[Board] Next steps re accepting donations

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

To sum up, we can currently accept payment for donations via:

- check (donor would need to get in touch with me for address)
- wire transfer (donor would need to get in touch with me to arrange it)
- PayPal
- major credit cards via PayPal

I can create invoices for donors who desire or require them. I can also
provide donation receipts.

Payment methods we're _not_ set up for include:

- ACH. There are a variety of providers available, including setting up a
Wells Fargo Merchant account or using Donorbox. I would prefer to do a
little more research into options before committing to one, but if we get
donors during the initial push who wish to make significant or recurring
donations via ACH, it would be possible to get something set up relatively
quickly and deal with cleanup later.
- Venmo, Zelle, Apple, Google Pay, credit card swaps, virtual credit card
terminals, and the like
- Anything that's not cash or cash-equivalent. Of course, I'm not seriously
expecting anybody to want to donate an old car or securities, but if
somebody _were_ to make a serious offer, there would be implications that
would be best discussed by the whole board before accepting such a gift.

Anna or I should probably send an update on Anna's general announcement
expanding on the options for sending donations, though for higher impact I
suggest waiting until Monday (or Tuesday, given the holiday?) morning to do
so to get it higher up in people's inboxes.

Regards,

Galen

On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 11:26 AM Galen Charlton <gmc at equinoxinitiative.org>
wrote:

> 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> gives you
> some idea of the complexities.
>
> Regards,
>
> Galen
>
> On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 11:04 AM Galen Charlton <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>
>> 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 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 addresses will continue to
>>> work as is, but as of now, gmc at evergreen-ils.org and
>>> 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
>>> 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
>> 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
> 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
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
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