Introducing Ramp for Nonprofits: More time and money for the mission

Lindsay Haddix is the Executive Director of East Bay Housing Organizations. She’s also the finance department.

“We don’t have a finance person, a CFO, or a director of finance. I wear those hats.”

-Lindsay Haddix, Executive Director, East Bay Housing Organizations

For nonprofit teams, managing money means more than staying within budget. It means knowing which grant can cover a purchase, how much funding is still available, and whether sales tax can be recovered. That work often falls to the same people running the programs.

We’re introducing Ramp for Nonprofits: tools to help teams recover eligible sales tax, know what’s available in each grant, and give program staff the ability to spend within clear limits.

Recover more of the money already meant for your mission

For many nonprofits, sales-tax exemption is available—but recovering that tax can be complicated. Exemption certificates live in a file somewhere. Receipts arrive late. Claims require manual work that small teams may not have time to take on.

As receipts come in, Ramp flags potential sales tax. It then builds the documentation into a claim packet your team can review and file. And when a cardholder is checking out, they can pull up the organization’s exemption certificate directly in the Ramp app.

Sales Tax Reclamation has saved early customers 3% of their year-to-date card spend. That means less time tracking down paperwork—and more opportunity to recover funds for the work that matters. Sales-tax recovery is available at no cost to nonprofits.

Know what is left before you spend it

A grant’s total award doesn’t tell a program manager what they can spend today. They need to know what’s already spent, what’s committed, and what remains.

With Grants Hub and Grant Budgets, teams can see spent, committed, and remaining balances by grant in real time. Rather than reconstructing a grant’s position from spreadsheets, program managers and finance leaders can make decisions with a current view of the funds available to them.

As Patricia Espinosa, Director of Finance at The Center for Independent Living, put it:

“When a program manager makes a purchase on a Ramp virtual card, they can do the grant allocation up front, instead of relying on somebody on the back end to figure it out. Real-time allocation at the grant level saves time, saves money, and keeps us prepared for audit.”

Patricia Espinosa, Director of Finance, The Center for Independent Living

Keep restricted funds restricted

Having money left in a grant doesn’t mean every purchase qualifies. Teams also need to know whether an expense fits the fund’s terms.

With grant approvals and policy checks, purchase requests and bills can route to the grant manager who understands the fund’s terms. Before approval, each bill can be checked against that grant’s spend policy—helping teams keep restricted funds aligned with their intended purpose.

Grant Policy Agent checks proposed expenses against a fund’s spend policy and flags potential mismatches before approval or allocation. For example, if a grant covers program supplies but excludes travel, it can flag a hotel bill submitted against that grant so the reviewer can catch the mismatch without manually checking the grant’s terms.

The goal is not to add another approval layer. It is to give teams the confidence to move quickly while protecting the funding they have been trusted to manage.

Give program teams the ability to act—with guardrails

Programs cannot always wait for a reimbursement or a manual payment process. Whether a team needs supplies, travel, or an emergency purchase, they need a way to act quickly without losing visibility or control.

With program cards, nonprofits can issue cards tied to a grant or restricted fund and set limits before anyone spends. Teams have what they need to do their work, while finance retains the controls and context needed to keep spending on track.

For Lindsay Haddix, Executive Director at East Bay Housing Organizations, that flexibility means less time in administrative work and more time on the organization’s mission:

“With the Ramp app on my phone, I can approve purchase requests or add funds to someone’s card between meetings, and it shows up instantly.”

-Lindsay Haddix, Executive Director, East Bay Housing Organizations

Lindsay still wears the finance hat. Ramp helps make it a smaller part of her day.

Less time administering the work. More time doing it.