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The New York Charitable Bail Organization license

Charitable Bail Organization

A certificate that lets a charity post cash bail for people who cannot afford it, without charging a premium and without acting as surety on a bond.

Course

None

This license has no pre-licensing course route.

Ways in

1

There is no state exam for this license.

Exam

n/a

Not required on any of the routes below.

Every way to qualify

  1. Route 1 Apply as a registered 501(c)(3) charity

    No state exam for this license

    • A non-profit organization organized under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3).

    • or

      Registered as a charity under Article 7-A of the New York Executive Law and current on that registration.

    Insurance Law 6805. Both conditions are required rather than alternatives, and the Department states them as a numbered pair. The certificate runs five years. What it authorizes is bounded in three directions at once: money only, up to $2,000, for a defendant charged with misdemeanors alone; only for somebody financially unable to post bail; and in one county, unless the organization's principal place of business is in a city of a million people or more, in which case it reaches every county that city covers. No premium and no compensation may be taken for the work. All officers, directors, trustees and executive personnel are fingerprinted. Insurance Law 6802(a) then requires anybody soliciting or effectuating a deposit for the organization to hold a bail agent license of their own.

    Read at the Department on 2026-08-21

The certificate is granted on the applicant's charitable status rather than on anything a person studies, so there is no course or examination for a school to sell against. No national seller prices a product for it.