<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi,</div><div><br></div><div>To sum up, we can currently accept payment for donations via:</div><div><br></div><div>- check (donor would need to get in touch with me for address)<br></div><div>- wire transfer (donor would need to get in touch with me to arrange it)</div><div>- PayPal</div><div>- major credit cards via PayPal</div><div><br></div><div>I can create invoices for donors who desire or require them. I can also provide donation receipts.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Payment methods we're _not_ set up for include:</div><div><br></div><div>- 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. <br></div><div>- Venmo, Zelle, Apple, Google Pay, credit card swaps, virtual credit card terminals, and the like<br></div><div>- 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.<br></div><div><br></div><div>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.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,<br><br></div><div>Galen<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 11:26 AM Galen Charlton <<a href="mailto:gmc@equinoxinitiative.org" target="_blank">gmc@equinoxinitiative.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi,</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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., <<a href="https://www.hodgsonruss.com/canada-united-states-charity.html" target="_blank">https://www.hodgsonruss.com/canada-united-states-charity.html</a>> gives you some idea of the complexities.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Galen<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 11:04 AM Galen Charlton <<a href="mailto:gmc@equinoxinitiative.org" target="_blank">gmc@equinoxinitiative.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>HI,</div><div><br></div><div>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.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The direct link to the donation form is:<br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6NJ744B3UJVCG" target="_blank">https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6NJ744B3UJVCG</a></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Galen<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 6:39 PM Galen Charlton <<a href="mailto:gmc@equinoxinitiative.org" target="_blank">gmc@equinoxinitiative.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi,<br clear="all"><div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><br></div><div>- I've set up G Suite for the <a href="http://evergreen-ils.org" target="_blank">evergreen-ils.org</a> 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 <a href="mailto:email@evergreen-ils.org" target="_blank">email@evergreen-ils.org</a> addresses will continue to work as is, but as of now, <a href="mailto:gmc@evergreen-ils.org" target="_blank">gmc@evergreen-ils.org</a> and <a href="mailto:treasurer@evergreen-ils.org" target="_blank">treasurer@evergreen-ils.org</a> will now reach me.<br></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.<br></div><div><br></div><div>- 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. <br></div><div><br></div><div>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.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Galen<br></div><div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Galen Charlton<br>Implementation and Services Manager<br>Equinox Open Library Initiative<br>phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)<br>email: gmc@equinoxInitiative.org<br>web: <a href="https://equinoxInitiative.org" target="_blank">https://equinoxInitiative.org</a><br>direct: +1 770-709-5581<br>cell: +1 404-984-4366</div></div></div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Galen Charlton<br>Implementation and Services Manager<br>Equinox Open Library Initiative<br>phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)<br>email: gmc@equinoxInitiative.org<br>web: <a href="https://equinoxInitiative.org" target="_blank">https://equinoxInitiative.org</a><br>direct: +1 770-709-5581<br>cell: +1 404-984-4366</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Galen Charlton<br>Implementation and Services Manager<br>Equinox Open Library Initiative<br>phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)<br>email: gmc@equinoxInitiative.org<br>web: <a href="https://equinoxInitiative.org" target="_blank">https://equinoxInitiative.org</a><br>direct: +1 770-709-5581<br>cell: +1 404-984-4366</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Galen Charlton<br>Implementation and Services Manager<br>Equinox Open Library Initiative<br>phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)<br>email: gmc@equinoxInitiative.org<br>web: <a href="https://equinoxInitiative.org" target="_blank">https://equinoxInitiative.org</a><br>direct: +1 770-709-5581<br>cell: +1 404-984-4366</div></div></div>