Check the box next to 'We prefer to enter our financial information manually' to access these fields. Financial information must be from within the past two years.
Not sure where to find this information? Grab your most recent Form 990 and look at the first two pages--everything should be there!
People
Board Chair: share your board chair’s name (required), company/organization, term dates, and LinkedIn
Board Members (optional): share the names of your other board members so donors can know who they are
Staff members (optional): share the names of your staff
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
Ask your organization’s leader to share their demographic information publicly.
Leadership Demographics Information - How does your leader publicly self-identify?
Race and Ethnicity
Gender Identity
Sexual Orientation
Disability Status
Best Practices:
Ask your leader directly – don’t guess
Don't know how to ask? Use the DEI Survey Guide
Tell them it will be public information via GuideStar
“Decline to state” is a valid option
Don’t forget to publish. Once you’re done – navigate to the Publish section and publish. Your profile will reflect your new information within 15-30 minutes.
To draft– save. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Gold section. You’ll learn if you missed any required fields and you’ll save. Your profile will not update until you publish.
Your info on partner sites. Your information will be sent to partners:
Most updates appear on our partner sites within 24-72 hours.
What's Next
Share a Candid participation logo on your website, on social media, and on printed materials.