How do charities receive donations made on the Groundswell platform?
Groundswell processes individual donations within 48 hours of the donation date via ACH through a partnership with PayPal Grants. Through this partnership, Groundswell sends donations quickly and securely to the more than 300,000 charities that have been confirmed by PayPal to receive donations electronically. Each individual donation is acknowledged with the donor name, unless the donor has opted to donate anonymously. Donation notes are also transmitted for charities to review in their PayPal Grants Portal.
While Groundswell prioritizes sending payments to charities via ACH, in some cases we will issue paper checks if the charity is not a PayPal Confirmed Charity. The donation checks are processed within 48 hours of the donation date, and sent to the charity’s mailing address on file with the IRS. Delivery times vary based on USPS. Each individual donation is acknowledged with the user’s name, unless the user has opted to donate anonymously, along with donation notes.
What is PayPal Grant Payments?
Grant Payments enables Groundswell to deliver grants (donations) to charities directly into their PayPal account or bank account. Charities can review the grant information and accept or decline in their Grant Payments dashboard. There are no fees associated with receiving grants via PayPal. Please see here a brief overview video.
How can we sign up and use PayPal to receive grants electronically?
- Create a PayPal business account, making sure to identify as a charity (follow the steps here)
- Follow the prompts to confirm your charitable status. Once confirmed, you’ll be automatically signed up to receive donations (grants) fee-free into your PayPal account. You can choose to receive grants into your PayPal account OR via ACH.
How can our charity receive grants?
If you have a confirmed charity account with PayPal, you’ll be automatically signed up to receive grants via Grant Payments. When Groundswell sends your organization a grant, you will receive an email notification as well as a notification on your PayPal account home page. You’ll need to log into your PayPal account and go to the Grant Payments Dashboard. From there you can review the donor details, grant letter, and terms and conditions. After reviewing, you can accept or decline the donation; if accepted, the money will be available in your PayPal account within one day. You can also choose to receive grants via ACH directly into your bank account.
If you do not have a confirmed charity account with PayPal, you will receive donations by paper check, delivered via USPS to the mailing address on file with the IRS.
How can I find more information on who donated to my organization?
The Groundswell Charitable Foundation is a 501c3 Public Charity with the purpose of serving as a custodial Donor Advised Fund - to facilitate donations to charities at the recommendation of individuals that hold DAFs on our platform.
For each donation, we are currently only at liberty to share the following information:
- Donor name (if not anonymous)
- Donation amount
- Donation date
- Donation note (if included by the user)
If you’d like to obtain this info about a specific donation, please reach out to our support team.
Is there a portal for charities to log in and view donation data?
At this time, Groundswell does not have a portal for charities to access donation information more easily, but this feature is in consideration for the future! We are also exploring new distribution partners to better facilitate getting the funds to our nonprofit recipients, and share more details about the donations (notes, etc).
As a charity, is there anything we need to do to ensure we will receive donation funds when they are available?
There’s no specific set up necessary for charities. Groundswell prioritizes sending payments to charities via ACH but in some cases will issue paper checks.
For more information on our donation process and timing check this article (link to process/timing article).
Are donations received from Groundswell Charitable Foundation considered workplace matching gifts?
Some of our users are enrolled in company-sponsored giving programs, but others are not. Currently, any company-sponsored donation matches are made in the name of the employee, and do not include the company name.
Do charities need to send tax receipts to the donors or to the Groundswell Charitable Foundation?
No, you do not need to send a tax receipt or any acknowledgement letters. The Groundswell Charitable Foundation - as a Donor Advised Fund - provides tax receipts to donors that contribute funds to their Groundswell DAFs. Moreover, Groundswell does not collect mailing addresses of donors, so we are unable to forward any letters that are sent to the Groundswell Charitable Foundation.
Are there any restrictions to the donations that are received from the Groundswell Charitable Foundation?
Funds received from the Groundswell Charitable Foundation are made without Expenditure Responsibility (non-ER) - in other words, they are unrestricted and can be used as your organization sees fit. At times, some of Groundswell’s users may want to send a donation in someone’s memory, or tie their donation to a fundraiser (e.g. Cycle for Survival), so we may communicate that additional information to inform how you may decide to use the funds.
Groundswell’s donation acceptance criteria is communicated via PayPal Grants as well as enclosed with the paper checks:
- Grant proceeds will be exclusively used for charitable and educational activities consistent with all laws and regulations that apply to tax-exempt organizations;
- Your organization will not provide any goods, services, or other private benefits to the donor(s) who made this grant possible;
- Your organization’s tax-exempt status is in good standing with the IRS as a public charity
- Your organization does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.
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