When you create or manage an organization on Bonito Hub, you can optionally upload supporting documents to help us verify its legitimacy. Documents are reviewed by the Bonito team, kept private, and don't appear on your public profile.
You don't have to upload anything to use Bonito Hub. But documents speed up approval and add an audit-grade signal of legitimacy for your organization.
What we accept
We ask for one or more of five document types, in priority order:
Certificate of registration or incorporation — the highest-signal document. It proves your organization exists as a legal entity. Examples: nonprofit registration certificate, Companies House extract, association statutes, charity commission certificate. Available in some form regardless of jurisdiction.
Tax-exempt or charity status letter — for example, an IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter in the US, an HMRC charity reference in the UK, or the equivalent where you operate. Optional and jurisdiction-dependent.
Annual report — proves your organization is active and not dormant.
Governing document, statutes, or bylaws — proves a governance structure exists.
Other — a free-form option for documents that don't fit the above. If you pick this, add a short note explaining what you're uploading.
You don't need to upload all five. One good document — typically the certificate of registration — is enough for most reviews.
What we deliberately don't ask for
Board lists, staff lists, beneficiary lists — these contain personal data we don't need and shouldn't hold.
Financial statements with personal information — we don't audit financials.
Photos of children or other vulnerable individuals — these belong on your public profile only if you have the right consents, not in verification documents.
If a document you'd like to upload contains any of the above, please redact it before uploading.
File formats and limits
Accepted formats: PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP.
Maximum size: 15 MB per file.
If your document is larger, compress the PDF or split it into parts.
How to upload
During the create flow. The new-organization form has an optional section "Speed up approval" where you can attach documents before submitting.
From organization settings. As an OWNER or ADMIN, go to your organization's Settings → Verification documents at any time and upload there.
After upload, each document enters the Pending review state. Bonito reviews verification documents alongside ordinary organization-review work, and we aim to decide within 3 business days. You'll receive an email when a document is approved or rejected.
What happens to your documents
Documents are stored in a private, encrypted storage bucket, completely separate from the public bucket where logos and gallery images live.
They are never served via our public CDN and never appear on your public profile.
They can only be accessed by Bonito staff and by the OWNER and ADMIN members of your organization (MEMBER role can't see them).
Access is via short-lived signed URLs (5 minutes), not direct file links.
This is explained in full in our Privacy Policy.
Replacing or removing a document
Replace — use the "Replace" action against an existing document if you have a newer version. The old document is marked as replaced (kept for audit history but no longer active); the new one goes into pending review.
Remove — use the "Remove" action to take down a document you no longer want associated with the organization. The document is removed from active view but the audit row is preserved.
If a document is rejected
You'll receive an email with the reason. Common reasons include:
The document is illegible — please re-upload a clearer scan.
The document type doesn't match what we asked for.
The document appears to be from a different organization.
The document is expired — please upload the most recent version.
We couldn't verify the issuing authority.
You can upload a corrected version using the Replace action.