[Board] Next steps re accepting donations

Sat Oct 10 12:09:52 EDT 2020

Wonderful progress!  Thanks so much for getting this setup.

-Anna

Anna Goben

Evergreen Indiana Coordinator

Indiana State Library

140 N. Senate Ave.

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Telephone: 317-234-6624

Fax: 317-262-3713

________________________________
From: Board <board-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org> on behalf of Galen Charlton <gmc at equinoxinitiative.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 11:26 AM
To: board at list.evergreen-ils.org <board at list.evergreen-ils.org>
Subject: Re: [Board] Next steps re accepting donations

**** This is an EXTERNAL email. Exercise caution. DO NOT open attachments or click links from unknown senders or unexpected email. ****
________________________________
Hi,

I note, by the way, that PayPal is currently charging 2.9% of donations + $0.30 per transaction as a fee. This fee will go down to 2.2% + $0.30 upon approval of our application to be recognized as a confirmed charity by PayPal.

The rates are higher for PayPal donations made from outside the US: 4.4% + $0.30 pre-confirmation, 3.7% + $0.30 thereafter. This does _not_, I believe, include additional fees for currency conversion and credit card processing. If it's desired, I can readily create a second donation form that accepts CAD, but we _cannot_ make any general statement as to whether contributions by Canadians would give them any tax benefit. E.g., <https://www.hodgsonruss.com/canada-united-states-charity.html<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=4187de53-1f37518f-41839753-86ab8bdaf1e2-397d130c59d3a615&q=1&e=2d16654e-85e0-473d-b3b5-9f7a5127929c&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hodgsonruss.com%2Fcanada-united-states-charity.html>> gives you some idea of the complexities.

Regards,

Galen

On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 11:04 AM Galen Charlton <gmc at equinoxinitiative.org<mailto:gmc at equinoxinitiative.org>> wrote:
HI,

Further to this, I've established a PayPal donation form/button and added it to the footer of the website to start. I figure we can do more later to establish a good permanent place for it on the website, and of course, we can readily include it on any blog post we might do about the situation.

The direct link to the donation form is:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6NJ744B3UJVCG

Regards,

Galen

On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 6:39 PM Galen Charlton <gmc at equinoxinitiative.org<mailto:gmc at equinoxinitiative.org>> wrote:
Hi,

I've taken the following immediate steps to get us along the path to being able to readily accept donations by means other than a check:

- I've set up G Suite for the evergreen-ils.org<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=5dc77c27-0377f3fb-5dc33527-86ab8bdaf1e2-3f44a5f08c417e56&q=1&e=2d16654e-85e0-473d-b3b5-9f7a5127929c&u=http%3A%2F%2Fevergreen-ils.org%2F> so that I can more readily manage project email separate from my personal accounts without looking like I'm some rando not associated with TEP.  I've taken steps to ensure that existing email at evergreen-ils.org<mailto:email at evergreen-ils.org> addresses will continue to work as is, but as of now, gmc at evergreen-ils.org<mailto:gmc at evergreen-ils.org> and treasurer at evergreen-ils.org<mailto:treasurer at evergreen-ils.org> will now reach me.

I've also applied for G Suite for Nonprofits; I note that doing so will take us most of the way towards becoming known to TechSoup.

The decision to turn on G Suite is one that I acknowledge is precipitous; it's not baked in stone. However, it does of course offer some benefits in the shape of more readily being able to centralize management of our Google Docs.

- I've created a PayPal account for us and have applied for status as a "Confirmed Charity". That status will give us a discounted rate, speed up transferring received funds to our checking account, and is a prerequisite to claiming ourselves as a charity on GoFundMe.

Speaking of proving that we're a 501(c)3, I discovered that the IRS is delayed updating their public nonprofit organization database. Consequently, we will be slower than normal to show up on other service's lists of charities. However, in most cases sharing a copy of our determination letter from the IRS should suffice to prove our status.

Regards,

Galen
--
Galen Charlton
Implementation and Services Manager
Equinox Open Library Initiative
phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
email:  gmc at equinoxInitiative.org
web:  https://equinoxInitiative.org<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=0a520cbe-54e28362-0a5645be-86ab8bdaf1e2-a3b34b0fd7de3684&q=1&e=2d16654e-85e0-473d-b3b5-9f7a5127929c&u=https%3A%2F%2Fequinoxinitiative.org%2F>
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366

--
Galen Charlton
Implementation and Services Manager
Equinox Open Library Initiative
phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
email:  gmc at equinoxInitiative.org
web:  https://equinoxInitiative.org<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=76b26828-2802e7f4-76b62128-86ab8bdaf1e2-b827d1d4c9e1e899&q=1&e=2d16654e-85e0-473d-b3b5-9f7a5127929c&u=https%3A%2F%2Fequinoxinitiative.org%2F>
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366

--
Galen Charlton
Implementation and Services Manager
Equinox Open Library Initiative
phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
email:  gmc at equinoxInitiative.org
web:  https://equinoxInitiative.org<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=c531eb9f-9b816443-c535a29f-86ab8bdaf1e2-a0a5798967425f13&q=1&e=2d16654e-85e0-473d-b3b5-9f7a5127929c&u=https%3A%2F%2Fequinoxinitiative.org%2F>
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.evergreen-ils.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20201010/8026b7b1/attachment.html>