# Welcome We are on a mission to help collaborative groups collect and spend money transparently. Donate PR is an online funding platform for open and transparent communities. We provide the tools to raise and share your finances in full transparency. This is the place to find all help and documentation related to Donate PR. ## Find your way to the right section/page [I am a donor (financial contributor) and I want to donate to a project](/financial-contributors/financial-contributors) [I am a community organizer and I want to fund my mission](/communities/collectives) [I have an organization with our own legal entity](/independent-communities/about-independent-collectives) [I have a group with our own legal entity and we want to be a fiscal host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) [I have a group without a legal entity or a bank account, but we need somewhere to put our money](/communities/add-fiscal-host) ### Using our search bar Use the search bar on the top right to search for specific words or phrases: ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b05504c0ab03c37c39b0cfa93abb8450090db2ad%2Fwelcome-search-bar-2019-11-26.gif?alt=media) ### Browsing sections Use the menu bar on the lefthand side of the screen to browse the various pages. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8f41097a3680658e886b0449a5c3c1723271209e%2Fabout_introduction_browsing_sections_2021-08-12.gif?alt=media) We are always open to suggested changes, so please feel free to give us feedback! If you can't find the answer you're looking for,[ contact us ](https://donatepr.com/contact)or connect via our [Slack](https://slack.donatepr.com). # Introduction While the Internet has been very good so far at helping people do things together, it is still very difficult for groups to collect money and use it transparently. As a result, we see initiatives, projects, movements popping up here and there that disappear quickly from lack of funding. Imagine how many wonderful things don’t happen in the world because funding - which is oxygen for most organizations - is difficult to sustain. Without an easy way to raise and spend money, it’s hard to manage and grow many of these seeds of an idea that could change the world. Non-profits, community projects, parent associations, hackathons, meetups, neighborhood associations, pet projects, clubs, unions, movements, business incubators - in order to operate, all of them are forced to use a physical glass jar, ask a sponsor to directly pay their expenses or front the huge overhead of setting up and managing a corporation or a non-profit. It’s either inefficient and opaque or it’s overkill. Donate PR enables groups to quickly set up a project, raise funds and manage them transparently. We want all those seeds to have a chance to grow, to bring their ideas to life. We believe everyone should have the tools to create the organizations of tomorrow. And we are dedicating ourselves to making that happen! Contact us: Support: ## Follow us * Twitter: [@dprcom](https://twitter.com/dprcom) * Instagram: * Facebook: ## FAQ ### What is Donate PR? Donate PR is a platform where communities can collect and disburse money transparently, to sustain and grow their projects. ### Why Donate PR? Internet has been really good at helping people do great things together. But things still get complicated once money is involved. These challenges hold communities back from getting all the support they need from backers and sponsors to achieve their mission. We enable communities to have economic power, so they can sustain themselves and have a larger impact in the world. ### How does it work? Our platform provides tools for legal entities to fiscally sponsor Projects under their umbrella, empowering people to create associations without friction. It's like an API between the legacy world of banks and taxes and the emerging future of digitally powered distributed collaborations. The goal of Donate PR is to be the community hub for innovating all things Puerto Rico. ### # Documentation The Donate PR Documentation is our main documentation enabling all of our users to successfully use our platform. If you would like your Documentation linked here please [get in touch](https://donatepr.com/contact). # Terminology We have developed some terminology to describe interactions and roles on DonatePR. Please use these terms when creating issues or support requests. ## We are all individuals People are *individuals*. **They can form** *entities* inside Donate PR, like Organizations and Communities, which enable collaborative impact and define interactions between individuals. ## Entities & structure ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-c7121ae8a29ab82b7b72045f06a3dcdec04ddeee%2F2%20$4$%20$1$.png?alt=media) ### Individuals ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$2$.png?alt=media) Human beings with names. An individual signs up to Donate PR with their email address. An individual can take on different roles throughout the platform. ### Organizations ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-35816d5ac31ef6e565d0b961ab5fd591ec098f23%2Fabout_terminology_organization_2019-07-09%20$1$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$1$%20$3$.png?alt=media) An [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations) represents a company or legal entity in the world, with a shared identity, bank account, credit card, and resources. This is often how Sponsors engage on the platform. #### Organization Admins ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$8$.png?alt=media) Individual(s) who create and/or manage the Organization profile. They have rights to edit the settings of the Organization, set up financial contributions to Communities, and set up gift cards, among other things. **Funds** A [Fund](/financial-contributors/organizations/funds), with a capital F, (as opposed to a Community) is a streamlined, single-payer process for supporters. A **Fund** is likely less interested in the 'social' & crowdfunding aspects of fundraising. This type of account will have a more simplified version of our dashboard for those who don't want all the extra features that group-organizing benefits from. ### Fiscal Hosts ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-46cdaa7cdefa2e11f3f3bcfa07671e6d6cf3fcbe%2Ffiscal-host%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$.png?alt=media) A [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) is a type of Organization. Fiscal hosting enables Communities to transact financially without needing to legally incorporate. A fiscal host is a legal company or individual who holds a Community’s funds in their bank account and can generate invoices and receipts for Financial Contributors. You can think of a fiscal host as an umbrella organization for the Communities in it. #### **Fiscal Host Admin** ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$.png?alt=media) Individual(s) who create and/or manage the Fiscal Host is responsible for approving new Communities who want to join the host and paying out expenses approved by Community admins. Fiscal Host admins want tools and workflows to easily manage their tasks (paying expenses and approving new Communities). They need to charge their fees and keep a useful accounting system. They are often the first point of contact for the Core Contributors of Communities they host, and many are super-users. ### Communities ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-fdbdc4bc22e97c2f6f8c9acf3f97b75ef7f424a1%2Fabout_terminology_collective_2019-07-09%20$1$%20$1$%20$1$.png?alt=media) The primary entity most representative of the basis of our platform. A Community represents a project or group that has a mission or purpose in the world, which they raise and spend funds transparently to achieve. #### Core Contributors ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$7$.png?alt=media) Individuals who are major contributors and represent the Community with their face on the Community page as part of the team. #### Community Admins ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$5$.png?alt=media) A type of Core Contributor with additional permissions, so they can edit the Community, change settings, approve expenses, make financial contributions to other Communities, and receive messages from people trying to contact the Community. Core Contributors want to make their communities sustainable financially, so receiving financial contributions is first on their priority list. They use tools like [tiers](/communities/collective-settings/tiers-goals), [goals](/communities/collective-settings/tiers-goals), and [social media sharing](/communities/collective-settings/integrations#twitter-integration). They are interested in managing and growing their communities by creating [events](/communities/events) and [sending updates](/communities/communication). #### Accountant Someone in charge of the financial records for the Community. They have read access to all financial information (receipts, invoices, etc) bot not write access (they can't approve or pay expenses). #### Event Attendee![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$14$.png?alt=media) Individuals who register to attend a Community's event. They often arrive through a direct link provided by the event organizers. They want a smooth, hassle-free experience, clear information about the event, and ideally a pathway to stay in touch or become contributors. **Independent Community** An Independent Community holds money for itself in its own bank account (Instead of joining a [Fiscal Host](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/about/broken-reference/README.md) to hold money on its behalf). Learn more about Independent Communities [here](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/about/broken-reference/README.md). ## User actions & relationships {% hint style="info" %} **Every action inside Donate PR is based on \_contribution**\_**.** {% endhint %} > The word we will use for "someone who contributes to a project" is "contributor". The buttons on tiers will say "contribute". ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-bf0ae1dbf47e7380c27a48beed772cb69dd320a0%2F7%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$1$%20$3$.png?alt=media) ## Financial Contributors ### **Organizational Financial Contributor** ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-35816d5ac31ef6e565d0b961ab5fd591ec098f23%2Fabout_terminology_organization_2019-07-09%20$1$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$1$%20$1$.png?alt=media) A company that supports a Community financially, often at a higher tier. This is often called sponsorship in practice but can go by other names depending on the Community's context, such as base supporters, members, etc. Sponsors often represent companies with accounting and reporting needs. They may want brand exposure, access to or goodwill from a community, tangible benefits like support, or help with their recruiting efforts. ### **Individual Financial Contributor** ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$12$.png?alt=media) Supports a Community financially, with a repeating or one-off contribution. Individual Financial contributor can find a Community in many ways: * Search from [homepage](https://www.donatepr.com) * [Discover page](http://donatepr.com/discover) * Direct link to a Community * Organization's page #### Expense submitter An individual who requests payment from the Community's budget using the [expense](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses) function. ### There are two different formats to contribute financially: * One-time financial contribution * Recurring financial contribution ## Non-financial Contributors ### Fiscal Hosts ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-46cdaa7cdefa2e11f3f3bcfa07671e6d6cf3fcbe%2Ffiscal-host%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$%20$2$.png?alt=media) Supporting Communities by providing the legal and financial infrastructure needed to accept money and make payments. ### Code Contributors ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$10$.png?alt=media) An individual can contribute with code (software) to an open-source project with a Community ### Service Contributors ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a716f782f4b535451280dad130378639048082d5%2Fabout_terminology_individual_2019-07-09%20$2$%20$4$.png?alt=media) An individual who contributes time or skills to a Community's mission. # Company ## FAQ ### What's the status of your company? We are 10X PR LLC dba Donate PR, located in Puerto Rico. ### Where are you based? Our core team is based in San Juan Puerto Rico. ### When did you start? Donate PR was created in Dec 2019. ### Can I see your company budget? We run our company ourselves. We still have some work to do to be even more transparent, and we hope to continue improving in this area. We currently operate at a loss as our technology and services are free. ### How much investment have you raised? Donate PR is 100% self-funded. ### How do I get in touch with you? Email or join our [Slack](https://slack.donatepr.com/). # Pricing Setting up a Community is free, but fees may apply to accept and pay out money. ### More details: [Donate PR Pricing](https://donatepr.com/pricing) #### Current pricing terminology

Term	Meaning	Note
Platform Tip	Voluntary donation to DonatePR	Financial contributors see the tip option at checkout
Host Fee	Fee charged by Fiscal Hosts to Communities for their hosting services	Varies depending on the Fiscal Host (commonly 0%-10%)
Platform Share	Host Fee revenue shared with Donate PR	15% of Host Fees charged by Fiscal Hosts goes to the platform
Owed	Platform Share and Platform Tip amounts due to be paid	Seen in Host reports and data exports

Previous pricing terminology We iterated the pricing model a few times before settling on what we think is the best method. We're still updating terms in a few places, so for clarity these are defined here in case you encounter them. | Term | Replaced by | | -------------- | -------------- | | Platform Fee | Platform Share | | Host Fee Share | Platform Share | | Shared Revenue | Platform Share | | Debt | Owed | # Team DonatePR Inc has a small, fully remote team with members around the world. You're welcome to reach out to us on our open Slack or on social media. ## # The DonatePR Way # Mission and Values # Community Guidelines # Hiring Interested in working at Donate PR? Every hiring process is different, and non-engineering/product positions often have a significantly different flow, but to get an insight into a past set of hiring processes. Please contact us for opening positions. # Investors We are not entertaining investors at this time, but we are always open to strategic partnerships. [
](https://docs.donatepr.com/about/the-donate-pr-way/core-contributors-compensation) # Contributing First, thank you for considering contributing to Donate PR! It's people like you that make this such a great community. We welcome any type of contribution. You can help with: ## **Marketing** If you would like to share something with the marketing team please join our [Slack](https://slack.donatepr.com) and post on the #news channel. ## **Design** Coming soon! ## **Feature ideas** ## **Peer Support** Answer questions on our [Slack](https://slack.donatepr.com)! # Refund Policy 1. **Overview** Donate PR is a platform used by individuals (contributors, expense submitters), Communities, and Fiscal Hosts to transparently manage financial resources. Because Donate PR is an ecosystem of various actors with their own policies and regulations, this refund policy only stands in the case that the contribution recipient does not already have their own refund policy. We empower Communities and Fiscal Hosts to approve and set their own policies about refunds. It is required that you reach out to the Community or Fiscal Host that you contributed to directly if you would like to request a refund. We will rarely issue refunds on their behalf. Please only reach out to the team at Donate PR, Inc., if deemed necessary (see “Communication/Initiating Refunds” ).\\ 2. **Type of Product or Service:** Donate PR has the technical ability to process refunds for the following: * One-off financial contributions via Stripe and PayPal * Recurring financial contributions via Stripe (including SEPA, ACH, BACS bank transfer) and PayPal. * Added funds and manual bank transfers (This will only reverse the transaction on Donate PR, the Fiscal Host will need to ensure the refund is issued manually). * Platform tips * Event tickets * Balance transfers Refunds via Donate PR are not possible for: * Expenses (Invoices/Reimbursements/Grants). Please coordinate with the expense payer or payee regarding the return of any expense. 3. **Common Valid Reasons for Refund Requests:** * Mistaken or accidental donations * Double charges * Unmet expectations of agreed-upon products or services * Cancelled events * Cancelled subscriptions * Changes in circumstances or financial difficulties * Payment schedule issues * Incorrect amount 4. **Timeframe:** If the Fiscal Host has enabled Communities the ability to process refunds. They will be able to do this for up to 30 days after the transaction date. In order to refund manual bank transfers community admins will need to contact their Fiscal Host. Fiscal Hosts do not have a time restraint in which they can process refunds. We encourage Fiscal Hosts to establish their own refund policy. Donate PR Support does not have a time restraint in which they can process refunds. We will always default to the Fiscal Host’s refund policy. We also must abide by third party payment refund policies and technical limitations like credit card expiry dates. Donate PR support can not refund funds contributed through a method not on the Donate PR platform e.g manual bank transfer The processing time for the refund will vary depending on approval and action from a number of third parties including payment method (bank transfer, Stripe, etc.) and parties involved (Communities and Fiscal Hosts). Typically, refunds are processed within 5-7 working days. 5. **Conditions for Refunds:** * Refunds cannot be processed for archived or deleted Communities or Fiscal Hosts. * We are unable to process partial refunds, this includes contributions that include platform tips. * In the event that a refund is being requested from Donate PR without the approval of the recipient, the refund requester must provide proof that they sought permission from the recipient and must provide a valid reason for why they are seeking a refund. 6. **Refund Methods:** If a refund is issued via the Donate PR platform, the money will be returned via the original payment method. If the funds were sent via a payment method not connected to Donate PR e.g. a bank account, the Fiscal Host will need to manually reverse the transaction, the Donate PR team is not able to refund these sorts of transactions. 7. **Fees and Costs:** Donate PR does not charge additional fees for refunds; however, the person requesting a refund may incur additional costs from the payment provider. 8. **Communication/Initiating a Refund:** * Individuals seeking refunds should first contact the Community and/or the Fiscal Host directly. If necessary Donate PR can help direct them to their contact details. * If Donate PR receives a request for a refund, without evidence that you have reached out to the recipient, we will redirect the requester to contact the recipient directly. * In special circumstances, such as not being able to contact/consult with the recipient or needing to disputing a decision, individuals can get in contact with Donate PR [here](https://donatepr.com/contact). * If we deem it acceptable to issue a refund without consulting with the recipient, Donate PR will reach out to the recipient to let them know that a refund has been issued. * Please include the following details about your refund request: * The amount * The date the transaction occurred * A link to the contribution * Prior communication with the recipient 9. **3rd Party Considerations:** * Donate PR exists in collaboration with a number of other parties including payment processors, Communities, and Fiscal Hosts, that may or may not have their own refund policies. As described in the overview above, Community and Fiscal Host refund policies take precedence over Donate PR’s refund policy. * We recommend reading the relevant policies and documentation of our payment processors as this will influence all parties’ ability to offer a refund. Examples include the following: * Stripe documentation: “[Refunds](https://support.stripe.com/topics/refunds)“ * Note: We are not able to process refunds to expired credit cards. * PayPal documentation: “[How do I get a refund?](https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/how-do-i-get-a-refund-help100)” * Community administrators and refunders may also refer to “[Refund Payments for Individual Transactions](https://developer.paypal.com/api/nvp-soap/paypal-payments-standard/admin/refunds/)” 10. **Review and Update:** We may periodically review and update our refund policy. To ensure that you have the latest information, be sure to return to this page. # Contact Us A few ways to get in touch with the Donate PR Team ### Need Assistance? * Browse our [Help Topics](https://donatepr.com/help) or Search these Docs (🔎 in the upper right corner) * [Contact us here](https://donatepr.com/contact): Please include links & screenshots! ### In Slack * Join our [Slack](https://slack.donatepr.com) to reach the DonatePR Team and the wider community * Are you a Fiscal Host admin? Join #fiscal-hosts * If you need support or have questions about Donate PR, reach out to our #community-support channel or [read our documentation](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/?utm_source=Slack\&utm_medium=Bot\&utm_campaign=Welcome). If you need to share any private information, talk to our Support team [here](https://donatepr.com/contact). * Feel free to share any #news or #events, and engage with our #engineering team * Check out [our Community Guidelines](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/about/donatepr/community-guidelines) to learn more about how we all maintain a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. You can report any issues by messaging [@moderators](https://donatepr.slack.com) directly or sending an email to support. ### Contact a specific Fiscal Host or Community? * Visit their Donate PR page, and click the small envelope below their name or the contact button on the right-hand side.

Find Us Elsewhere * [Twitter](https://twitter.com/dprcom) # Features ## [Communities](/communities/collectives) A page to tell the world about your project and engage supporters. ## [Raise Money](/financial-contributors/financial-contributors) Accept donations and sponsorship. ## [Pay Expenses](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses) Reimburse expenses and pay invoices. ## [Transparent Budget](/communities/budget) Automatic financial reporting and accountability. ## [Tiers](/communities/collective-settings/tiers-goals) Levels or rewards for supporters and sponsors. ## [Events](/communities/events) Ticket sales go straight to your Community budget. ## [Organizations](/financial-contributors/organizations) Sponsor Communities on behalf of a company. ## [Updates](/communities/communication) Keep your supporters in the loop about your achievements and news. ## [Fiscal Hosting](/fiscal-hosts/become-a-fiscal-host) Create an umbrella entity to support a community of Communities. ## [Profiles](/product/user-profile) Tell the world who you are and show off the Communities you're managing or supporting. ## [Conversations](/communities/conversations) A community forum for your Community. # Roadmap You'll find below guidelines for prioritizing features and projects as well as a template for new projects. ## **Key questions for prioritization** **This is what we ask ourselves to decide what gets done and what doesn't.** * Does this serve our mission? * Will this help to make us financially sustainable within a year? * Can this make us move faster? * Does this increase quality? * Does this add technical debt? * Is it feasible to build and maintain with our current team and runway? * What insight or research is this project based on? * Is this problem already solved elsewhere? * How will we measure our success? Do we have a baseline today that we can compare this against? * How well do we understand the complexity of the problem, feature to be added or user needs to be addressed? * What is the estimated timeframe for delivering this project? ## Template for new projects * Github issue * explains the feature. * Link to other opened issues or data. * Include details below. * Kickoff * Organize a special meeting or a scheduled one. * Project owner. * Role: Facilitator, decision-maker, producer. * It's ultimately responsible for (needs to do or organize who does) * Delivery * Q\&A * Docs & Comms * Post-ship plan for maintenance * Success metric(s) * Timeframe - kickoff and delivery, main milestones/roadmap # Comparison ## What makes Donate PR different? * **Full transparency** of where your money comes from and where it goes. * Completely **open-source**. * Designed for **ongoing collaborative communities**, not individual creators or one-off campaigns. * Offers [**Fiscal Hosting**](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) as a service, so projects don't need to legally incorporate or figure out taxes. Our product overlaps in some ways with crowdfunding sites, fiscal sponsorship service providers, and accounting software. But we're the only platform that combines all three. While crowdfunding is based on time-limited campaigns, Donate PR is designed for long term support of ongoing projects and initiatives. Instead of throwing your money in a black box and hoping for the best, Donate PR has full transparency, so everyone can see where the money comes from and where it goes. Fiscal sponsorship has been a pretty niche service limited mainly to the charity sector, where existing nonprofits will hold grants for unincorporated projects. Donate PR brings this concept to every other sector and supercharges it with a tech platform that radically lowers overhead for fiscal sponsors (no more messy spreadsheets!), so they can support more projects and empowers sponsees to see and manage their money directly, alongside features for fiscal management best practice. Donate PR is not a fully-featured accounting platform, but it offers key features for budget tracking and expense management and payment. One feature we offer that most accounting software doesn't is integrated payments for expenses, via Paypal or bank transfer. It means projects don't have to step into the complexity of a full-fledged accounting tool in order to do basic budget tracking and good money management. | name | one time donations | recurring donations | fees | transparency (incoming funds) | transparency (spending funds) | Open Source | Designed for... | Offers fiscal hosting | | ----------- | ------------------ | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------- | ------------------- | --------------------- | | DonatePR | yes | yes | No fees + credit card fees (+ host fees if any\*) | yes | yes | yes | Communities | yes | | Patreon | no | yes | 5% + credit card fees | yes | no | no | Individual creators | no | | KickStarter | yes | no | 5% + credit card fees | yes | no | no | One-off campaigns | no | | GoFundMe | yes | no | 5% + credit card fees | yes | no | no | One-off campaigns | no | # User Profile ## Your profile You can use your Donate PR user profile to let people know a bit about you. Projects you back might want to reach out to you, or you may want to use this page to show off your contributions or the Communities you manage. You can access your profile settings by using the dropdown menu on your username and going to the **Profile** page.

On your **Profile** page, you are able to customize the following: ### Cover image The optimal size for a cover image is 2736x650.

Click on **Edit cover** to access to upload a new cover image. After uploading an image, you are able to adjust it as you wish by either moving it and zooming in and out.

### Main color

You can either choose any of the preset colors, add your own custom color or reset to the default color.

## User Settings ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-634d1ea911cc3cd7fd4bdc6cc4f0e3be452e2560%2Fproduct_user_profile_settings_2021-04-21.png?alt=media) To modify other profile information, click on the gear icon next to your profile image.

Here you can edit basic info such as **Display** **Name**, **Legal Name,** **Company**, **Short description** and **Handle.** Add your **Currency** and **Tags, Social Links** and your **Location**. Access other settings such as **Profile Page**, **Payment Methods**, **Payment Receipts**, **Gift Cards**, **Webhooks, Authorised Apps, Two-factor authentication, For developers** and **Advanced**. ## Advanced settings ### Changing your email address Go to **Advanced** and specify your new email address in the box under the **Email address** section. You'll get a confirmation, and then your new email will be active. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-7686dc6cbbcec455e8b3d140986e25e7f748bb89%2FProduct_User-Profile_New-email_2019-11-15.gif?alt=media) ### Deleting your account {% hint style="warning" %} You can only delete your account if it has no activity registered such as donations and expenses. Therefore, accounts with a history of transactions cannot be deleted —they are part of Community budgets and their integrity and accuracy depend on those records. You may archive your account instead. {% endhint %} To delete your account, go to the **Delete this Account** section and click on **Delete this account**. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-f8145ed219a36d1ff54128cd43188e7e5b082964%2FProduct_User-Profile_Advanced_Delete_2019-11-15.png?alt=media) ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-5f78246b1ff44e57346a0864aef1971aaf0f8f51%2FProduct_User-Profile_Advanced_Delete_2019-11-15.gif?alt=media) ### Archiving your account If your account has a history of transactions, your only option is archiving your account. Archived accounts will appear as inactive accounts and no new activity will be allowed. The next time subscriptions are due to be renewed (1st of the month), they will be cancelled. To archive your account, go to the **Archive this Account** section and click on **Archive this account**. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-4515367b2d683b96f8562b5c40d8a2ae16ad1638%2FProduct_User-Profile_Advanced_Archive_2019-11-15.gif?alt=media) ## Using Donate PR Anonymously We understand that not everyone can or wants to show their real name on public Community budgets. If you are getting paid through the platform, we will need some personally identifiable information. Including your legal name. We will also need some documents, invoices and tax forms, these documents are not availably to the public, only admins of Communities you work withwill be able to see them. ### Adding Your Legal Name Your legal name identifies you to admins of Communities you work with, to Hosts of Communities you work with and some staff at Donate PR Inc. the company that operates the Donate PR platform.\ \ You can add your legal name to your profile alongside your Display name. These are both editable in your [User Settings](#other-settings) ### Update/Change your Email Head to your User Settings, either via the settings button on your profile or in the user menu. Go to the Advanced Section Update/Change your email and click the save button # Dashboard Dashboard enables you to easily find important information, and perform tasks as an individual, Community or Fiscal Host admin When you log in to your account, you will be automtically directed to your Donate PR Dashboard. Our Dashboard is a space which helps you complete all your tasks on Donate PR, whether you’re acting as an individual or an admin of a larger group. {% hint style="info" %} Dashboard is currently running as an opt-in public beta. It can be activated by selecting the Dashboard option in the Preview Features settings of your account menu. {% endhint %} ### Navigating your Dashboard When you first arrive, your Dashboard will be set to your personal account. This will show you a range of tasks that you can perform with this account. These include: * Searching recent activity relating to your account * Viewing and tracking expenses you have submitted * Viewing contributions you have made on the platform * Changing your account settings, such as your email address, security info, and so on You can use the search bar in the top right-hand corner to search for Communities or Fiscal Hosts on the platform, or click the megaphone for the latest updates from Donate PR. {% hint style="info" %} If you have been invited to be a team member or admin of a Community, organization or Fiscal Host, you will receive a notification on your dashboard when you're logged in under your individual profile. {% endhint %} You can also click your profile photo in the top right corner to bring up additional account settings, including: * Viewing your profile * Selecting preview features * Navigating the Donate PR homepage, docs or support pages ### Switching between profiles If you click on the button in the top menu with your "personal account” profile image on it, you will find a list of all the roles you hold on Donate PR (if any). This allows you to switch your Dashboard to other roles, such as: * An admin of a Community * An admin of an organization * An admin of a Fiscal Host This will change the menu to show options that are relevant to the tasks you need to do in that role. {% hint style="info" %} We are interested in hearing from you about any comments or requests you may have. If you have suggestions, please let us know by clicking the Give Feedback option in your Dashboard or using [this link.](https://donatepr.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fforms%2Fd%2F1-WGUCUF_i5HPS6AsN8kTfqofyt0q0HB-q7na4cQL788%2Fviewform) {% endhint %} # Preview Features Our Preview Features menu lets you test selected upcoming Donate PR features before their full release - and turn them on and off with a single click. Our Preview Features menu offers you a selection of upcoming features and layout changes - which you can choose and test before they are fully launched. #### Activating (and deactivating) preview features You can choose which features or updates you want to try. To find and choose features: 1. Login to the platform using your account 2. Click on the profile icon on the top-right corner 3. Find the Preview Features option on the menu 4. Select the features that appeal to you, and switch them on using the toggle button The feature preview will be enabled on your account by clicking the button. If you want to change back, toggle the switch off again and your interface will revert to the original state. The features available in the preview features menu may vary depending on the type of role you hold on the platform. For example, admins may see different options for individual users. #### Improving preview features Every feature in the Preview Features menu is at the stage where we feel happy showing it to users. However, they are all beta releases, so we are keen to hear from you about any improvements you’d like to see. If you want us to change or fix any part of the feature you are currently previewing, please get in touch via the link in the menu box itself or by [contacting us](https://donatepr.com/contact). # Currencies ## Communities can receive contributions from all over the world via credit card, in any currency. Donation amounts will be denominated in the currency of the Community's [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts), which can be set up in the following currencies (so far): * Argentine Peso - ARS * Australian Dollar - AUD * Bangladeshi Taka - BDT * Bulgarian Lev - BGN * Brazilian Real - BRL * Canadian Dollar - CAD * Swiss Franc - CHF * Czech Koruna - CZK * Danish Krone - DKK * Euro - EUR * Pound sterling - GBP * Hong Kong Dollar - HKD * Croatian Kuna - HRK * Hungarian Forint - HUF * Indian Rupee - INR * Icelandic Króna - ISK * Japanese Yen - JPY * Mexican Peso - MXN * Malaysian Ringgit - MYR * Nigerian Naira - NGN * Norwegian Krone - NOK * Nepalese Rupee - NPR * New Zealand Dollar- NZD * Poland złoty - PLN * Romanian Leu - RON * Swedish Krona - SEK * Singapore Dollar - SGD * Ukrainian hryvnia - UAH * United States Dollar - USD * Uruguayan Peso - UYU * South African Rand - ZAR **The currency a Fiscal Host supports is determined by the currency used by their Stripe account.** If this doesn't work or you're having issues, please [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact). # Log-in System Donate PR works primarily as a **passwordless system**. We generally think it's better to not force users to set a password, as it can actually be a security threat (more details below). However, users are able to later set a password and sign in with it. In that case, the use of a password manager is recommended. ### **How passwordless works** You type in your email and the system instantly knows if you're an existing user or a new user. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-80e436dc931e55e171d9afd66dcbb61c2a572c52%2Fproduct_log-in-system_insert-email_2019-11-12.png?alt=media) If you already have an account, we send you an email with a unique link that logs you into Donate PR. You will stay logged in for 30 days on that device. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-e7f97bbaffe538663cc77c008556dc98a9056bd9%2Fproduct_log-in-system_magic-link_2019-11-12.png?alt=media) If you're a new user, you'll be prompted to create an account. ### **How it works with a password** As a user willing to set a password, you can do so from the "Security" section of your personal "Settings". When signing in, after entering your email, you will simply be prompted for your password.

If you don't have your password available, there are two alternatives: * *Send me an email*: it works the same as an account without password. * *Reset my password*: you will receive an email to help you set a new password. ## About security It might sound counterintuitive, but passwords don’t always make things more secure. They can be hard to remember, and easy for fraudsters to guess. Not everyone uses a password manager, and people often don’t follow good password practices and either reuse passwords, or pick obvious ones (ie. their country code, their birthday, etc). Passwords can also make you more vulnerable to [phishing](http://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing), a type of fraud where someone tricks you into telling them your password. Most websites allow you to reset your password by email, a feature fraudsters can use to work around any protection provided by a password. These websites start from the premise that if your email is compromised, your account will be too. The main way to avoid that is Two Factor Authentication (2FA), which [you can enable](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/fiscal-hosts/payouts/two-factor-authentication-for-payouts#enabling-2fa-for-login) on your Donate PR account. We don't send 2FA codes to mobile phones, we rely on OTP apps like Google Authenticator. According to [Auth0](https://auth0.com/blog/is-passwordless-authentication-more-secure-than-passwords/): > Passwordless authentication, by its nature, eliminates the problem of using an unsafe password. This means that one of the biggest user errors is taken out of your login. Not only is passwordless authentication safe to use, it might even be safer than a traditional username + password login. **Who else uses magic links to login?** * [Slack](https://slack.com) - a messaging app * [Monzo](https://monzo.com) - a banking app * [Scaleway](https://www.scaleway.com) - hosting service (similar to Amazon AWS) * [Sweep Bright](https://www.sweepbright.com/) - a CRM * [Notion](https://www.notion.so) - a notes app # Privacy Policy **Last Updated: 7 January 2019** This Privacy Policy explains how information about you is collected, used, and disclosed by Donate PR, Inc. ("Donate PR" or “we”). This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect when you use our websites and online services (collectively, the “Services”) or when you otherwise interact with us. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access the Services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy. ### Collection of Information **Information You Provide to Us** We collect the information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you create an account, participate in any interactive features of the Services, fill out a form, make a payment, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us. The types of information we may collect include your name, email address, payment method information and any other information you choose to provide. **Information We Collect Automatically** When You Use the Services When you access or use our Services, we automatically collect information about you, including: * **Log Information:** We collect log information about your use of the Services, including the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the page you visited before navigating to our Services. * **Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies:** We use various technologies to collect information, including cookies, local storage and web beacons. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Services and your experience, see which areas and features of our Services are popular and count visits. Local Storage similarly enables our Services to store data (like login tokens) securely in your browser and unlike cookies, it's not sent to the server on every request. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in our Services or emails and help deliver cookies, count visits and understand usage and campaign effectiveness. For more information about cookies, and how to disable them, please see "Your Choices" below. **Information We Collect From Other Sources** We may also obtain information from other sources. For example, if you connect your account with an account you have with a third-party service (such as GitHub), we will have access to certain information from that service, such as your profile information, in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by that service. Additionally, we may collect information about you from third-party sources that help us to learn more about you, like for example your profile picture or social media handles. ### Use of Information We may use information about you for various purposes, including to: * Provide, maintain and improve our Services, and develop new products and services; * Provide and deliver the products and services you request, * Send you notices, updates, and support and administrative messages; * Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards, and events offered by Donate PR and others, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you; * Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Services; * Detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities and protect the rights and property of Donate PR and others; * Personalize and improve the Services and provide, content or features that match user profiles or interests; * Facilitate contests, sweepstakes and promotions and process and deliver entries and rewards; * Link or combine with information we collect about you; and * Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected. ### Sharing of Information We may share information about you as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy: * With hosts and organizers of a community, if you are a contributor, or request reimbursement for expenses made in support, of that community * We will share your name and image with GitHub if you participate in a community that is also working on a software project through GitHub. * With vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf. If you submit a request to us, we will provide you with a list of the third-party service providers with which we have shared information about you for the 12 months prior to your request; * In response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with or required by, any applicable law, regulation or legal process; * If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of Donate PR or others; * In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Donate PR assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another Donate PR; * With your consent or at your direction. * We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you. ### Social Sharing Features The Services may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools, which let you share actions you take on our Services with other media, and vice versa. Your use of such features enables the sharing of information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the entity that provides the social sharing feature. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies of the entities that provide these features. ### Analytics Services Provided by Others We engage other companies to provide analytics services via the Services. These companies may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in apps, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by Donate PR and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand how our services are being used. ### Security Donate PR takes reasonable measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. ### Transfer of Information to the U.S. and Other Countries Donate PR is based in the United States and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer and storage of information in and to the U.S. and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law. ## Your Choices ### **Account Information** You may update the profile information you provide by logging into your online account. ### **Cookies** Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Services\*\*.\*\* ### **Promotional Communications** You may opt out of receiving promotional or notification emails from Donate PR by following the instructions in those emails. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. ### GDPR Donate PR is GDPR compliant. We are not in the business of selling data to any 3rd party. Our business model is to take a commission on the money raised by Communities (like most other crowdfunding platforms). Companies that sponsor Communities don't get access to private information. Only the admins of the Community (core contributors) and of the organization that is legally hosting the Communities (fiscal sponsor) get access to your email address. We don't store credit card information on our servers (we only store a token if you have decided to save it to your profile). We don’t store any passwords. Since our entire code base is open source, anyone can easily audit it. ## Data Removal If you haven't made any transactions, you can easily delete your profile account on Donate PR from the settings. If your profile or community has transactions, we can't delete them since we need to keep the integrity of our ledger and accounting system. For individual/organizations profiles: please[ contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact) and please request for your personal information to be removed and the transaction(s) anonymized. For communities, [follow these steps](http://docs.donatepr.com/collectives/closing-a-collective). # Moderation Insights about our moderation policy and actions taken Donate PR provides some tools to make sure that disrespectful users and abusive contents don't have their place in your community. The moderation is done based on our [Community Guidelines](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/about/community-guidelines). Especially, these types of contents are never welcome on the website: * Spam or unwanted commercial content * Abusive or inappropriate language * Irrelevant or erroneous content ## How to report abusive content Please send all your reports for spam and abusive content [here](https://donatepr.com/contact). ## Limited user account Limiting user's account is currently our main tool to prevent activity from malicious users. We usually limit an account after spotting one or multiple attempts at spamming or doing malicious things. When you're account is limited you'll be unable to complete any sensitive action on the website, including: * Create/edit expenses * Make financial contributions * Create conversations If your account gets limited by mistake, you can [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact). # Security A reference about our practices and policies to ensure security and privacy across our services. {% hint style="info" %} Security is one of the biggest considerations in everything we do. If you have any questions after reading this, or encounter any issues, please [let us know](mailto:security@donatepr.com). {% endhint %} ## Vulnerability disclosure and reward program ## Payments security ### Credit cards Donate PR doesn't store any credit card number, we're instead relying on our partner [Stripe](https://stripe.com) - a secure solution that is widely adopted by the industry. If our systems are compromised, we can't lose your credit card number because we simply don't have it. [Learn more](https://stripe.com/docs/security/stripe) about Stripe's security. ## Login system According to [Auth0](https://auth0.com/blog/is-passwordless-authentication-more-secure-than-passwords/): > Passwordless authentication, by its nature, eliminates the problem of using an unsafe password. This means that one of the biggest user errors is taken out of your login. Not only is passwordless authentication safe to use, it might even be safer than a traditional username + password login. [Learn more](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/product/log-in-system#about-security) about our login system. # Ledger ## Introduction At the heart of Donate PR is a ledger that records all the financial activities that take place on the platform. The ledger is our source of truth. It is the foundation that makes possible crowdfunding contributions, added funds, grants and expenses. All these financial interactions generate transactions that are recorded in the ledger. Most users interact with the ledger indirectly by making contributions and submitting expenses and for most users that is enough. However, as the platform has grown, larger organizations who rely on the platform, primarily fiscal hosts and medium-to-large communities, need to use information from the platform for accounting purposes. In response to these needs we are making the ledger itself more visible, accessible and legible to users. {% hint style="warning" %} **The ledger does not always provide a complete financial picture for entities (such as fiscal hosts or independent communities) that manage funds off-platform.** If you are a fiscal host or an independent community that uses banking and financial services (some of which may be connected to the platform) then you likely have financial activities that do not originate and the platform and will NOT be reflected on unless you intentionally add them to the platform. For example: if you make a payment directly from your bank account, that payment will not show up on the platform unless you manually add it to the platform. {% endhint %} ### Immutability The transparency at Donate PR relies on the ledger to be a trustworthy source of information. Therefore, transactions on the ledger cannot be modified. Transactions can only be added to the ledger. There are rare cases where platform support does intervene in the ledger to: 1. Mark a transaction as deleted - the transaction is not really deleted, it still exists in the ledger, however it is marked as deleted and is no longer included in calculations and will not appear in transactions lists or exports. 2. Reassign a transaction to a different account. The transactions itself is not modified but the account to which it is related can be changed. ## When are transactions generated? Transactions are generated either when: 1. Via the platform: financial transactions are confirmed via payment processors: 1. A contribution is successfully charged and confirmed by a payment processor (such as Paypal, or credit cards via Stripe). 2. A contribution is refunded. 3. An expense is successfully paid through a payment processor (such as Wise or Paypal). 4. An expense is marked as unpaid (when payment does not reach its destination). 2. Off the platform: financial transactions that occurred off platform are documented on the platform. 1. A fiscal host adds (see Added Funds) funds that have arrived in their bank accounts and assigns them to their designated community. 2. Off platform (manually paid) expenses are documented on the platform by fiscal hosts. 3. Inside the platform: money is moved between community accounts within the same fiscal host. {% hint style="warning" %} **Expected Funds: potential future financial activities that do not generate transactions.** Expected Funds are created 1. By contributors who select a manual payment method (checks and bank transfers). 2. By fiscal host admins who document expected funds from institutional funders. Both are registered as “Expected Funds” that do not generate ledger transactions. Transactions will be created only when they are identified by fiscal hosts when the actual payment is received. Read more about [Expected Funds](/fiscal-hosts/receiving-money/expected-funds) {% endhint %} [Read more about individual transactions.](/product/ledger/individual-transactions) [Read more about transaction pairs, groups, and perspectives.](/product/ledger/transaction-pairs-groups-and-perspectives) ## Accessing the Ledger The ledger can be accessed: 1. Directly in the platform via the dashboard [Transactions tool](/product/ledger/individual-transactions). 2. [As exported CSV Files](/product/ledger/exporting-transactions) 3. [Through the API](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/product/ledger/broken-reference/README.md) # Individual Transactions ## Transaction Fields

Name	Description	Function
Date & Time	Date/time transaction was created	Identification
Effective Date	A date manually entered by an admin in order to record a retroactive off-platform transaction. If no manual date was entered the effective date is the same as the transaction date (from the Date & Time field).	Identification
Transaction ID	Unique transaction identifier	Identification
Group ID	Transactions that are created together have the same group identifier.	Identification
Description	A descriptor that is automatically generated when a transactions is created based on the context in which the transaction was created.	Identification
Credit / Debit	Indicates if the transaction is a credit or a debit.	Identification
Contribution ID	If the transaction is related to a contribution, this references the contribution (which references the contributor).	Identification
Expense ID	if this transaction is related to an expense this references the expense (which references the expense submitter, the community admin that approved and the fiscal host admin that paid it).	Identification
Expense Type	Describes the kind of expense: invoice, reimbursement, virtual card, settlements and grants.	Identification
Kind	Indicates what kind of transaction it is (see Transaction Kinds)	Identification
Is Debt	Indicates “true” for platform transactions that represent a debt (PLATFORM_TIP_DEBT & HOST_FEE_SHARE_DEBT).	Identification
Amount	The amount of the transaction. Credit transactions have positive values and Debit transactions have negative values.	Value
Currency	The currency in which the transaction was recorded. This is typically the currency in which either the community or fiscal host manage their funds.	Value
Original Currency Amount	If the transaction currency is different from the host currency, this amount will show the value in which the transaction was initiated. This is a string that includes the original value and currency (eg: 1000 SK).	Value
Account ID	The account to which this transaction is attributed.	Accounts
Opposite Account ID	The other account related to the transaction.	Accounts
Host Community ID	If the community is hosted by a fiscal host, this references the host (at the time the transaction was created).	Accounts
Is Refunded	If a transaction was refunded then this field indicates “REFUNDED” otherwise it is empty.	Process
Is Refund	If the transaction is a refund then this field indicates “REFUND” otherwise it is empty.	Process
Refund Transaction ID	If the transaction has been refunded, this will have the transaction ID of the related refund transaction.	Process
Payment Processor	The payment processor associated to the transaction (eg: Stripe, Paypal, Wise, Donate PR, Other).	Process
Payment Method	The payment method associated to the transaction (eg: Credit Card, Balance)	Process
Merchant ID	A reference number provided by the payment processor.	Process
Tax Type	If the transaction is or has related tax information, this indicates the type of tax (VAT/GST).	Taxes
Tax Rate	If the transaction is or has related tax information, this indicates the applied tax rate.	Taxes
Tax ID Number	If the transaction is or has related tax information, this indicates the related tax identifier.	Taxes

These additional fields have been deprecated but may still apply to older transaction records:

Name	Description	Group
Transaction GraphQL ID	A unique 32 character transaction identifier. (formerly Long Transaction ID)	Deprecated
Gross Amount	Until and including the year 2023 payment processor fees and taxes were stored as transaction fields. The gross amount is equal to the transaction amount plus the payment processor fees plus the taxes.	Deprecated
Payment Processor Fee	Until the year 2024 payment processor fees were stored as fields of a transaction. Since 2024 they are stored as separate transactions.	Deprecated
Platform Fee	Platform fees were once stored as transaction fields. They are now separate transactions.	Deprecated
Host Fee	Host fees were once stored as transaction fields. They are now separate transactions.	Deprecated

## Transaction Kinds Each transaction is of a single “kind.” The following are the "kinds" of transactions:

Transaction Kind	Description
CONTRIBUTION	Records a contribution made through the platform.
PAYMENT_PROCESSOR_FEE	Records a fee charged by a payment processor.
ADDED_FUNDS	Funds that have been added to a community account by a fiscal host.
HOST_FEE	Records a host fee allocated to the host in relation either a CONTRIBUTION or ADDED_FUNDS
HOST_FEE_SHARE	Records a revenue share passed to the platform in relation to either a CONTRIBUTION or ADDED_FUNDS
HOST_FEE_SHARE_DEBT	Records a debt to the platform due to a HOST_FEE_SHARE that has not been transferred to the platform.
EXPENSE	Records an expense made through the platform.
PLATFORM_TIP	Records a platform tip added by a contributor to their contribution.
PLATFORM_TIP_DEBT	Records a debt to the platform due to a PLATFORM_TIP that has not been transferred to the platform.
PAYMENT_PROCESSOR_COVER	Records payment processor fees that are covered by a fiscal host when a transaction is refunded (the payment processor do not refund the fees related to the original transaction).
PAYMENT_PROCESSOR_DISPUTE_FEE	Records a fee paid by fiscal host when a contribution is disputed through a payment processor (dispute fees are charged regardless of dispute outcome).
BALANCE_TRANSFER	Usually done when emptying balance (Community to Host, Project or Event to Community). Or in some cases, moving balance between Fiscal Hosts.
PREPAID_PAYMENT_METHOD	[LEGACY] records a transaction used for implementing gift cards.
UNNAMED	[LEGACY] records transactions that date earlier then 2018 that experience migration challenges to later ledger versions.

# Transaction Pairs, Groups & Perspectives ## Transaction Pairs Transactions are always created in complementary pairs: a credit transaction and a debit transaction. For example, when Contributor A makes a contribution to Community B, two transactions are created:

Or when an expense is paid from Community B to Payee C, two transactions are also created:

{% hint style="warning" %} **Not quite Double Entry Book Keeping** Though the “transactions pairs” is a fundamental ledger pattern and it may sound like it is compatible with double entry book keeping, it isn’t. {% endhint %} ## Transaction Groups Usually transactions are created in groups that have a shared context. For example, when a contribution is made by Contributor A via Stripe to Community B that is hosted by Fiscal Host C the following transaction group will be created: 1. A pair of CONTRIBUTION transactions. 2. A pair of PAYMENT PROCESSOR FEE transactions. 3. A pair of HOST FEE transactions

## Ledger Perspectives Different users sees a different perspective of the same ledger. The perspective a user sees depends on the account through which they are looking at the ledger. Typically each account sees only transactions related to it. Fiscal hosts are an exception since they see both their own transactions and the transactions of the communities they host.In the above contribution example, the contributor will see just one transaction - their contribution debited from their account:

A community admin will see three transactions which correctly represent the contribution and two fees - resulting in a net $8.50 for the community:

The Stripe account (though it has no users, there is a global Stripe account to which transactions are attributed) will show just the payment processor fee that it charged:

Fiscal hosts see the largest amount of transactions since they see both their own transactions and the transactions of their hosted communities (for which they are fiscally responsible):

See more about [the fiscal host perspective](/product/ledger/fiscal-host-ledger-perspective) # Viewing Transactions Browse the Donate PR Ledger with the Dashboard Transactions tool. We have designed it to look and operate more similar to a 'bank statement. To view the Transactions page navigate to your **Dashboard** and then **Transactions**. Utilize the account switcher to switch between accounts.

In the transactions table you can see the Date and Time of the transaction, the account, the Recipient/Sender, the Kind of transaction and the Net amount with the Currency. ### **Contextual Transactions** The transactions you see are based on the context in which you are using the tool. 1. If you are individual you will see transactions that are related only to you (expenses you submitted and contributions you made. 2. If you are a community administrator you will see all the transactions that are related to the community (all the added funds, contributions made to the community and expenses submitted to the community, payment processor and host fees). 3. If you are a fiscal host administrator you will see all of your organizational transactions and all the transactions related to the communities you host. ### **Related transactions** Hovering over individual transactions will bring up a blue line to the left. This indicates the groupings of transactions. Multiple transactions occur from the initial transaction for example based off the below screenshot

### Sort Sort the transactions either by Date (Oldest - Newset) or Effective Date (Oldest - Newest)

### View more information To dive in and review any particular transaction, click to trigger a draw to slide out from the right displaying more information. * Transaction # * Account * Sender/Recipient * Date and Time * Effective Date * Type of Transaction * Kind of Transaction * Amount * Payment Method * Merchant ID * Accounting Category * Group ID * Opposite transaction ID * Related contribution

### ### Export CSV Head to the [Exporting Transactions](/product/ledger/exporting-transactions) section to find out more. ### Extra features for Fiscal Hosts

Transactions for hosted communities are included in the 'All' transactions view you can use the tabs to only view transactions from the hosted communities or the fiscal host We have removed [expected funds](/fiscal-hosts/receiving-money/expected-funds) in this view (these can be seen in the Contributions section) # Exporting Transactions From your transactions you can export a CSV file that can be used to further process transactions for your reporting and accounting needs. To download a CSV of your transactions click on the **'export CSV'** button in the top right hand corner. If you have applied any filters on the transactions page these will be applied to the export set. At the bottom left corner of the export screen you will see a confirmation of the number of transactions included in that set. You then have an option to decide which fields you would like to export. The “Platform Default” export is a selection of fields created to answer typical reporting and accounting needs. So it may be a good starting point. If it is, simply click “Export CSV” and your export file will begin to download.

{% hint style="info" %} **Platform Legacy Export (pre 2024)**\ \ At the beginning of 2024 we made some changes to the ledger that effect the transaction export. This included a shift from representing payment processor fees as fields of transactions to [representing them as separate transactions](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/product/ledger#separate-payment-processor-fees-and-taxes\\).If you require backwards compatibility with the exports that were generated before we introduced these changes: 1. Select the export set “Legacy Platform Export (Pre-2024)” 2. Make sure that the option “Export taxes and payment processor fees as columns” is turned on. {% endhint %} ### New Preset You can further customize the export set by selecting which fields will be exported and in what order. For this select “New Preset.”

Presets are shared within your organization so when defining a New Preset, ensure you give it a meaningful name so that your fellow admins will be able to recognize and utilize it. Select your desired fields in the '**Available fields**' section. Reorder your selected fields in the '**Selected fields for export**' section. You are also able to clear the selection to start your preset from scratch

\ **Save and Export your Preset** You have the option to save the preset, this will make it available to all admins of your Community/Fiscal Host. Export a Sample to test the data set before committing and downloading the full CSV via **Export CSV.** # Fiscal Host Ledger Perspective A fiscal host perspective includes two sets of transactions: 1. Transactions related to the fiscal host organization account (operational funds). 2. Transactions related to the accounts of the communities hosted (past and present) by the fiscal host (managed funds). Therefore, the fiscal host ledger includes a large and more complex set of transactions. Lets take the following example where three communities hosted by the fiscal host each receive each one contribution. This results in three groups of transactions:

The “Operational Funds” perspective (funds that belong to the fiscal host as an organization) would show: 1. Income credited to the as a HOST FEE transaction from each of the three contributions. 2. Platform fees debited from the host to the platform (if there is a revenue share agreement with the platform) as a HOST FEE SHARE transaction.

The “Managed Funds” perspective (funds held by the fiscal host on behalf of communities) would show an aggregated view of all the transactions from their hosted communities. In this case it would show: 1. Income credited to each of the communities as a CONTRIBUTION transaction. 2. Fees debited from each of the communities for payment processor fees as a PAYMENT PROCESSOR FEE transaction. 3. Host fees debited from each of the communities as a HOST FEE transaction.

# Contributions in the Ledger ## Contributions 1. A contribution will typically include a pair of CONTRIBUTION transactions and a pair of PAYMENT\_PROCESSOR\_FEE transactions. 2. If the contribution is made to a community that is hosted by a fiscal host and if that host charges a hosting fee then there will also be a pair of HOST\_FEE transactions. 3. If there is a fiscal host and the fiscal host has a revenue share agreement with the platform then there will also be a pair of HOST\_FEE\_SHARE transactions. 4. If HOST\_FEE\_SHARE applies and the payment processor is able, when the contribution is processed, to split the funds and direct part to the fiscal host and another part to the platform then the HOST\_FEE\_SHARE amount is passed directly to the platform. If that is not possible then the entire contribution (minus the payment processor fee) amount is directed to the fiscal host and a pair of HOST\_FEE\_SHARE\_DEBT transactions are also created to account for money owed by the fiscal host to the platform. The debt transactions are later aggregated and used to generate an expense through which the fiscal host pays the platform and the debt is reconciled. As a result, a single contribution can result in a set of transactions:

Find out more about [Platform settlement expenses](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/independent-collectives/manage-independent-collective/money-going-out-expenses#platform-settlement-expenses). ## Refunded Contributions When contributions are refunded, a new transaction group is created. It contains a set of opposite (relative to the contribution itself) transactions: 1. The contribution is returned: debited from the community and credited to the contributor 2. The host fees are returned: debited from the fiscal host and credited to the community. 3. The host fee share paid to the platform is returned: is debited from the platform and credited to the fiscal host. 4. The host fee share debt cancelled: debited from the fiscal host and credited to the platform. 5. Payment processor fees transactions are NOT reversed since they are typically not refunded by the payment processors. In such cases fiscal hosts cover the not refunded payment processor fees and this is represented in the ledger with a pair of PAYMENT\_PROCESSOR\_COVER transactions.

As a result, the ledger footprint of a refunded contribution includes: 1. The contribution transactions are one transaction group. 2. The refund transactions are a second transaction group. 3. Relationships between the transactions in the two transaction groups. Each transaction in the contribution transaction group (except the payment processor fees) will have a Refund Transaction ID that points to the opposite transaction in the refund transaction group. 4. The contribution transactions will be marked as REFUNDED. 5. The related refund transactions will be marked as REFUND.

It is possible to imagine these two transaction sets existing side by side:

## Perspectives of Refunded Contributions From a contributor perspective a refunded contributions looks like a straightforward pair of opposite transactions - a debit when the contribution was made and a credit when it was refunded.

From a community perspective a refunded contribution looks slightly less symmetric because the PAYMENT PROCESSOR FEE transaction is not refunded and is instead reflected by the PAYMENT PROCESS COVER transaction:

From a fiscal host “Operational Funds” perspective a refunded contribution looks symmetrical except for the PAYMENT PROCESSOR COVER transaction:

From a fiscal host “Managed Funds” perspective a refunded contribution looks the same as it does from a community perspective:

## Disputed Contributions A dispute occurs when a contributor files a complaint with a payment processor (usually because of suspected fraud). If a dispute is settled in favor of the fiscal host the contribution transactions in the ledger remain unchanged. If a dispute is settled in favor of a contributor the transaction will be refunded (and refund transactions will be created in the ledger). Regardless of the dispute outcome, payment processors charge a dispute fee (paid by the fiscal host) which is recorded in the platform as an additional pair of PAYMENT\_PROCESSOR\_DISPUTE\_FEE transactions:

# Added Funds in the Ledger Added funds are funds that are manually added to community accounts by fiscal hosts when they process manual bank transfers and checks. Added fund related transactions are potentially different from contribution related transactions: 1. They are initiated by a fiscal host admin and not by a contributor. 2. They are created in response to manual data entry (and not automated interaction with a payment processor system). 3. Can be manually dated by the fiscal host admin to reflect when the funds actually arrived. In such cases the “Transaction Date” will show the date (and time) the transaction itself was created in the ledger and and the “Effective date” will show the date entered by the fiscal host admin. Added funds transaction groups typically look like contributions in the ledger where instead of a pair of CONTRIBUTION transactions there will be a pair of ADDED\_FUNDS transactions.

# Expenses in the Ledger ## Expense Types Expenses in the ledger are used to represent various kinds of financial activities. Therefore, in order to properly understand expense transactions you need to first look at the “Expense Type” field: 1. **Invoices** are expenses submitted by an expense submitter paid against submitted invoices. 2. **Reimbursements** are expenses submitted by an expense submitter that have already been paid by the expense submitter who is asking to be reimbursed against a receipt or another proof-of-payment. 3. **Virtual Card Charges** are expenses created on the platform when expenses have been paid using virtual credit cards. 4. **Settlements** are expenses generated by the platform based on and to account for debt transactions (PLATFORM\_TIP\_DEBT & HOST\_FEE\_SHARE\_DEBT) that accumulate on the platform. These are typically paid from fiscal hosts to the platform. 5. **Grants** are also represented as expenses by which funds are typically transferred within a fiscal host from a fund account to recipients communities. ## Expense Transactions An expense transaction group will typically include: 1. A pair of EXPENSE transactions. 2. A pair of PAYMENT PROCESSOR FEE transactions.

## Unpaid Expenses Fiscal hosts are able to mark expenses as unpaid when they encounter a payment error (it is the responsibility of the fiscal host admin to verify that the funds paid are accounted for). When an expense is marked as unpaid a new transaction group is created in which: 1. The expense is credited back to the paying community and debited from the payee. 2. Payment processor fees transactions are NOT reversed since they are typically not refunded by the payment processors. In such cases fiscal hosts cover the not-refunded payment processor fees and this is represented in the ledger with a pair of PAYMENT\_PROCESSOR\_COVER transactions.

A complete transaction set for an expense marked as unpaid can therefor look like: As a result, the ledger footprint of an expense marked as unpaid includes: 1. The expense payment transactions are one transaction group. 2. The expense "unpaid" transactions are a second transaction group. 3. Relationships between the transactions in the two transaction groups. Each transaction in the expense transaction group (except the payment processor fees) will have a Refund Transaction ID that points to the opposite transaction in the "unpaid" transaction group. 4. The expense transactions will be marked as REFUNDED. 5. The related "unpaid" transactions will be marked as REFUND.

It is possible to imagine these two transaction sets side by side:

## Perspectives of Unpaid Expenses From the perspective of the payee (the person or organization being paid) the expense was first credited and then debited from their account:

From the perspective of the paying community an expense and payment processor fee were first debited from the community and then, when the expense was marked as unpaid, the funds are credited back to the community together with credit from the fiscal host to cover the payment processor fees:

From a fiscal host “Operational Funds” perspective an “Unpaid” expense leaves only a PAYMENT PROCESSOR COVER transaction debited from the fiscal host to the community to cover the un-refunded payment processor fees:

From a fiscal host “Managed Funds” perspective, an “Unpaid” expense looks the same as it does from a community perspective:

# Ledger Changelog ## January 2024: Separate payment processor fees and taxes *From January 2024 payment processor fees and taxes were separated from the transaction record in the ledger.* \\ Over the last couple of years, we’ve received feedback from fiscal hosts and accountants that has prompted us to make a change to the ledger to make more it more consistent and future proof. We’ve modified the ledger so that payment processor fees and taxes are recorded as separate transactions. *This is how payment processor fees and taxes were represented in the ledger until now, as fields/properties of a transaction:*

type	kind	amount	paymentProcessorFee	netAmount
CREDIT	CONTRIBUTION	100	1.8	98.2

*For contributions or expenses made after January 2024, separate transactions will be recorded for payment processor fees and taxes. For example:*

type	kind	amount
CREDIT	CONTRIBUTION	100
DEBIT	PAYMENT_PROCESSOR_FEE	-1.8

### CSV Export Backwards Compatibility The default export configuration hasn’t changed and still includes a column for payment processor fees. However, from 2024, payment processor fees are exported as separate transactions and the payment processor fee column will be set to zero. If you need to continue to export data (from the 1st of January 2024 and onward) with payment processor fees as a column (instead of separate transactions) enable the “Separate transactions compatibility” option. This will convert the newly separated payment processor fee transactions back into transaction columns.\\

### Dashboard Transactions List In the dashboard transactions tool the new transactions (for payment processor fees and taxes) will appear as separate transactions. In this screenshot the blue line on the right hand side of the table is a visual indicator for a group of related transactions. Here you can see that a (now separate) Payment processor fee transaction is related to the contribution transaction.

You can also filter to see only those transactions using the “kind” filter:![image.png](https://codahosted.io/docs/nHLKv7oLV0/blobs/bl-a_8VsiohRJ/8db97f2bf4c53a65089ac0c0e659a085e3dd50189d642615770b1e11cdcabab81739779d5e4c409cfa12e16b00be0dc9e8914e0477a7ee9d4631bda5763d43a3260073d930ca292e4fb9f89a74c8e4922f6814a2150c5cb9d8f7fd4c24512ddab7d15f3b) # Notifications ## Email Notifications We will always let you know about important changes and updates, but you can customize the type of non-transactional notifications you receive through email from specific roles and entities in the platform. To manage email notifications for your individual profile as well as the communities and organizations you are part of, you can open the *Notifications Settings* page that you can find in your *Account Settings*

### Notifications regarding your activity These are the notification settings related to the activities that occur on the platform. These activities may have been triggered directly by you or by someone else in the context of a Community or Organization that you are a core contributor to. There are potentially three main groups in this section that will be displayed or not based on the organizations you're part of. * **Communities you host:** These are the notifications you receive as the admin of a fiscal host. This includes all the notifications relevant to the fiscal-host admin that may have been triggered by the host or any of the communities you're hosting. * **Communities you manage:** These are the notification you receive as the admin of a community. This includes all the notifications relevant to this community admin, these notifications may have been triggered by you, another community admin, or a contributor in this specific community context. * **Organizations you manage:** Same as the previous section, but display only Organizations. On the ***Communities you host*** group, you'll find all the communities you're a core contributor to next to the host's main notifications toggle switch. This switch will let you disable all the non-transactional notifications triggered by this host and its hosted communities.

You can also click on *Show advanced settings* to expand and tweak the classes of notifications you want to receive. This setting is particularly useful for hosts that segment their responsibilities managing their notifications. Notice that whenever you switch the host main toggle, you're also resetting the class configuration you set.

For the ***Communities*** and ***Organizations you manage*** groups, we display only a summary of your current settings and a button to open those group-specific settings:

You can then use the "Show group settings" button to open the same type of settings you have for the Host group settings:

### Updates about the platform and Communities you support These are the notifications triggered by updates and newsletters sent by our platform and by the communities you support.

# Two-factor Authentication Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security for your account when logging in. ## Enabling 2FA for Login To enable two-factor authentication on your profile. 1. Click on your profile in the top right-hand corner.

2\. Click on Settings 3\. Click on ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2F8KjE7v9KLfkC5g5Kqs6u%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=247085ba-362a-465c-a025-110fcf4f8740) 4. You’ll need an app on your phone like Google Authenticator, Authy, or any other authenticator that can scan the QR code and give you a 6-digit 2FA code in return. You then type the code into the input field, and click "Verify and see recovery codes".

4\. Recovery codes are used to access your account in case you can't access it with your authenticator app (for example, if you have lost your phone). Each code can only be used once. Save your 2FA recovery codes in a safe place, like a password manager app. {% hint style="warning" %} Once you’ve set up 2FA on your account, it’s really important to not delete the entry for Donate PR in your authenticator app. {% endhint %} When you have 2FA enabled on your account, you will be prompted to enter a 6-digit code whenever you click the [one-time login link](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/product/log-in-system) we email to you. For information about enabling two-factor authentication for payouts please refer [here](/fiscal-hosts/payouts/two-factor-authentication-for-payouts). # Activity Log The Activity Log gives you the ability to track activities happening through your user profile, community or fiscal host. You can access your Activity log via your Account Settings, Community Settings or Fiscal Host Settings. **Click on Activity log within your settings** ![Step 4 screenshot](https://images.tango.us/workflows/98e4f91b-e41c-4f19-8ef7-77aa4b8b03a4/steps/19fea364-1ce1-4a53-abab-d43ec8035745/6bd4230c-417a-4f09-8cb0-c40776f954e7.png?crop=focalpoint\&fit=crop\&fp-x=0.1207\&fp-y=0.7552\&fp-z=2.1580\&w=1200\&mark-w=0.2\&mark-pad=0\&mark64=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFnZXMudGFuZ28udXMvc3RhdGljL21hZGUtd2l0aC10YW5nby13YXRlcm1hcmsucG5n\&ar=2742%3A1536) ***

You can then filter the activity by Period or Activity. When viewing from a Fiscal Host account, you can also filter by Account. This allows you to view the activity of your fiscal host, all of your hosted communities or a specific community.

# Communities FAQ ## What can I do with an Donate PR? * Collect financial contributions * Pay bills and reimburse expenses * Provide automatic budget transparency * Transact without incorporating your own legal entity ## What is Donate PR good for? Donate PR is great for all kinds of collaborative groups, like meetups, open-source projects, neighbourhood associations, clubs, unions, movements, conferences, non-profits, grant recipients, and incubators. You shouldn't have to incorporate a legal entity, start a new bank account, and do bookkeeping just to collect and spend money for a project—and with Donate PR you don't have to. ## Why should I use Donate PR? Donate PR makes it easy to be transparent about your finances. We help you collect recurring or one-off contributions from sponsors, supporters, or members. [Spending from your Donate PR](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses) is simple: the person to be paid submits a receipt or invoice, you approve it, and they get paid. We believe that financial transparency creates stronger collaboration, so everyone can see how money flows in and out of your Community. ## What do Communities spend money on? There are as many answers to this question as there are Communities! It's up to each community to decide how to spend their funds. Some communities delegate financial decision-making to a specific person or role, some develop policies about what should be funded, and others have processes to make spending decisions together as a group. For ideas and examples, check out this article: [Has Your Open Source Community Raised Money? Here’s How to Spend It](https://medium.com/open-collective/has-your-open-source-community-raised-money-heres-how-to-spend-it-3e9dd957dad). Some common expenses are hosting costs, documentation, community moderation, printing t-shirts and stickers, conference travel expenses, food at meetups, time spent working on specific features, or even paying someone to work on a project full time! For more details about how to spend money, see our documentation about [expenses](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses). ## How do I pay people? Money contributed to a Community goes to the bank account of the [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts). When someone wants to be paid, they [submit an expense](/expenses-and-getting-paid/submitting-expenses) through your Community page. After you approve it, the person is reimbursed via PayPal. Expenses are visible publicly, so everyone can see how much money was spent and on what (though private details like emails, names, and addresses are only visible to that user and the admins). ## How much does it cost? See details about [Fiscal Hosts](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) and [pricing](https://donatepr.com/pricing). ## How can I pause or stop accepting contributions? Remove all tiers and turn off flexible contributions. # Creating a Community Donate PR allows you to create a transparent funding page for your project in just a few clicks. No need to incorporate, hire a lawyer and accountant, or define organizational roles! Once you've registered on Donate PR, reveal the dropdown menu by clicking on your username, then click on the **+ New** button under the **My Communities** section.

Finish Community creation form, where you will be asked for your **Community name**, **URL slug** of choice, and a **brief description** of your Community's activities.

# Quick Start Guide ## You've got a Community—awesome! Now what? Once you have a Community, you can start submitting expenses, edit your page content, and create events for your community right away. In order to receive money or pay out expenses, you need a [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) or you need to be set up as an [independent community](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/collectives/broken-reference/README.md). Whether you have a Fiscal Host yet or not, here are some steps you can take to get your Community started. ### 1. Make your Community your own Update your images and main color and add about info. [Here's how](/communities/collective-settings/customize-collective). ### 2. Add Core Contributors If you have collaborators on your project who can help you manage your page and approve expenses add them as Core Contributors. [Here's how](/communities/collective-settings/core-contributors). ### 3. Add Financial Contributors to your GitHub and website Check the many ways you can export your data on [Data Export](/communities/collective-settings/data-export) and our diversity of [Buttons & Banners](/communities/widgets). ### 4. Start tracking expenses [Submit expenses](/expenses-and-getting-paid/submitting-expenses) through your Community, so others can see where money will be spent (even if you don't have any yet). This builds trust with potential supporters. ### 5. Spread the word You can connect your Twitter account to your community and automatically thank your backers. [Here's how](/communities/collective-settings/integrations#twitter-integration). ### 6. Launch! Write a blog post, tell people the vision, and explain why you are raising money. For more detailed ideas about helping your Community launch well. If you need help, join our community on Slack or [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact). Welcome aboard! # Community Settings # Customize Community ## Edit Settings To access all settings for your Community, click the **Dashboard** button shown in the image below.

### Info

The info section of the Community settings enables you to add and change basic information about your page. **Display name** - Display names are public and used wherever this profile appears publicly, like contributions, comments on updates, public info on expenses, etc. **Legal Name (optional)** - Legal names are private and used in receipts, tax forms, payment details on expenses and other non-profit contexts. Legal names are only visible to admins. **Short description** - This description appears at the top of your community page. **Handle** - the unique identifier that directs to your communities page on Donate PR '[www.donatepr.com/yourcommunitieslug](http://www.donatepr.com/yourcommunitieslug)' **Location -** **Currency** - Your preferred currency **Tags** - Identifiers utilised by search to find your community **Social Links** - Link to your website, Git repository and social media

Available links include: Discord, Discource, Facebook, Ghost, Git Repository, Github, GitLab, Instagram, Linkedin, Mastodon, Mattermost, Meetup, Peertube, Pixelfed, Slack, Tiktok, Tumblr, Twitter, Website, Youtube ## Profile Page Show and hide different sections on your community page.

As an admin, all sections will appear in your view, with invitations to add content. However, any sections without content will not appear to other users (for example, **Updates** and **About**). ## Change Logo To update your logo image, hover over it and click on **Edit logo**, or simply drag an image file onto the logo area. {% hint style="info" %} All logos are displayed on a white background, so white logos will not be visible. If you want to use a white logo, upload an image with a colored background instead of a transparent one. {% endhint %} ## Set Main Color Your main color determines the color of links and buttons, tier cards, and the hero header if no image is set. Click on **Edit main color** in the header area to set the color.

## Set Cover Image To change your cover image, click on **Edit cover**. By clicking on the image, you are able to move it around. You can also zoom in and out as you like. The optimal image size for a cover image is 2736x650.

# Team ## Roles **Admins** have full permissions to change settings, approve expenses, and make financial contributions from the budget balance. **Core contributors** show up in the Team section of your page and can create events, but can't change settings or approve expenses. **Accountants** can access financial information, such as receipts, invoices, and reports. They can't change settings or approve expenses. ## Adding, Editing and Removing team members 1. Go to your Community page and click on Dashboard button.

2\. Head to the **Team** tab. Here you can add, remove, or change people and roles.

3\. Click the Invite Team Member button

{% hint style="info" %} Only **Admins** can edit the Community and approve expenses. Be sure to select the right role option. {% endhint %} 4\. This will then bring up a form in which you can search or invite a new user. Once you are done, click on **Save** at the bottom of the page. 5\. Users will receive an invite to join the Community. They will not be displayed publicly until this invitation is accepted. You will then see the new user that you have invited as pending until the invitation is accepted. 6\. To edit a Team Member click the edit (pencil) button. This will allow you to edit the user's permissions and remove a user if you wish.

## Re-send email invitations If someone indicates that they didn't receive an invitation email, the first thing to do is for them to search for the keywords "Invitation to join" in the target inbox, including in the spam folder.\ \ If they still can't find them, the easiest way to re-trigger the emails is: 1. Go to the settings page of the Community > Core contributors section 2. Remove the concerned users 3. Click on Save 4. Click on "Add core contributor" and add them again (you should be able to search by pasting user emails in the search box) {% hint style="danger" %} **Troubleshooting:** * The first thing to try is to check your spam folder. * If there is still no invite email, follow the instructions above to resend. * **Make sure you clicked 'Save' at the bottom of the Add Admin page.** * [Email](https://donatepr.com/contact) {% endhint %} # Community Goals & Tiers ## Goals You can define goals to share an overview of your financial plan with your community and to track your progress. {% hint style="info" %} Community Goals will be sent in the emails sent to your contributors, and you can adjust their visibility on your Community's settings. {% endhint %} To create your own Community goals, go to your Community profile, click on **Settings** and then on **Community Goals**.

You can choose between three different visual options. **Auto**: Will switch from Logarithm to Linear when 30% of the goal is achieved. **Logarithm**: Will make the progress bar appear larger to incentivise new contributions. This is backed by social proof. **Linear**: Exact visual representation. ### How to Create a Goal To create a goal, give it a **title**, select a **type:** * **Balance** goals are based on your current balance. * Yearly budget goals are based on your estimated annual budge it as either a goal **balance** or **yearly budget,** specify the **amount** you need and add a **description**. Don't forget to **save** your changes when you're done!

## Tiers Tiers can be used to provide perks and rewards to supporters, set membership fees, build funding drives (when used with goals), or simply categorise your contributions.\ \ You can control tiers by accessing the **Tiers** section in your communities Settings:

### Enabling flexible contributions You can define whether you can to allow flexible contributions or not by manipulating the **Enable flexible contributions** checkbox. ### Creating custom tiers You can also create custom tiers on the same page. Click on **add another tier:**

A preview of the tier you are creating will appear alongside your the configured settings: ### Configuring Tiers The following options are available when creating a new tier: #### **Type** Generic, membership, service, product, donation. #### **Name** e.g. *Gold Sponsor, Member, Supporter.* This is the only required field to add a new Tier with the default values; all others are optional. #### **Description** Important information for Financial Contributors such as what does this tier mean or which rewards are included. #### **Interval** The frequency in which such contribution will be charged. It can be a one time contribution, a monthly one, yearly or flexible. #### **Amount type** Fixed or flexible. Flexible amounts can be adjusted by users as they wish. #### **Suggested amounts** Suggestions for contributors to pick from. #### **Default amount** A preset starting amount. #### **Minimum amount** The minimum amount allowed for this contribution, if any. #### **Available quantity** For limited edition contributions (such as special edition items, one-time events, etc). #### **Button text** The action word on the Tier card users click (such as donate, join, contribute). You can also add emojis if you wish! #### **Goal** Target amount you're trying to raise in this Tier. #### **Force standalone page** You can create a standalone page for the tier to send as a direct link to potential contributors: You can access it from your Community page by clicking on **Read more.** ### **Edit and delete a tier** To edit a tier, click on the 'Edit Tier' Button. To delete a tier, click the delete button in the bottom left-hand corner {% hint style="warning" %} Don't forget to **save** your changes. {% endhint %} ## Support Tiers A great way of having more companies supporting your project is by offering them a support tier, where you offer access to support in exchange for financial contributions. Companies may or may not use it but it gives them the peace of mind to have someone who knows the codebase very available to help them within a reasonable time frame. With the above tier example, your responsibilities as a Community are: * Adding the sponsor's logo on your website * Engaging with them to provide the support you've agreed to via the channels specified The Sponsor's responsibilities are: * Contacting you via the specified channels * Limiting their support requirements to the time slots specified * Scheduling the time slots at least a week in advance ## FAQ ### For Communities #### How do I define the price? It depends on a lot of things but mainly on how critical is your open source project to the organization (which is arguably quite subjective). We recommend starting at $500/month with a yearly commitment ($6k upfront) for access to two hours of support a month. As you grow, you can start increasing the price. #### Why a yearly commitment? It's easier for companies to budget services for the year. It also ensures that they contribute to the maintenance of the project. #### What happens if I delete a tier? If you delete a tier you will be given the option of continuing the recurring contributions for that tier.

These donations will appear under your "custom contributions" Tier. Members will need to stop recurring payments from their accounts. Here is more information on how to [cancel a recurring contribution](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/financial-contributors/payments#cancel-a-recurring-contribution). ### For companies By subscribing to a support tier, you not only get private time for your team to discuss the open-source project that you depend upon, but you are also helping the community to maintain it. It's a great way to balance your interests with the interests of the community. #### Can I do a Purchase Order (PO)? Hosts can work with you to go through your Purchase Order process. Just [reach out to us](https://donatepr.com/help). #### What if we never were provided with support? Please [reach out to us](https://donatepr.com/contact) and we will work it out. # Expense Policy You can specify an expense policy, which appears on the right of the submit expense form, to give guidance to expense submitters. Making it clear what expenses will be approved and what submitters need to do will save time for you and them. To update your expense policy, go to your Community's page, click on the **Dashboard** button and go to the **Policies** page.

## Limit Who Can Submit and Approve Expenses At the bottom of the Policies Settings screen, you'll see a set of options that allow you to limit who can submit and approve expenses to your community:

* Ticking *"Admins cannot approve their own expenses"* will block admins from approving expenses submitted by themselves, effectively requiring another admin to approve their expenses. * Ticking "Only allow expenses to be created by Team Members and Financial Contributors (they may invite expenses from other payees)." will limit who can see the "Submit Expense" button. ## Fiscal Host Expense Policy Your Fiscal Host can also set an [expense policy](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings#expenses). It will appear on the submit expense page, underneath the Community policy. Often times, Community expense policies are focused on what categories of things are allowed as expenses, while the Fiscal Host policy pertains to required documentation, like details on invoices. # Data Export There are multiple ways to export your communities data. Download your contributor data, Transactions information and delve into your export settings. ### Contributor Information Navigate to your community's Dashboard -> **Contributors**.

Click on the Export CSV button in top right hand corner. \\ **The CSV export contains:** * Contributor Profile URL * Contributor Name * Contributor Type (Individual or Company) * Total Amount Contributed * Currency * Active Recurring Contribution * Recurring Contribution Tier * Recurring Contribution Amount * Recurring Contribution Frequency * First Contribution Date * Latest Contribution Date * Email * Website ## Exporting Transactions Head to the Transaction page on your community dashboard. Click the Transactions tab 2\. Click View all Transactions 4\. Download CSV on the right

# Security Organizations and communities can opt-in to enforce 2FA for all their admins. Any attempt at triggering admin operations or visiting the admin pages will be blocked until the admins enable 2FA on their profiles.\ \ Projects and events inherit the 2FA settings from their parents. ### How to enforce 2FA for all admins 1. Click on the user menu

2\. Click on the settings icon next to the profile you want to enable "Enforce 2FA" for

3\. Click on Settings -> "Security"

**4. Check "All admins must have two-factor authentication"**

**5. Click on Save** **When visiting admin pages without 2FA, admins will be prompted to enable it** ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1556356/202162859-7e9cf92e-cb93-49fe-975d-701e7c0b76e6.png) # Integrations Learn how to integrate notifications from Donate PR in your own chat or website using Webhooks ## Webhooks (generic, Slack, Discord) Go to your settings, click on "Webhooks" then select the type and enter the URL for your webhook. The system will automatically detect Slack or [Discord's slack-compatible](https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#execute-slackcompatible-webhook) webhook URLs and will adapt the payloads for them. See [this link](https://api.slack.com/messaging/webhooks#getting_started) to learn how to create a Slack webhook, or [this link](https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/228383668-Utiliser-les-Webhooks) to learn how to create a Discord webhook.

While creating the webhook, you'll be able (in some cases) to preview the payload by clicking on the Info icon next to the activity name: ## Twitter Integration Connect your Twitter to automatically thank new supporters who contribute to your Community! To do so, go to your Community page, click on the gear icon, and head to the **Connected Accounts** page. # Zero Community Balance Before [changing hosts](/communities/add-fiscal-host#changing-fiscal-host) or [closing a Community](/communities/collective-settings/closing-a-collective), the balance must be at zero. You can move money out of your Community in several ways: * [Submitting expenses](/expenses-and-getting-paid/submitting-expenses) to withdraw funds. * [Donating to another Community](/financial-contributors/collective-to-collective) in the same fiscal host. * Giving the remaining balance to your Fiscal Host. You can access that option by navigating to your Community's Dasboard > Settings > Advanced\*\*.\*\* * ```

``` ## Leftover Balance #### Let the Payee cover the fees When emptying the balance for a community, you have the option of charging the payment processor fees on the payee which will guarantee that 100% of the community's balance will go out. This option is only available for bank transfers for hosts that support Transferwise at the moment. When these conditions are met, the host admins will see a checkbox on the *Pay expense modal*: ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-ed95836bf4198f42d7f1ed15b6d586fffa060a83%2Fimage%20$16$%20$3$.png?alt=media) #### Dealing with small leftovers When it's not possible to use the feature previously described, you may sometimes end up with a small amount left behind if you try to withdraw 100% of your balance. This is usually caused by fees being hard to predict exactly. If this happens, go to your Community's page, click on the gear icon next to your logo, head to **Advanced** and use the **Empty Balance** button to transfer the remaining funds to your Fiscal Host. # Closing a Community If you want to close down your Community, you can either archive or delete it. Either way, you first need to [zero the balance](/communities/collective-settings/zero-collective-balance). Navigate to your Community's Dashboard > Settings > Advanced. ## Delete a Community If your Community does not have any transactions or financial activity, you can delete it. Deleting a Community will remove its data, including memberships, payment methods, etc.

{% hint style="warning" %} If your Community has transactions associated with it, you will have to archive it. The reason we cannot delete transactions is the financial ledger must retain its accuracy and integrity. Your income is someone else's expense, and your expenses are someone else's income. {% endhint %} ## Archive a Community If your Community has transactions, you can archive it instead of deleting. This will mark the Community as inactive and prevent any new donations. If you want to re-activate your community at a later stage, please follow the same steps shown below and find an updated button to unarchive the community). Note that archiving a Community will also cancel any recurring contributions and expenses.

# Add Fiscal Host ## Options for Fiscal Hosting In order to raise and spend money, you'll need a bank account associated with your Community. You can: 1. Join a [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts), who will take care of things like accounting, banking, liability, and payments (most Communities choose this option), or 2. Plug in your own bank account as an [Independent Community](/independent-communities/about-independent-collectives), or 3. Create [your own Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/become-a-fiscal-host) to hold funds for multiple Communities under the umbrella of your own legal entity. ## How to add a Fiscal Host There are different hosts that serve different missions, interest areas, and geographic. [See them all here](https://donatepr.com/hosts). Click on the apply button on any host page, and if your project fits their criteria, they will approve it. (The apply button can sometimes be nestled under the actions button). {% hint style="success" %} If you are an open-source project with at least 100 stars on GitHub (or equivalent other websites), you can apply to create your Community under the umbrella of the [Open Source Community](https://donatepr.com/opensource/apply) fiscal host. {% endhint %} To see your Fiscal Host options, go to your Community Page, click on the settings button and head to the **Fiscal Host** page. * **No one:** No bank account or Host connected, not able to receive and spend money. * **Independent Community:** Use your personal or company bank account to hold funds for a single Community. * **Our Own Fiscal Host:** Run your own Fiscal Host that holds money for multiple Communities. * **Apply to a Fiscal Host:** Join a Host that provides this service to Communities like you. * ```

``` ## Applying to a fiscal host Fiscal hosts have their own application criteria, which is often based on their location, their mission or impact area and their legal status. Applying to a host will require that you answer some questions about your project that help the host asses whether you are appropriate for their organization. ### Host Policies Hosts also have policies which they will make you aware of during your application, some of these policies are enforced through the Donate PR platform including: #### Minimum number of Administrators Some hosts require that you have a minimum of two of more administrators associated with your Community. If this is the case you will be asked to invite other administrators as part of your application process. # Change Fiscal Host You can change the fiscal host of your Community to a different existing host, or start your own host and move it there. {% hint style="warning" %} It's not possible to change to a Fiscal Host with a different currency than your Community began with if there are already any financial transactions associated. You need to change to a Fiscal Host with the same currency or start a new Community with the new currency and Fiscal Host. {% endhint %} ## What does it mean to change fiscal hosts? Your fiscal host is the house where your Community "lives" legally and financially. Moving house means your Community's funds will go to the new host organization's bank account, and the new fiscal host assumes legal responsibility for your project. The new host admin will be the one pressing the "pay" button on your approved expenses. ## What are the benefits of being able to change hosts? No lock-in! If you start out being fiscally hosted by another organization and eventually want to set up your own legal entity, you can move your Community. This is great for projects that are bootstrapping early on and later build more legal infrastructure. You can also change between established fiscal host organizations. If you start out under a generalist host, you may later switch when a host-specific to your movement or focus area forms. This can happen when a movement scales up, for example. Or you might want to move hosts to change the currency your Community is in from Dollars to Euros. ## What happens to my recurring financial contributions, followers of updates, and transaction history? Some recurring contributions can be automatically transferred. Some others, like PayPal subscriptions, cannot be transferred and will need to be manually re-established by your contributors. The people that are subscribed to your updates will continue to receive them. Your history of transactions will remain intact. Your donors or sponsors are unlikely to notice any changes to your Community (except the little "hosted by" text on your page). ## What is the process for changing fiscal hosts? {% hint style="warning" %} Before starting the process of changing Fiscal Hosts, get in touch with your new Fiscal Host to confirm they are ready to approve your request to join them. {% endhint %} Your fiscal host determines whose bank account your money sits in. To change hosts, you need to take all the funds out of the old bank account. You have two options to zero your community balance. You can either send the funds directly to the new host or manually zero your community balance. **Sending funds directly to the new host** The new host should file an expense for the community to withdraw the funds into their holding account, the new host can then allocate the funds using [add funds](/fiscal-hosts/receiving-money/add-funds-manually). **Zeroing your community balance** **1.** [Zero the balance](/communities/collective-settings/zero-collective-balance) of your Community **2.** Navigate to your Communities Dashboard > Settings > Fiscal Host **3.** Remove your current Fiscal Host.

**4.** Select **Create a fiscal host** (if you want to set up your own), **Apply to an existing host** (if you'll be hosted by another entity), or visit the page of the Fiscal Host you wish to join and click on the Apply button. **5.** Wait for your new Fiscal Host to approve your request. {% hint style="success" %} You are done! Your Community will be live in the new host right away. {% endhint %} ## What if I want to move to a different platform instead? You can move Communities from Fiscal Hosts on donatepr.com to a host set up on your own site. It's also possible to transfer over your recurring financial contributions (Stripe subscriptions). However, Stripe support needs to make those transfers as it requires them to authenticate with your own Stripe account totally independent of Donate PR. They have performed this service in the past, but the timeframe and details are outside Donate PR's control. # Transparent Budget Communities have transparent budgets, where all transactions are automatically reported. Everyone can see where the money comes from and what it's spent on. We have two budget views. Our [Simple budget](#simple-budget) view shows overall monetary figures and a list of expenses and contributions. Our [new budget visualisation](#undefined) pulls information from your expenses and contributions and showcases them with varying graphs. ### Simple Budget The Budget Section on the Communities Page shows the most recent transactions alongside - Todays Balance, Total Raised, Total Disbursed and Estimates Annual Budget. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8690dad3318148437722e056ceff1484c4be5cad%2Fcollectives_transparentbudgets_budget_2021-07-6.png?alt=media) Private information is hidden. For example, email addresses and attachments (which may contain personal information). The expenses view shows what the Community has spent money on. You can see individual expenses and people the budget has gone toward. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-45a2119efdcdc3ccdebd374e41a237288d59714d%2Fcollectives_transparentbudget_expenses_2021-07-6.png?alt=media) You can click on View all expenses to view a more detailed breakdown this view also allows you to filter by Type, Payout, Period, Amount and Status. You can also filter by different tags like Engineering, Communications, Travel etc. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-1a96b023c7f6f0f890e058bf33d7f0198f95838c%2Fcollectives_transparentbudget_allexpenses_2021-07-6.png?alt=media) The transactions view shows financial contributions. You can see individual contributions and who has made the contribution. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-973996b152c4563956c1265bbee8d2cf6277fe05%2Fcollectives_transparentbudget_transactions_2021-07-6.png?alt=media) You can click on View all transactions to view a more detailed breakdown this view also allows you to filter by Type, Period, Amount and Kind. You can also download a CSV of all transactions. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-5bfedc4569472cec3ebe0e1c0f7d7c968f9e6dc3%2Fcollectives_transparentbudget_alltransactions_2021-07-6.png?alt=media) ### New Budget Visualisation Our new budget visualisation enables a more accessible exploration of your data through graphs and categories. This feature pulls information from your tagged expenses and your one-time and recurring contributions. These can then be filtered by different time frames and showcased with varying graphs.

We recommend tagging your expenses to ensure your graphs display accurate expense data. [Click here to learn how to tag your expenses.](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/collectives/expenses#expense-tags)

This new budget visualisation tool will help your funders/contributors get a better sense of your financial well-being. Questions can now be easily answered; such as: How long has the project been actively raising money? - Is the funding consistent - How does the project currently spend its funding? ### How to switch your Budget View \ Toggle between the two budget views by going to your page settings

Select Profile Page

\ Find the Budget section, you can then toggle between the two budget views and move this section on your profile page.

\ Then click save

### Budget Calculations Estimated Annual Budget - It's a projection based on current recurring contributions and activity in the past year. It's counting: * 1\) All active monthly subscriptions. Multiply by 12. * 2\) All active yearly subscriptions. * 3\) All one-time subscriptions in the past year. * 4\) All inactive monthly subscriptions that have contributed in the past year. # Expenses ## FAQ ### How do I know when an expense is pending? When someone submits an [expense](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses) to your Community, the admins will get an email notification. The email will show all the details of the expense, like who submitted it, the amount, and the receipt or invoice. You can also view expenses on Donate PR. Click the link from the email notification, or go to your Community page and click "View all Expenses". ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-64234778a648f1998322a425d657561f554fb0e9%2Fimage%20$36$.png?alt=media) ### Should I approve this expense? The decision is up to you as a project. Some projects are informal, and any Core Contributor can approve any expense. Others have a formal decision-making or budgeting process, or only pay expenses for specific things. We advise you to have a discussion with your collaborators and agree on guidelines for approving expenses. ### Can I give guidance to expense submitters? Yes, we recommend you have an [expense policy](/communities/collective-settings/expense-policy), which will show up at the top of the submit expense page. ### What happens when I click Approve? When you approve an expense, the submitter will get a notification. The [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) admin will also be notified. They review the expense and make sure it has a valid receipt or invoice, and then proceed to pay it. ### What happens when I click Reject? The submitter will be notified that their expense was rejected. We suggest also putting a [comment](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expense-comments) on the expense to explain why it was rejected. ### How can I show an expense that has been paid off the platform? Submit an expense, select manual/custom payment method, and mark it as paid. Then it will show on the budget, but no money will actually move, since it’s already been paid. ### How can I delete a pending expense? You will need to reject the expense, then you will be able to delete it. ## Expenses Status The expense status is a single label that will change throughout the Expense flow and indicates what is going on with the expense. * **Draft:** Expense is a Draft sent for someone else to complete. After 30 days, the draft will expire. * **Unverified:** The user submitted an Expense Draft and now we're waiting for the user to verify their email in order to move it to "PENDING". * **Pending:** Expense was submitted to the community. We're waiting for the community admin to approve this expense. * **Approved:** Expense was approved by a community admin. We're now waiting for the Fiscal Host admin to pay for it. * **Rejected:** Community admin rejected the expense. This is a possible final state for the Expense. * **Scheduled for Payment:** Expense was scheduled for payment and will be paid in a batch of expenses. After being paid, the expense will be marked as "PROCESSING". * **Processing:** Expense was paid by the Fiscal Host. We're waiting for a third-party service (Wise or PayPal) to confirm the transaction was completed. * **Error:** Expense was paid by the Fiscal Host but something went wrong with the transaction. This is a possible final state for the Expense, the Fiscal Host will probably reach out to the User to solve any possible issue. * **Paid:** Expense was sucessfully paid. This is the final state for the expense. * **Spam:** This Expense was marked as SPAM and will be ignored. This is the final state for the expense. * **Incomplete**: Expense needs more info in order to be paid, fiscal host admin marked as incomplete, stated a reason in the comments, and removed from Ready to pay queue. ## Expense tags ### Adding tags When creating an expense, you are able to add relevant tags.

When you start utilising tags you will be able to select from existing tags, making the process faster and more streamlined.

If an expense tag is incorrect or missing, it's very easy to go back later and add or change it. Just find the expense and make your adjustments.

### Example Expense tags * Employees - Wages and benefits for core team members * Contractors - Pay invoices from core team members * Accounting - A Team invoices, auditor fees * Legal - Lawyer bills * Software - SaaS subscriptions * Memberships - Fees for joining networks, coalitions, etc * Workspace - Home office setup costs or coworking expenses * Platform - Paid to Donate PR Inc * Engineering - Developing features & websites * Marketing - Illustrations, design, media content creation * Insurance - Liability insurance premiums (not health insurance benefits) * Meals & Entertainment - Team lunches, client meetings over a meal * Travel - Transportation and associated costs * Donations - Charitable contributions to other entities * Taxes & Licenses - Compliance-related expenses * General - Operation expenses & supplies not covered above # Updates & Comms A lot of Communities like to periodically update their Financial Contributors, to let them know what their donations are enabling, express thanks, or notify everyone of a change. Similarly, hosts often need to contact the administrators of the Communities they are hosting. To create an Update, go to your Dashboard, navigate to the **Updates** section and click on **Create Update**. Updates will appear in the Connect section of your public Community page and you have the option to also notify your community admins and/or contributors via email.

We offer a rich editor to write your updates! Each update requires a Title and content for the Message. You can also write and publish exclusive updates for your Contributors by changing the **Update Type** to **Restricted**.

### Uploading Images ![Uploading Images](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-d8643573982f36a9fb51003a9975a7aae18ce193%2FScreen%20Shot%202022-07-07%20at%202.32.24%20PM.png?alt=media) Click the above image in the rich text editor. Selecting the desired image will insert it into your update. Image formats are compatible: jpg, png etc. ## Contacting a Community Users can contact you via the contact form of your community. It is linked in your community page through the `Contact` button. The forms stands on `/{your-community}/contact`. If you don't want to use this feature, please contact us and we'll disable it for you.

# Custom Email You can now add custom text to the automatic email people receive thanking them for their contribution, at the level of a whole Community and/or a specific Event or Project.

### Community Custom Email 1. Click through to your Community Dashboard Settings

2\. The 'Custom Email' section will enable you to customise the message that is included in the thank you email sent to financial contributors of your Community. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-941d1c1c3f3db100c14d781d2fc1f642406bd83e%2Fcollectives_customemail_2022-07-14.png?alt=media) ### Event Custom Email 1. Enter the desired event ![Section\_Page\_description\_YYYY-MM-DD](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-1ddade175fa2ff65fadc7090968006585414b54c%2Fcollectives_customemail_events_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) 2\. Click through to the event settings ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-e551a8d175924dbee13938fb0fcf66e30500820b%2Fcollective_customemail_eventsettings_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) 3\. Set your custom email message that is sent to financial contributions of your event. This will override the customized message set by the parent community of this event. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-acb9607a39d800b96e4d4dfe1df634172caf7b87%2Fcollectives_customemail_eventcustomemail_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) ### Project Custom Email 1. Enter the desired Project ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-30e00dcd4ac1988dec1074a6843b3fc6379030a9%2Fcollectives_customeemail_projecrs_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) 2\. Click through to project settings ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-1db7050dc69323ed520b458816f078663975b54c%2Fcollectives_customemail_projectsettings_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) 3\. Set your custom email message that is sent to financial contributions of your project. This will override the customized message set by the parent community of this project. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-1091db93ccb3f8f41ab0e779b730e4a5a7835e65%2Fcollectives_customemail_projectcustomemail_2022-07-18.png?alt=media) # Moderation We understand it's important to have control over who can interact with your Community and in what ways. Our Moderation features are an ongoing project, and we love to hear feedback from our community on what they would like to see next. ## Rejecting financial contributions If you would prefer to remove a sponsor from your Community for any reason, you can now 'Reject' the contribution. This will: * refund the financial contributor * cancel any future recurring payments * remove their membership from your Community so that they are no longer listed as a sponsor * and also let you send them a message telling them why you have rejected their contribution if you wish to do so {% hint style="warning" %} Community admins can reject or refund financial contributions that are up to 30 days old. Admins of the fiscal host can reject or refund contributions older than this, although we don't recommend it. {% endhint %} Go to the *'Transactions'* page for your Community and click *'View details'* on the transaction for the contribution you would like to reject. Click the button to reject it, and add a message if you want.

Click 'Yes, reject' and then the status of the transaction should update in your ledger to show the now rejected contribution, plus its refund transaction. {% hint style="danger" %} If an account continues to make contributions to your Community after you have rejected them, this is against Donate PR's community guidelines. Please [get in touch](https://donatepr.com/contact) and we can block the account from interacting with your Community. {% endhint %} ## Rejecting categories of financial contributors In addition to rejecting individual contributions, we also give you broader control over excluding contributions from certain categories of contributor. Our current moderation/filtering categories are: * Adult websites * Casino/gambling websites * SEO services * VPN/proxy services * Essay writing services * Affiliate/review services If you would like to prevent any contributions from accounts that have been categorized as one of these, you can set this up in your Community menu under *'Policies'*.

You can select as many of the predefined moderation categories as you would like (or none if you don't wish to filter the contributions you receive by category). ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-e53c58a030cbd8bbb57f13951c2866761e7ada2b%2FScreenshot%202020-10-16%20at%2010.18.48.png?alt=media)

Once you click *'Save'*, then the filtering categories will be applied to any financial contributions that are made to your Community. If a contributor's account has been tagged by the Donate PR team as belonging to one of the moderation categories, and your Community has chosen not to receive contributions from this category, then they won't be able to contribute. If you would like to let potential contributors to your Community know upfront what your **contribution policy** is, and what kinds of contributions you may not accept, you can also do this in the *'Policies'* section of the Community menu. This will be displayed in the contribution flow as well. # Conversations A discussion forum for your Community ## Presentation Conversations are a discussion forum for your Community. They are public threads that everyone can read and participate to. Use them to get feedback from your community or to organize your actions!

## Moderation As a community admin, you can delete any comment submitted in a conversation.

You can also **delete a conversation** by deleting its root comment: ## FAQ * **Who can see conversations?** All conversations are public. Anyone can see them and respond to them. * **Who is moderating?** The administrators of this community can remove conversations that are not appropriate for the community. Please be a good citizen of the community. * **How can I find out when someone replied?** You will receive an email notification whenever someone replies. You can unsubscribe from those notifications at any time. # Events You can set up events for your community and sell tickets that go straight to your Community budget. {% hint style="warning" %} This functionality is still in it's experimental phase. {% endhint %} ## Create an Event Log in to your Community and scroll down to the Events section. Click on the **Create Event** button.

* **Name** of the event * **Short Description:** purpose, schedule, etc. Use something short (less than 255 characters). You'll be able to set a longer description directly on the event page after its creation. * **Start** date & time * **End** date & time * **URL:** the online address your event will have - very important so you don't get a [404 error](#i-cant-see-my-event-listed-or-get-a-404-error). * **Location:** the address will load a map * **Private instructions:** These instructions will be provided by email to the participants. #### Add Images You'll need to host your image somewhere and link to it with markdown syntax. Use this [Markdown cheatsheet](https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet#images) if you're not sure how. The basic format is: ``` ![](https://img.url) ``` The size of the image should be 750 px wide max. #### Finally, click the "CREATE EVENT" button. ## Event Settings To access your event settings - click on the settings button on the right side of the page.

### Info Edit the basic event information of your event

### Custom Email Add a custom message to be included in the email sent to financial contributors/ attendees of your Event

### Export Export your contributors data in CSV or JSON format

### Team Events inherit the admins/team of the Community. ### Tickets To add tickets to your event click on the Create Ticket button on the Event Page or

Click on the add another ticket button within the event settings

#### Type Ticket - allow multiple tickets per order #### Name Name of the Ticket (eg, gold sponsor, free ticket, donation, etc) #### Description What the ticket includes or who it's for #### Amount type Fixed amount lets your define the fixed ticket amount (price)

Flexible amount lets you define two suggested amounts, a default amount and a minimum amount

#### Available quantity Define how many tickets are available. Leave empty for unlimited. #### Button Text Set a custom button text

#### Goal Define the amount you aim to raise

#### Standalone page Create a standalone page for this tier. It's like a mini-crowdfunding campaign page that you can add a detailed description and video too, and link to directly. #### Want to add more tickets? You can add more tickets with the "add another ticket" button.

#### Want to remove a ticket? Click on the remove ticket text in the top right hand corner

### Tiers Tiers can be utilised within the financial contribution section of your event. This is for people that want to give donations to your event, not purchase tickets. You can choose to turn on Flexible Contributions, Crypto Contributions or Create your own tiers

#### Flexible Contributions A default tier that enables freely customisable contributions, so people can set their own amount and frequency without limitations. You cannot change the settings or description of this tier, but you can disable it. #### Crypto Contributions Enabling this will enable support for donations with Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum communities\_events\_fixedamount\_2022-09-13 #### Create your own tiers

#### Type Choose between Generic tier, Membership (recurring), Service (e.g. Support), Product (e.g. T-shirt) or Donation (Gift)

#### Name Name of the Tier #### Description purpose, schedule, etc. Use something short (less than 255 characters). You'll be able to set a longer description directly on the event page after its creation. #### Interval Choose between one-time, monthly, yearly or flexible

#### Amount Choose the amount #### Available quantity Select the available quantity, leave empty for unlimited #### Button text Select your custom button text #### Goal Indicate an amount you wish to raise #### Standalone page Create a standalone page for this tier. It's like a mini-crowdfunding campaign page that you can add a detailed description and video too, and link to directly ### Webhooks You can use Webhooks to build custom integrations with Donate PR. Slack and Discord webhooks are natively supported. You can also integrate them with tools like Zapier, IFTTT or Huginn.

### Activity Log Shows the activity that has happened on the event ### Advanced **Empty your Event balance** - Transfer the remaining balance to the community. The Event balance must be zero to archive the Event. **Archive this Event** - Archiving this Event means it will visually appear inactive and no new activity will be allowed **Delete this Event** - This Event will be deleted, along with all related data.

### **How can I set a longer description?** You'll be able to set a longer description from your profile page. Scroll down to the about section, and either click on "Add a description" or the edit icon if one is already set. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-298f585a3abfd27715e865a591b307ee299f6d23%2Fimage%20$62$.png?alt=media) ## Email Attendees If you want to email your event's attendees, you can do so by using the "Updates" feature: 1. If not done already, go to your Settings and enable Updates under Profile Page 2. Go back to your profile and click on "Create update" # Projects Projects are a lightweight way for communities to manage budgets for initiatives independent of their parent communities. Use a project if: * You would like to collect funds for a specific initiative or idea * You would like to allocate part of your community's budget to a specific initiative * You would like to track the spending on a specific initiative separate from the rest of your community Projects have many of the same features as Communities. Projects have their own balances, contributions, and expenses. Projects can describe contribution tiers, set goals, and provide updates. Budgets are independent. Projects can only spend what is allocated to them. And what is available within the project is not available from the parent Community. ### Creating a Project Administrators can create a project from the community profile page. Once you have registered an account and created a community you can create a project by clicking 'create project' in the Projects area on your community's profile page. You'll be asked to provide a project name, a URL and a description of your project: ![Adding a project to a community.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-51258e4e9fd5dc90781c225162ddda9dba81b095%2Fscreenshot-2021-05-13-at-17.11.52.png?alt=media) ### Editing a project Projects have many of the same features that Communities have. Clicking 'settings' from the project's page will open the project settings page where you can: * Edit the basic information about your Project * Customise the Project's profile page * Add contribution tiers and goals ### Managing Project team members You can add, remove or edit team members for projects separately from its parent Community. The parent Community's team members are all team members for any Projects in the Community. ### Creating an Update Updates are disabled by default on projects. To enable updates for a project click 'settings' within the project's profile page, select 'profile page' in the sidebar and select 'always visible' or 'only for admins' from the Updates dropdown under the 'Connect' section. Once enabled administrators can create and publish updates using the same steps described for Communities. ### Virtual Cards for Projects Depending on your fiscal host, Projects may be eligible for their own [virtual card](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/expenses-and-getting-paid/virtual-cards) to spend just from within this distinct budget. ### Moving funds from Communities to Projects To move funds from a Community to a Project: 1. Navigate to the Project profile page 2. Click 'Contribute money' from the Actions dropdown 3. Select the right amount and frequency (one time, monthly, yearly) and click 'your info' 4. Select the parent Community from the 'Contribute as' dropdown 5. Select the Community's balance as the payment method {% hint style="danger" %} There is currently an issue with this feature. To show the 'contribute money' button the project needs to have at least one contribution tier set. {% endhint %} ### Moving funds from Projects to Communities To move all funds held by your Project to your Community: 1. Navigate to the project 2. Click on Settings 3. Advanced 4. Empty Project Balance - Click Send '$\_\_\_' to Community' To move a particular amount of money from your Project to your Community. 1. Navigate to your Community Page 2. Click Contribute 3. Select the desired amount 4. Select your Project from the Contribute as section 5. The Project balance should be automatically selected 6. Select Contribute ### Zeroing a balance and closing a Project If you wish to close down a Project you can Archive it or Delete it, in either case, you will need to zero the project balance. From the Project profile page click 'Settings' and select 'Advanced' from the sidebar: ![Empty a Project balance, archive or delete a Project from the Advanced menu.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-73e7573a2c538736e2be41d9a116234e340d9eb9%2Fscreenshot-2021-08-10-at-10.48.34.png?alt=media) From here you can move the Project's remaining budget to its parent Community and archive a Project, disabling any future activity. If there has been no financial activity you can delete the Project, removing all of the data associated with the Project. Note that, like Communities, you cannot delete a project if there are financial transactions associated with it. This enables us to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the ledger.\ \ Still having difficulty? [Get in touch](https://donatepr.com/contact) or ask in the [#general](https://donatepr.slack.com) slack channel. # Funding Options Direct donations are not the only way a Community can receive revenue We encourage Communities to get creative about funding channels beyond the standard reward tiers. Get inspired by these ideas, and come up with your own! The Donate PR platform is flexible enough to accommodate all kinds of creative approaches. Check with your [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) to see if these options are available to you. ## Ethical Advertising Speaking to niche audiences, like developers, in their own environment is one way OSS can leverage the tangible value it provides companies. ## Swag Shop Give something to your contributors for their donations—swag! Sell t-shirts or other items and put the funds in your Community budget. Usually, you can set up sales revenue to go directly to your fiscal host via PayPal or bank transfer. Then the host can credit the amount to your Community. Different hosts have different policies, so reach out to them and confirm. As this is a manual process, hosts generally prefer aggregating transactions and crediting less frequently (such as once a month). Get in touch with your fiscal host for details. ## Affiliations Some projects can participate in affiliate programs. ## Sponsored Bounties Your Sponsors can set up bounties for features they want. # Buttons & Banners ## Donate Button ``` ``` Just replace `:communitySlug` with the slug of your Community (e.g. webpack for ). The verb can either be "donate" or "contribute". ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-17cbc628395c4211c7248a92d645c575ee0ae1d8%2FScreen%20Shot%202019-01-24%20at%202.48.23%20PM.png?alt=media) If you want to add a donate button to a blog post, you can load an image version of the logo and then link to the donate page of your community. ```

``` Result: [![](https://donatepr.com/webpack/donate/button@2x.png?color=blue)](https://donatepr.com/webpack/donate) Here is an [example](https://medium.com/open-collective/open-collective-donate-button-e7e6d5965b2c). ## Show Supporters & Sponsors Use this script: ``` ``` where `:communitySlug` is the slug of your community, e.g. `apex` for . You can also add a style object (react style), e.g. ``` ``` Note: make sure that your style object is parsable with `JSON.stringify` **Example:** * **How to customize?** By default, it uses the default styling of your `h1` and `h2` on your page. You can target them with CSS to customize: ``` #opencollective-banner h1 { color: black; } ``` ## About the Copywrite The designs of the buttons are licensed by Donate PR under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share-Alike 4.0 Unported license (“CC-BY-SA”). . . . Donate PR, the Donate PR Logo, are trademarks of Donate PR, Inc. and therefore they can’t be modified or used individually, for more info or request reach out to ## Related: * Website [badge](/financial-contributors/website-badge) showing the Communities you back * [Export SVGs](/communities/collective-settings/data-export) showing your supporters, sponsors, or contributors # Connected Communities {% hint style="info" %} Creating connected communities is [a manual process](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/collectives/broken-reference/README.md) at the moment. If you want to do it, please [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact) describing what you'd like. {% endhint %} Connected communities are a way to display the different communities or local projects that came out of your main initiative. Communities are not strongly tied together: * They **don't** share the same budget * They can have different hosts, with different currencies * Admins of one Community are **not** automatically admin of the other On the Community page, connected communities will be displayed under Connected Communities

Connected communities feature works for Organizations and Users profiles too # Contribution flow The contribution flow is how users support a community on Donate PR. The Contribution flow can be directly accessed via this link: e.g. Replace 'webpack' with your community slug to generate your own. ## URL parameters The contribution flow supports many URL parameters to pre-fill the contribution. Example: . This link will bring you directly to the profile step of the contribution flow for webpack, with a monthly contribution of $66.66. | name | type | description | default | example | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | `amount` | amount | Default contribution amount | | `&amount=42.42` | | `quantity` | integer | Default number of units (for products and tickets only) | 1 | `&quantity=5` | | `interval` | interval | The contribution interval (must be supported by the selected tier, if any) | | `&interval='month'` | | `paymentMethod` | string | ID of the payment method to use. Will fallback to another payment method if not available. | | | | `contributeAs` | string | Slug of the default profile to use to contribute | Logged in user personal profile | | | `email` | string | Guest contributions only: The email to use to contribute | | `&email=test@donatepr.com` | | `name` | string | Guest contributions only: The name to use to contribute | | `&name=John Doe` | | `legalName` | string | Guest contributions only: The legal name to use to contribute | | `&legalName=John Doe` | | `disabledPaymentMethodTypes` | comma-separated list | To disable specific payment method types | | `&disabledPaymentMethodTypes=MANUAL,BANK_TRANSFER` | | `redirect` | string | The URL to redirect to after a successful contribution | | `&redirect=https://www.example.com/thank-you` | | `tags` | comma-separated list | Some tags to attach to the contribution | | `&tags=tag1,tag2` | | `hideSteps` | boolean | To hide the steps on top. Will also hide the "previous" button on step payment | | | | `cryptoCurrency` | string | Cryptocurrency type; BTC, ETH etc | | | | `cryptoAmount` | float | Cryptocurrency amount | | | | `hideFAQ` | boolean | Embed only: Whether we need to hide the right-column FAQ | false | `&hideFAQ=true` | | `hideHeader` | boolean | Embed only: Whether we need to hide the contribution flow header | false | `&hideHeader=true` | | `backgroundColor` | color | Embed only: A custom color to use as the background color of the contribution flow | | `&backgroundColor=#ff0000` | | `useTheme` | boolean | Embed only: Whether to use the community theme (custom colors) | false | `&useTheme=true` | | `shouldRedirectParent` | boolean | Embed only: Whether to redirect the parent of the iframe rather than the iframe itself. The `iframe` needs to have | | | | its `sandbox` property set to `allow-top-navigation` for this to work. | | | | | | `totalAmount` | alias | Deprecated: Use `amount` instead | | `&totalAmount=4200` | | `defaultEmail` | alias | Deprecated: Use `email` instead | | | | `defaultName` | alias | Deprecated: Use `name` instead | | | ## Embed Contribution flow To integrate a "Contribute" option directly on your website The embed contribution flow is a way to integrate Donate PR on your own website. Visitors will be able to contribute directly, by simply providing an email address. ### General considerations * The widget will look better if it has some space, ideally the full page height & width * Some parameters can be used to customize the UI. See [URL Parameters](#url-parameters) above ### Embed the default tier (Donate) The simplest way to embed the contribution flow is by using the `/donate` URL (e.g. ). Just replace `COLLECTIVE_SLUG` by your community slug below: ```markup ``` ### Embed a specific tier To embed a specific tier, you'll need to know its ID. For that, go to your profile page, click on "Contribute" for the tier you want to embed then check the URL. It should look like `https://donatepr.com/COLLECTIVE_SLUG/contribute/TIER_SLUG-TIER_ID/checkout` From this URL, you can deduct the embedded one (prefix with `embed` and removes `/checkout`): ```markup ``` ### Embed an event ticket Embedding for event tickets uses the same route as regular tiers. you must make sure to remove the parent community path and to include a slug. The slug can be anything, so if you're not sure feel free to put any value in there. For example, this path: > can be embedded as: > # Financial Contributors FAQ ## Why should I give to a Community? If you get value out of what a project produces or stands for, support them to maintain and grow it. You can also get recognition by appearing on their page as a financial contributor. ## How do I contribute financially to a Community? Go to the Community page of the project you want to support. Select a contribution tier and set up a recurring or one-time donation. ## What is a platform tip? Donate PR does not charge fees directly to Communities. The platform is supported by voluntary payments added to contributions at checkout called "Platform Tips". Tips enable us to keep building and improving the software that powers it all. ## Where does your contribution go when you give money to a Community? Join Alanna as she runs through the simplified and detailed contribution money flow ## How can I find Communities to support? Check out the [Discover](https://donatepr.com/discover) page or do a search. You can also find open source dependencies using [Back Your Stack](https://backyourstack.com/). ## What payment methods can I use? You can usually pay by credit card through a Community's page. Some [Fiscal Hosts](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) enable payments via bank transfer, Paypal, or other means for their Communities, in addition to or instead of credit card payments. When you go through the contribution flow, you'll see all the available payment methods for that Community. ## Can I leave a message with my contribution? To leave a message with your contribution navigate to the Our Contributors section of the Communities page and find your Name. Click on 'Leave a public message (optional)' and write your message. ## Are my donations tax-deductible? It depends on the [Fiscal Host ](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts)of the Community. If the host has tax-exempt status, then your donation can be tax-deductible. It also may matter which country the host is in. The Open Source Community 501(c)(6) is a non-profit that serves as fiscal host to most open source software projects on Donate PR. Unfortunately, the IRS does not consider producing open source software to be a charitable activity in and of itself and therefore does not grant tax-exempt status. Donations to Communities under Open Source Community 501(c)(6) are not tax-deductible. ## Can my Community give to another Community? If both Communities are in the same [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts), you can donate using the balance of a Community. For example, most open source projects are hosted by the Open Source Community, so they can give to each other. To make a Community-to-Community donation, go to the page of the Community and select your contribution amount. You will be given the option to donate from any Community you are a core contributor of.

# Guest contributions If you wish to stay anonymous for a specific contribution or don't want to create an Donate PR account, you can use guest contributions to make one time contributions to a Community. {% hint style="warning" %} Recurring donations require an Donate PR account. {% endhint %} 1. If you have an Donate PR account, make sure you are not logged in. 2. Go to the Community's page and choose a form of contribution.

3\. In **Contribution details**, make sure you choose **One time** and the amount you want to contribute.

4\. In the **Profile** section, you'll be given an option to make a donation as guest or logged in your account. As a guest, **disclosing your name is optional**, but you need to provide an email address.

5\. In **Payment info**, choose your preferred payment method and finish your contribution. You will receive a receipt for your donation soon after.

# Payments Donate PR supports a number of payment options for contributors. Payment options available to you will depend upon: * the community you are contributing to, * the amount you are looking to contribute, * the type of contribution you are making (single or recurring) * the currency you are donating in, and * the location you are donating from ## Financial contribution flow

Contributing to a community involves three steps: * Confirm the amount of the contribution * Select the contributor who is making the contribution * Select the payment method ## Select a Contributor You can contribute to a Community using your personal profile or the profile of any [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations) or [Collective](/communities/collectives) you are an admin of. You can also contribute anonymously by making an incognito contribution. If you chose to contribute as "incognito", your financial contribution will not show up publicly linked to your profile. However, administrators can privately see which profiles are attached to incognito contributions. You can find the option to donate incognito (anonymously) on the second step of the contributions page:

## Select a Payment Method 1. Saved payment methods - select a payment method that you've previously saved on Donate PR 2. Credit card - add your credit card information 3. Other payment providers (Paypal, Google Pay, Apple Pay etc) - select a payment method and authorise using your platform-specific service. 4. ACH 'wire' or SEPA 'direct debit' transfers - select or add your bank's details and authorise a transfer from your bank account. 5. Community - contribute [using the balance of one of your Communities](/financial-contributors/collective-to-collective) (if it's in the same host as the one you're donating to) 6. [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations) - contribute using the balance saved to your Organization 7. Bank transfer, if made available by that Community and their fiscal host. {% hint style="info" %} **Payment Processing times**\ Payment methods that require direct authorisation with your bank (ACH, SEPA, BACS) can take up to two weeks to complete. Your contributions will be marked as 'processing'; we will email you once the payment has been processed and credited to the Community. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} **Cancelling a bank transfer**\ If you don't make a bank transfer, the pending order will expire after two months and no further action is required. {% endhint %} ## Recurring financial contributions (subscriptions) ### Why do you charge recurring monthly subscriptions on 1st of every month? It helps Communities manage their monthly budget and is more predictable for them. We're working on a way to charge a single payment spread out across monthly contributions, to reduce payment processor transaction fees. ### When will I be billed next time? You will be charged when you first contribute, and then on the 1st of each month (for monthly contributions) or the 1st of the same month next year (for yearly contributions). Note: To prevent you from being charged twice in a short time frame, if you contribute after the 15th of a given month, the next charge will not be the 1st of next month but the month after. ## Contributing as a guest If you start the contribution flow (ie. ) while being logged out, the system will allow you to continue without signing in/up, just by providing your email address. Note that guest accounts are not automatically anonymous- you need to not put your name in under "Full Name," i.e. write "guest" or "anonymous," otherwise it will show up along with the transaction. For information about submitting a contribution anonymously (incognito) if you already have an Donate PR profile, [see above](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/financial-contributors/payments#profile). {% hint style="info" %} Above a certain amount, the system will ask you additional information such as your physical address. This information is required for legal purpose, and stays private. {% endhint %} ![Guest contribution form](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-22eea11c1be3c95b03a7f439e85f8ef598fc2572%2Fimage%20$71$.png?alt=media) ### Claiming a Guest Account There are two ways to claim a guest account: #### 1. By clicking on "Join Donate PR" on the success page You'll then get an email to register on Donate PR. Click on the given link and your account will be verified! #### 2. By signing in Sign in directly by clicking on the "Sign in" button in the top navbar will have the same effect of verifying your account directly. ## Making Changes To Your Contributions To view your current contributions, go to your profile (under 'my account') and click 'edit profile', then 'manage contributions'. ### Change the amount, payment method or cancel an existing contribution Make sure you are logged in, then click on your profile in the top right-hand corner

This should open the dropdown menu next to your profile avatar. Click on **Dashboard.**

You'll be redirected to a page with all of your recurring financial contributions. Click on the edit button at the bottom of the financial contribution card to update your payment method, amount or cancel.

{% hint style="danger" %} Note that contributions using some payment methods (such as ACH and SEPA) do not support changes. If you wish to change a recurring contribution make using these methods please cancel and create a new contribution instead. {% endhint %} ## Making Changes To Your Payment Methods 1. Click on your user profile in the top right-hand corner 2. Click on settings, then 'payment methods' 3\. Click on remove - If your card has active recurring contributions, you'll need to cancel them before you can remove your payment method.\ \ To add a credit card: Click on add a credit card at the bottom. ***Note:** Adding a new card does not change the card for existing recurring contributions.*

4\. Otherwise, just click "Remove" then "Ok" ## Refunds Refunds are approved and processed by the fiscal hosts subject to their terms and conditions. Please [contact](https://donatepr.com/contact) our team with details about your refund request, the amount, the date the transaction occurred and a link to the community and we will pass your query along to the right fiscal host. Open Source Community [Refund Policy](https://docs.oscollective.org/faq/expenses#how-can-i-get-a-refund-on-a-payment-or-donation) ## Credit Card Verification To comply with banking regulations, we may have to ask financial contributors to verify their credit cards. This mainly occurs in Europe but is being deployed across more countries. In Europe, the policy is named [Strong Customer Authentication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_customer_authentication). 3D Secure is the most common way of authenticating an online card payment, which asks you to confirm the payment through your phone, banking app, or dedicated device. While processing recurring contributions, contributors whose credit cards need confirmation will receive an email looking like this: Click on the "Verify my credit card" button, then you'll be redirected to where you may have to sign in with your email address if you're not already. Finally, a prompt with the confirmation page of your bank will appear (the way it will look will depend on your bank): *Screenshot to be added* ### FAQ * **What will happen if I don't verify my credit card?** If you don't verify your credit card, we will not be able to process your recurring payment. We will retry in the coming days, then after 6 attempts, your recurring contribution will be cancelled. * **Why does it fail when I try to verify my credit card?**\ Make sure you turn extensions such as ad blockers off and that your browser is up-to-date. Some errors can also originate from the bank verification services not working correctly. If everything else fails, feel free to [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact). # Platform Tips When you make a contribution to a community, you are also invited to add a platform tip. Who does this tip go to, and what is it spent on? When contributing financially to a community, you will also be asked if you want to add a platform tip. This is optional; the amount can be adjusted as you wish. ### What is a platform tip? A platform tip is a financial contribution that is added to the contribution you are making to a particular community. By adding a platform tip, you’re helping us to keep the Donate PR platform running smoothly and enabling us to add new features. ### **Where is my platform tip going?** When you add a platform tip to your total, you’re giving to the Donate PR platform rather than your fiscal host. The Donate PR platform remains sustainable thanks to our investors and the platform share fees from fiscal hosts. You can learn more about our pricing [here](https://donatepr.com/pricing). However, your optional platform tips also play a huge role in helping us to maintain and improve the platform. ### **Adding a platform tip** Click on any community, and access the “contribute” option in the menu. You will then see a range of ways you can support them. Select the applicable option. You will now be taken to the “contribute to…” page. Once you have set the level and frequency of your contribution, you can edit your platform tip by adjusting the box below.

There are four ways to set your platform tip total: * Keep the platform tip at the default amount * Adjust the slider to your chosen total * Select your currency, and type in your amount in the box * Add a tip which is a percentage of your contribution Remember to check your total to ensure you are happy with your tip amount. You can change your tip at any point up until you complete your payment. ### **Giving directly to the platform** If you want to support the platform without contributing to a community, you can give directly to [Donate PR](https://donatepr.com/donatepr) by searching for it in the directory and making a [contribution](https://donatepr.com/donatepr/donate?interval=oneTime\&amount=20&). # Website Badge To show the list of Communities that you are backing, use this script on your website: ``` ``` You can replace `backer` by `admin`, `member` (for the core contributors) or `host`. Leave it empty or remove it to show all the communities that you are a member of, irrespective of the role. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-87354e6ec8051ec0949da0254aea852d7753e9ca%2FScreen%20Shot%202019-01-24%20at%202.51.57%20PM.png?alt=media) # Receipts You should have received a receipt by email from Donate PR at the time of your donation. However, if that is not available to you, here are instructions on how you can generate a receipt for tax purposes. ### **Instructions for Accessing Receipts via Settings** {% hint style="warning" %} Consolidated Payment Receipts in the settings section only appear after the month has ended. {% endhint %} 1. Ensure you are [signed in](https://donatepr.com/signin?next=%2F) with the email address you used to process the transaction. 2. Click on your name in the top right-hand corner. 3. Under **My Account** click on Settings.

4\. Click on Payment Receipts, you should then be able to see all of your contributions ### **Instructions for Accessing Receipts via Profile** 1. Ensure you are [signed in](https://donatepr.com/signin?next=%2F) with the email address you used to process the transaction. 2. Click on your name in the top right-hand corner. 3. Click on **Dashboard**. 4. On Dashboard sidebar, expand **Settings** and click **Payment Receipts**

# Donation Letter **Instructions for Accessing Receipts via Settings** 1. Ensure you are [signed in](https://donatepr.com/signin?next=%2F) with the email address you used to process the transaction. 2. Click on your name in the top right-hand corner. 3. Under **My Account** click on Settings.

4. On Dashboard sidebar, expand **Settings** and click **Donation Letter**

# Community to Community ## Within the same Fiscal Host If you have a Community with funds in its balance, you may use that as a payment method when contributing to another Community within the same [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts). There are no fees for this payment method. Simply make a contribution to the payee Community and select the payer Community as your payment method during checkout. ## Across different Fiscal Hosts We are working on the functionality to enable Communities to give directly to Communities in a different host. As a workaround for now, use the following process: 1. Contact the Fiscal Host of the payee Community and ask them to submit an expense to the payer Community for your donation 2. The payer Community will approve the expense and its Fiscal Host will pay the Fiscal Host of the payee Community. 3. The payee Fiscal Host will then allocate the money to the payee Community manually using '[add funds](/fiscal-hosts/receiving-money/add-funds-manually)'. # Organizations ## What is an Organization? An Organization is a profile that represents a company or entity instead of an individual. Companies that become Financial Contributors, as well as legal entities that are Fiscal Hosts, are Organizations on Donate PR. ## Why Create an Organization? * Have your company show up as a Financial Contributor to Communities * Enable your employees to support Communities on behalf of your company * Make [bulk transfers](/financial-contributors/organizations/bulk-transfers) so you can send money once and distribute it to Communities as you wish * Become a Fiscal Host ([read more](/fiscal-hosts/become-a-fiscal-host)) ## **How to** Create an Organization ### **If you already have an individual profile** Go to your profile menu (top right) and look for the My Organizations section. Click "**+"**.

Once set up, you will be able to select your individual or organization profile when making a contribution.

### **If you don't have an individual profile yet** Go through the process of contributing to a Community, and you'll be able to create both the individual and organization profile during checkout. ## How to Edit an Organization #### From your user menu Use the cog icon next to the organization that you want to edit.

From there you can change your **Info**, add or remove **Team members**, create or edit your **Expenses Policy**, manage your **Payment Methods**, **Gift Cards**, **Connected Accounts**, **Webhooks** and to access **Advanced** settings. Don't forget to **save your changes**! ## **How to access an Organization's contributions** To access your Organization's contributions, go to the Organization's page and click on **Manage Contributions** in the navigation bar menu. From there you can access the action options to update amount or payment method, or cancel the contribution. {% hint style="info" %} Sometimes, the **`Manage contributions`** button can be nested inside the **Actions** menu {% endhint %} # Organization FAQ ## Why should we become an Organization? * Legally support communities that don't have a legal entity * Transparency: you’ll always know what your contributions are being used for, in real time * Get an invoice/receipt for your donations, for easy accounting * One purchasing order or vendor management process for all your donations * Reporting: receive a monthly report that aggregates all your donations [More details](https://donatepr.com/become-a-sponsor) ## How do I Sponsor a Community? Before setting up a Sponsorship, we recommend you create an [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations), so you can contribute under your company's name instead of your own. Go to the Community's page and review their Sponsorship tiers. Choose one that suits the level of support you want to give or the reciprocal benefits you care about. Go through the contribution flow and pay using a credit card. You can also give a flexible contribution by editing the options on the contribution screen, adjusting the amount and frequency. ## How will my logo show up? Sponsor logos show up on the Community's page, and are automatically pulled through our Widgets into many projects' READMEs and websites. Sponsors are organized in order of the amount of contribution, with the highest at the top. If your one-time contribution is larger than a recurring sponsor's monthly amount, your logo will show at the top, but only for that month. ## Can I cancel or change my contribution? Yes, you can cancel a recurring contribution at any time. To do so, go to 'subscriptions' under your user menu, select the subscription, and, using the three dot menu in the corner, select 'change amount' or 'cancel'. ## How do I reach a Community? If you want to set up a sponsorship arrangement different to the pre-configured options, or have any other questions for the admins of a Community, you can usually contact them using the `Contact` button on the Community page. Most Communities are happy to discus alternative arrangements and hear sponsor feedback and requests. We encourage sponsors to start conversations. ## Which Communities should we Sponsor? We offer tools to help you find Communities that are providing value for your company. * [BackYourStack](https://backyourstack.com/): discover your open source dependencies * [Gift Cards](https://donatepr.com/gift-cards): let your developers, ambassadors, employees, or recruits determine which Community to support * [Discover](https://donatepr.com/discover): search for Communities on the platform ## Can we pay via bank transfer or other means? Yes. If paying via credit card through our automated system doesn't work for your process, please [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact) and we can arrange to accept payment. ## Can we make a bulk payment? Yes. You can send us funds with a single transaction, and we'll allocate it to your Organization in the system. Then you can distribute it to the Communities of your choice. ## Can we get an invoice in advance? Yes. Contributions through our platform will automatically generate receipts after payment, but [Fiscal hosts](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) can function like any vendor or supplier and provide the documentation you require. If you need an invoice in advance, or for us to register in your vendor system, please [contact us](https://donatepr.com/contact). ## Who are we transacting with legally? Donate PRs are under the legal umbrella of their [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts). Most sponsorships arrangements don't require a separate contract to the standard terms, but we offer a [sponsorship agreement template](/fiscal-hosts/sponsor-agreement) if needed. Sponsorship agreements are set in discussion with the sponsor, the fiscal host, and the Community together. ## Help me convince my company to become an organization on Donate PR? You bet! # Funds Funds make it easy to give money to projects you care about. Funds are similar to an organization in that both will let you donate to a community but funds are designed to hold and display a balance, show transaction history and distribute money through grants and expenses. If you are more focused on disbursing funds than receiving them, a **Fund** may be a good fit for you. {% hint style="success" %} Funds allow you to know how much money the Fund has, approve or invite grant requests, and easily request disbursements from your charitable Fund. {% endhint %} **Funds** provide: * Transparent financial management on the Donate PR platform * A streamlined, single-payer process for supporters * Support for communities operating on Donate PR or elsewhere * A lightweight 'Request a Grant' process for projects issue money to grant recipients * More flexibility with what you choose to publicly show (in terms of expense management) * Protect identities of those receiving grants * e.g. emergency relief aid may not want to be as public * Will still be reported and available to fiscal host ## What is a Fund? A Fund is a profile designed for one or a few large sponsor companies to move chunks of money under our umbrella and frictionlessly distribute it to as many communities as they want. Some Funds are in the name of a particular company, while others are focused on a topic. ## Why do we need Funds? Big companies call the process of paying for stuff “procurement”. It’s often pretty involved, with contracts, invoices, purchasing order numbers, and bureaucracy—a painful thing to go through repeatedly for small amounts. It is easier for corporations to make one large payment to one vendor. As an umbrella non-profit, we are set up for exactly this. Funds are a feature on the platform to make the experience even better, and more scalable. ## **Who can create a Fund?** Funds can be created by an organization. **Funds** allow for more customization in the transparency of an initiative. This is a great way to issue grants to recipients of emergency aid, human rights activists, and censorship targets, for example, for whom more privacy is essential. It's also perfect for initiatives that want it to be easier to distribute money *outside* of Open Source Community. **Funds** are the best way to manage your FOSS support fund for projects in or out of your OSC fund since you'll **only need to deal with one vendor** (us!). With **Funds**, we can now offer more flexibility for managing finances and expenses. {% hint style="info" %} A **Fund** is likely less interested in the 'social' & crowdfunding aspects of fundraising. This type of account will have a more simplified version of our dashboard for those who don't want all the extra features that group-organizing benefits from. {% endhint %} ## **Who can Funds pay?** Lots of projects sign up with us because they don’t have their own company or foundation to work through. But you don’t have to be on Donate PR. Any community—whether they are part of a company, has its own foundation, works with another fiscal host, or is unincorporated—can get contributions from a Fund. The Funds admins approve what money gets spent on, but when it comes to invoices, purchase orders, payment processing, tax forms, etc, they don't need to worry about it. We take care of all that and interface with the payees. This makes it a lot easier for both of them. The key to creating scalable, resilient projects is to support the community as a whole in ways that serve the full range of projects and creators. Donate PR liberates corporate support, getting it directly to projects at scale, across languages and ecosystems. ## How is funding decided? It's up to the creators of the Fund what the process is. Donate PR has a 'request a grant' function that some use to receive proposals from projects. Others use their Fund to process payments for an external program with its own process. Others have an internal team who decides where the money goes and they don't take requests. We carry out their decisions about what the money is spent on and handle the logistics, but the Fund administrators are in the driver's seat. ## **How do you create a fund?** *\*\**[Reach out to us](https://donatepr.com/contact) for more information if you are wanting to set up a Fund with OC! # Bulk Transfers Bulk transfer means sending funds via one financial transfer, which you can then give to one or multiple Communities. Once the [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) confirms the funds have been received, they allocate that amount to your Organization, which you (and your team) can then distribute to Communities as you wish. Different fiscal hosts may have different processes for bulk transfers. Before sending, please confirm their policies and payment details, and let the fiscal host know to expect the funds. ## Bulk transfer process 1. Set up an [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations) 2. Request an invoice from the Fiscal Host if needed 3. Confirm the Fiscal Host's payment details 4. Send the funds via bank transfer or other agreed method 5. Fiscal Host confirms receipt 6. Fiscal Host allocates the funds to your Organization's balance 7. Go to the Community you want to support 8. Select the contribution amount you want to give 9. Select your Organization as the source of funds 10. Done! # Gift Cards Donate PR gift cards empower your employees or community members to support the open source projects they love. See our dedicated [Gift Cards](https://donatepr.com/gift-cards) page for an introduction to gift cards. ## FAQ ### How do I use the gift cards? To use a gift card, you first have to activate it on your account from [Redeem Gift Card](https://donatepr.com/redeem). Then go to make a contribution, and select your gift card when asked for payment. **Note:** Some gift cards might be limited to specific fiscal hosts or project types (e.g., open source). ### What happens if the gift cards are not used? You are only charged when the gift cards are used. If you give away a $50 gift card to 10 of your employees and only 8 used it, you will only be charged $400. ### Do I get an invoice? Yes, you will receive a proper consolidated monthly invoice from the Fiscal Host. ### Is there an expiry date? By default gift cards expire after one year, but you can define your own expiry date. If they are not used by the expiry date, they become inactive and you will not be charged. ### I received a gift card—do I need to spend it all in one go? No. You can use your gift card to give any amount to one or multiple communities, as long as you have enough balance on the card. ### Who will show up as a contributor? My company or my employee? Both! The person to whom you gave the gift card is the one picking the communities they want to support. But their donation will show that they used a gift card from your company, and your company will show up as a sponsor of the community. See for example [Triplebyte](https://donatepr.com/triplebyte) showing up as a sponsor of [Electron](https://donatepr.com/electron). ### What kind of payment methods can I use? The simplest option is to use a credit card, as you can set it up by yourself in a few minutes. This works great for small companies and limited usage (2-10 gift cards) but if you're willing to process a large number of transactions we **strongly** recommend using a prepaid budget instead to avoid credit card processor fees and to limit the number of transactions that will appear on your bank account. **Note:** Each gift card charge will create a credit card transaction and currently we don't charge the full amount up-front. ## Create gift cards To create Gift Cards for your [Organization](/financial-contributors/organizations), go to **Edit Organization** and then **Gift Cards**. From there you'll also be able to see your pending and redeemed gift cards. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-118fe4a24e012a944706f1fc225efb6ee7ff1681%2FPeek%2026-03-2019%2008-42.gif?alt=media) We currently offer three options for gift cards distribution. ### 1. By email - Fast & Easy, but no customization possible You can give us a list of emails and we'll send the gift cards out, or you can generate gift card codes and send them out yourself. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9b4b98cf21a75bd196d8207cfdfb6d911dd84bc7%2Fgiftcards.gif?alt=media) ### 2. Download the list of redeem codes/links - Perfect for custom materials *This section has not been written yet. Help us by sharing your knowledge!* ### *3.* Download a PDF with printable gift cards - To distribute at events *This section has not been written yet. Help us by sharing your knowledge!* # Expenses FAQ ### How do I get paid from a Community? Go to the Community and click "Submit Expense". You will need to upload a valid receipt or provide invoicing details and input your PayPal address or bank account. [More details](/expenses-and-getting-paid/submitting-expenses) ### How are expenses approved? Anyone can file an expense to any Community. To be paid, it must be approved by one of the Admins of that Community. Please ensure your expense meets the expense policy of the Community, which appears on the 'submit expense' page. If you modify an expense, it will have to be approved again. ### Are receipts or invoices public? Basic data for all expenses, like the amount and description, are public. But attachments, payment details, addresses, and comments are private, as they may contain personal information. Only the Admins and the submitter can see full expense details. ### **Can I submit an Anonymous Expense?** You can use a pseudonym on your main profile while maintaining legal requirements with our legal name option in your [User Settings](/product/user-profile). ### When will I get paid? Expenses for Communities in [Fiscal Hosts](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) managed by Donate PR are paid twice weekly. Other hosts have their own policies and schedules. ### By what method can I get paid? Right now our system can process outgoing payments to Paypal addresses and bank accounts (in countries served by Wise). Paying by other means is a manual process at the discretion of the Fiscal Host. If you are not able to use Paypal or bank account payments through Transferwise, get in touch with the fiscal host of the Community and see what other options might be available. ### What are the approximate fees charged by each payment processor (Credit Card, PayPal, Bank transfer)? Unfortunately, they can vary depending on the method of payout, the location/currency of the payee, and the amount of the transaction. The most cost-effective method is Bank Transfer ACH (USD to USD), which is generally .39 cents. With a bank transfer from USD to another currency, we default to Wise's fee structure on this and they vary depending on the country. More info is available [here](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/fiscal-hosts/payouts/payouts-with-transferwise#fees). PayPal's fees are the hardest to predict. In general, if PayPal and USD to USD, this will be cheaper than USD to any other currency. PayPal fees vary by country and amount because they charge based on the percentage of the transaction total. More info on PayPal fees [here](https://docs.donatepr.com/help/fiscal-hosts/payouts/payouts-with-paypal#fees). It is really hard to estimate the fees. Hopefully, the Wise & PayPal documentation can give you some guidance on the estimated fees for your typical transactions. # Submitting Expenses Go to the Community you're submitting the expense to and click "Submit Expense".

On the **Submit expense** page, you can submit two types of expenses, **reimbursements** and **invoices.** On this page, you can also check the **Community balance**, review **expense policies** and get the answers to a few of the most frequently asked questions.

### Payee information In the first step, you can specify who will be paid for this expense (an individual or an organization) and which payment method you wish to use. If you are invoicing through a company, create an organization profile for your company and select it here instead of using your personal profile, so the correct entity is recorded as being paid for tax purposes. Additionally, the invoice form will ask for your country, physical address, and give you the option to add more info. ![Additional info requested by the invoice form](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-cd83fb2c5055cf233f3979ecf026df7f90fe72b9%2Fexpenses-and-getting-paid_submitting-expenses_invoice-additional-info_2020-05-12.png?alt=media) ### Payout Methods The availability of certain options depends on which plan the organization adopts, and may include **bank transfers, PayPal**, or a **custom method**. #### Bank transfers You can either select a saved bank account or add a new one. To add a new bank account: 1. Select the currency in which you would like to receive your payment. 2. Transaction Method: Select 'local bank account' Account Information 1. Select Personal or Business 2. Fill all fields with the requested info, making sure to not use any acronyms. **All fields are mandatory** and may vary depending on the selected currency. Our bank transfer feature uses Wise and is only available in countries Wise serves. For an up-to-date list of countries, please refer [to their website](https://transferwise.com). If your country does not allow Wise payment, and no other alternatives exist, we will suggest looking into [Payoneer ](/expenses-and-getting-paid/receiving-payment-through-payoneer-or-wise)as a possible option. #### PayPal To use **PayPal**, you can either select one of the saved PayPal accounts or add a new one by adding the email address registered in said account. #### Custom payment method Add any relevant info necessary to complete the transaction. {% hint style="warning" %} In order to be paid, submitted expenses must be approved by a Community admin, who ensures valid use of the Community's funds. Then it proceeds to the fiscal host admin for processing.\ \ Expenses cannot be paid if there are insufficient funds in the Community balance. They must be either less than or equal to the amount of funds you already have. {% endhint %} ### Reimbursements A **reimbursement** allows you to be reimbursed for a purchase you already made. To open the submission form, click on **Reimbursement** and add a title to your expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-eced397eda394411a116ea1da69f20c0435f37f6%2Fexpenses-and-getting-paid_submitting-expenses_reimbursement-form_2020-05-11.gif?alt=media) #### Adding receipts Reimbursements must have receipts. Upload one or multiple receipts by dragging and dropping files or opening the file selector. Describe each item and add the date of purchase and amount spent. A **valid receipt** contains: 1. Name of the vendor (person or company you paid) 2. Transaction date (when you paid) 3. A detailed description of goods or services purchased (what you bought) 4. Amount paid 5. Form of payment (cash, check, or last four digits of the credit card) ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-c5f5f4e76c0418920c92f2b2bf95c3caebe46cb6%2Fexpenses-and-getting-paid_submitting-expenses_reimbursement-receipt_2020-05-11.png?alt=media) ### Invoices {% hint style="info" %} **Private information provided on invoices is not viewable publicly**. The expense amount and title will be listed on the Community's public page, but the attached files and payment details are only visible to admins. {% endhint %} An **invoice** allows you to be paid for your work, or to get funds in advance of a purchase. If you don't have a receipt for a reimbursement, you can submit an invoice instead. To open the submission form, click on **Invoice** and add a title to your expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8e57313ceae9ff5e35bb5ce6ec2102cec8bd1ea6%2Fexpenses-and-getting-paid_submitting-expenses_invoice-form_2020-05-12.gif?alt=media) If you have an invoice ready, you can upload it as an attachment to the expense. However, you are still required to set invoice details such as description, date and amount. If you don't upload an invoice, the expense itself functions as an invoice for accounting purposes, as it contains all required information. ### Expense summary The Expense summary provides you with an overview of the expense to be submitted, including attached files, items being paid for, payout preferences, etc. The summary allows you to review all info and quickly edit it if needed by clicking on **Edit expense**. For invoices, the expense summary serves as the official invoice document. You can download it for your accounting records if you wish. You can also add a private note to the admins. Once your expense is ready, click on **Submit expense**. ### Regular, Recurring Expenses You can set an expense to automatically recur on a periodic basis in the ***Expense Summary:*** ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b60fe650ece827eb9b13ced1d4cf5316b09a150f%2Fexpenses_submittingexpenses_recurringexpenses_2022-08-15%20$1$.png?alt=media) Selected the desired ***Frequency*** and (optionally) an ***End Date.*** After the period of time selected has passed a new, draft expense will be created and the author is notified to review, complete and submit the expense. Draft expenses are based on the previous Expense submitted in the same group. Each edit made to the previous expenses will persist to the next. It is also possible to set an ***End Date*** for this recurring expense, which can be useful for setting up reminders for pre-defined contracts. While editing a new draft, you'll also see a banner displaying information about the recurring nature of the expense: ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-89e0988f4e57462709b277a7ffaf49673275fa4b%2Fimage%20$97$.png?alt=media) You can also cancel any recurring expense, just click on ***Edit details*** in the recurring expense information banner and later, click on the ***Cancel Recurring Expense*** button. Done, this draft is now deleted and you'll no longer receive recurring drafts about this expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-148d820028c2909fe4c29fa1e362a3771b4275d8%2Fimage%20$49$%20$1$%20$1$.png?alt=media) ### Multi-Currency Expenses When submitting an invoice or reimbursement you can now choose to submit in the currency of the Community, or the currency of your payment method. ![Submit invoices and reimburse expenses using your currency instead of the Community's](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b7ceac9bb9d26eb961ffc4225d071d6cf76c9ec9%2Fexpenses_submitting_multicurrency_2022-08-3.png?alt=media) Supported Currencies * Wise: Community currency or payout method currency, with the limitation of the [currencies that are supported by Wise](https://wise.com/help/articles/2897238/which-currencies-can-i-add-keep-and-receive-in-my-wise-account) * PayPal: [any currency supported by PayPal](https://developer.paypal.com/docs/reports/reference/paypal-supported-currencies/) * Other: Any currency accepted by the host. Please contact the host admin if you're unsure about whether it will be accepted. When making a payment you will receive the full amount in the currency you selected, regardless of fluctuations in currency rates. #### How do we calculate our Exchange Rate? * We rely on the payout provider (Wise, PayPal) whenever possible * Otherwise, we fall back on internal caching and third-party APIs, mostly [https://fixer.io](https://fixer.io/) {% hint style="warning" %} This feature is not available when the host currency differs from the community currency. {% endhint %} #### # Inviting a third-party to submit an Expense {% hint style="info" %} Please note if an invitation isn't accepted within a month, it will expire. You will need to submit a new expense and invite the third party again. {% endhint %} It is also possible to draft an expense and send it to a third party to edit and submit an expense. You can send a drafted expense to an existing user of the platform or to someone else that is not on the platform yet. Inviting a third-party user or organization to submit an expense automatically creates a draft of the expense and emails the user so they can finalise any final details and submit it to the community. Notice, although the invited user will pick who's going to be paid for the expense, the created expense will display you as the user who requested it:

### Inviting an existing user To invite an existing user, search for an existing user in the payee selection dropdown. After selecting the user, you'll be able to add a title to the expense, optional items, and a note to the recipient that will be sent in the email.

The invited user will receive a notification by email containing a link with a key that will allow them to finish editing and submit the expense. ### Inviting a new user It is also possible to invite a user that does not have an account on the platform to submit an expense. To do that, simply select the option *Invite someone to submit an expense.*

Select either Personal Account or Organization Account (this will result in an Organisation profile in which that individual is the admin). Fill in their name and email address and Organisational information.

Click next to get to the invoice details screen. You are now able to *add additional information about the expense.* Pre-fill whatever info you already have, then invite the payee to fill in the rest and confirm. This can make the whole process a lot easier! ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-c5da1e843e3b89bc9afc9f98b7489866310e69a1%2FExpenses_Submittingexpenses_invoicedetails_2022-05-28.png?alt=media) Click Send Invite. The payee will get an email saying "'Community' wants to pay you" and they will be guided to put in their bank details and confirm the expense When the payee finishes editing the expense, the summary of the expense is displayed and they will be able to create their account and submit the expense in a single action. After joining and submitting the edited expense, the expense now is saved in the platform and marked as *unverified* until the payee validates their email. After the payee validates their email, the expense is marked as pending and is displayed on the expenses page for the Community's admins to approve (and you will get an email notification). Once the expense is there on the list, click "approve" on it # Virtual Cards Virtual cards are an additional benefit offered to communities through some hosts. Hosts create virtual cards and assign them to a Community. Anyone with access to that card can then use it to make payments on behalf of the Community. This is particularly useful for covering recurring costs like hosting a website. Hosts will have particular requirements and policies that will need to be followed. [OSC requirements and policies](https://docs.oscollective.org/what-we-offer/virtual-cards#requirements-policy) ## Requesting a card Some Hosts accept requests for virtual cards. If you would like to request a Virtual Card select 'request card' from the 'action' menu on your community's profile page: ![Request a virtual card from your host from your community's profile page](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-465b6e72ba2661149acac86994396e53574145aa%2Frequestcard%20$1$.png?alt=media) Complete the form, adding an assignee (who will responsible for uploading receipts) a reason and any required spending controls. Your host will respond to your request. ## Using a virtual card Virtual cards can be used to make purchases on behalf of your community. Each card has an individual who is assigned the card for the purpose of filing expenses. Expenses are automatically created when the card is used, and the assignee will be notified. ### Exclusions and Limitations Our payments provider does not accept payments to money transfer services like PayPal, Payoneer or Paysend.\ \ Virtual cards should not be used to pay individuals or contractors including through intermediaries like Upwork, 99Designs, Fiver etc. Attempts to pay for services via these providers are likely to be declined by your host. ### **Companies that don't accept Virtual Cards** There are a few websites that don't accept virtual credit cards. Here are a few that we are aware of: * Google * Zipcar * DigitalOcean * Sendle ## Billing Details In most cases, cards charged using your personal details will be accepted. If you wish, you can add the details for your host organisation, which you'll find alongside your Community's name on your Community's profile page. Address information for Open Source Community can be found at: * [Open Source Community's information](https://docs.oscollective.org/about/official-info-and-docs#address-and-contact-info) ## Viewing card details To view virtual cards associated with a community, select 'virtual cards' from the Community Settings menu: ![View Virtual Cards assigned to your Community from the Community's Seting menu.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-5346126e548cbea177d059bc2a812bed5b73f13f%2Fscreenshot-2021-05-13-at-10.15.27.png?alt=media) To view the details of a card click 'view card details'. {% hint style="warning" %} Be aware of your surroundings when viewing a card's details, as others may be able to see them. {% endhint %} ## Automatically Paused Cards Hosts can choose to pause virtual cards if there are any incomplete expenses. This is a protective measure to prevent abuse. If your host has paused a card, you will not be able to use the card to make purchases until a receipt has been attached to the previous expense by the assignee. # Expense Comments All expense comments are private, only visible to the submitter and the admins. This is because they often contain private payment info. Comments on expenses are the best way to add information, check the status, or ask questions. If you comment on an expense, the submitter, core contributor, and fiscal host admin will be notified. Common uses for expense comments: * Clarifying or adding details about the expense, to help others understand why it's legitimate or what it was for * Marked as incomplete: Requesting missing documentation (like a receipt or tax form) * Following up if an expense has not been paid for a while * Thanking the submitter for the work they did # Edit or Download an Expense ## Editing an expense {% hint style="warning" %} Making changes to an approved expense means it will need to be approved again before it's paid. {% endhint %} If you have entered incorrect information on your expense you can edit it to fix it. Remember to save your changes. To edit an expense, go to the communities page and find the expense you want to edit in the **Budget** section. Click on the **More Action** buttons at the bottom of the expense to edit, download or copy the link of the expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-54631d6ddfd58a3a5b241c918971a6a55589ff13%2Fexpensesandgettingpaid_editordownload_moreactions_2022-05-27.gif%20$1$.png?alt=media) {% hint style="warning" %} Downloading an expense is only available for invoices. {% endhint %} Clicking on **Download** will generate a PDF with the metadata of the invoice # Receiving payment through Payoneer or Wise ## Using a payment services platform on Donate PR The preferred payment methods on Donate PR are Bank Transfer and Paypal. Unfortunately, there are some countries where direct payment to your bank or PayPal is not an option. When you are filling in an invoice and do not see your currency as an option for payment, this is likely because banking regulations prevent a transfer of funds between the country your bank is in and the bank of the community that is paying you. If this happens, you might be able to use Payoneer or Wise to transfer funds. ## **Getting paid through Payoneer** 1. Register for an account on [Payoneer](https://www.payoneer.com/) as an individual or a business 2. Once your account has been approved, [sign in](https://myaccount.payoneer.com/) to Payoneer. \**Note: the approval process can take up to 3 business days* 3. From the **Receive** menu, select **Receiving** accounts and choose an account to receive the payments ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-c00066f850c66e7801f1fcfe495cbcbb505cafbd%2Fimage%20$48$.png?alt=media) 4\. You will see the details of the receiving accounts in different currencies: ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-71f3e9199e464d8503fe34be89e5192b4a330437%2Fimage%20$86$.png?alt=media) 5\. On Donate PR, when filing an Expense or Invoice, choose to be paid via bank account. ***Please note*** Payoneer usually defaults to pay in USD. If the host you are filing an expense with is also based in the US, please select the option of 'Local bank account'. OSC is based in the US. If the host is not based in the US, use SWIFT. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-301609366e755a88c5d173de2b5a58d2407bd3a5%2Fimage%20$80$.png?alt=media)\ 6\. Enter the information from Payoneer in the banking fields and submit your invoice or expense for payment. Payment will be made to your Payoneer account which you can then transfer to your personal or business bank account.\\ **Please note** Payoneer refers to the Routing Number as ABA and Donate PR refers to the Routing Number as ACH. ## Getting paid with Wise 1. The payee needs to open a currency account with Wise ([instructions here](https://wise.com/help/articles/2897234/how-do-i-open-a-currency-account)).\ It would be best to create an account in the country's currency you are expecting payment in. For example, if you are expecting payment from a community hosted by Open Source Community, create a US account to be paid in USD. 2. You will need to follow the Wise process to verify your account. Once verified you will be able to see your account details. 3. Use the Routing and Account numbers from your Wise account in the OC expenses field to receive payment to your Wise account using a bank transfer. ***Note:*** Use the ‘Local bank account’ option for a US to US-based transfer. Use SWIFT if the transfer is to an international-based bank account. #### Wise support articles * [How do I use my USD account details?](https://wise.com/help/articles/2827506/how-do-i-use-my-usd-account-details?origin=topic-1pXx5wZnF7Rp83VWwzGPUv) \\ # Tax Information ## For Expense Payees of US Fiscal Hosts United States regulations require US entities to collect certain information from payees for tax reporting purposes, even if the payee is outside the US. If you submit invoice [expenses](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expenses) for $600 USD or more per year to a Community with a [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) in the US, you will be asked to fill out a tax information form. ### Which expenses count? The $600 threshold only applies to *invoice* expenses, not receipt reimbursements or other modes of payment (like grants or payroll). ### Which form is required? The form for US persons is called a W9. For internationals, it's a W8-BEN/E depending on whether you're an individual or a company. Please wait for the fiscal host to request a tax form before submitting one - they will provide further guidance about the forms. ### Does this require non-US persons to pay US tax? No. Only US persons are liable for US income tax. However, hosts are still required to collect the form even if you live outside the US. ### Will I get a 1099? US persons who invoice over $600 per year and submit a W9 will be issued a 1099 from the fiscal host by the end of January of the following year, which they need to file their taxes—with the following exceptions: * Corporations - 1099s are generally issued to contractors and service providers, not vendors who are corporations. * PayPal payees - PayPal issues 1099s to its payees where required, so the fiscal host will not issue one. * Reimbursement expenses - receipt reimbursement payments do not trigger the tax form requirement or lead to a 1099 being issued, only invoices. [Here](https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/Filing-IRS-Form-W-9/INF19741.html)'s a good explanation of how W-9s work for independent contractors, and there's more info on what a 1099 is [here](https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/What-is-an-IRS-1099-Form-/INF14810.html). If you don’t meet the $600 threshold, simply report your earnings as miscellaneous self-employment income when you file your taxes. ### I've been asked to submit multiple forms? If you submit expenses for multiple profiles, e.g. your personal profile and your company profile, a tax form will be requested for each one separately. Also, if you use one profile to submit expenses to multiple fiscal hosts, you will be asked to submit a tax form to each host. ### How will my tax info be collected? Open Source Community and Donate PR Foundation are the two largest US fiscal hosts on the platform, and they use an automated system to collect tax forms (more info below). Other fiscal hosts each have their own system for collecting these forms (they'll likely just contact you personally by email). #### Automated tax form collection If you have submitted >$600 in invoice expenses to Open Source Community and Donate PR Foundation, you will be automatically sent an email with a link to complete your tax form online. You will also see a warning on the pending expense tell you that you will not be paid until you submit the tax form. #### Is my information secure? Yes. Forms submitted through the automated system are encrypted and only shared with the fiscal hosts' admins and accountants, who are bound by extensive data security regulations. ### Can you advise me on a specific tax form? We can not advise you on how to fill in the forms. If you have specific questions regarding your countries requirements, it would be best to talk to your tax advisor or a tax preparer. ## Info For Communities Communities that live under the umbrella of a [Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts), don't need to worry about accounting and tax obligations, because the host manages that (this is the awesome value of fiscal hosting). If you need tax or accounting information for some reason, get in touch with your fiscal host. Some Communities run [their own Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/become-a-fiscal-host), and they have all the normal tax and reporting obligations of any legal entity. In that case, consult with your accountant to understand the requirements for taxes. # Fiscal Hosts FAQ ### What is a Fiscal Host? [*View our illustrated guide about fiscal hosts*](https://donatepr.com/fiscal-hosting) Fiscal hosting enables Communities to transact financially without needing to legally incorporate. In other contexts, this is sometimes called *fiscal sponsorship*. A fiscal host is a legal company or individual who holds a Community’s funds in their bank account and can generate invoices and receipts for supporters and sponsors. You can think of a fiscal host as an umbrella organization for the Communities in it. The fiscal host is responsible for taxes, accounting, compliance, financial admin, and paying expenses approved by the Community’s core contributors (admins). The Donate PR platform makes the job of fiscal hosts a lot easier by providing our software platform for tracking budgets and expenses, generating reports, and automating bookkeeping. Fiscal hosts have a dashboard where they can see their Communities and perform common actions. By sharing a host, Communities are effectively mutualizing the cost and overhead of having a legal entity. ### What are some examples of Fiscal Hosts? Fiscal Hosts can be in any location and take any form of legal entity (as long as they have a bank account, PayPal account, and Stripe account). Each one determines its own policies for which Communities it will host and what fees it will charge. ### Why are there different Fiscal Hosts? We want to enable all kinds of diverse Communities, so we make our platform available to a network of fiscal hosts with different missions in different geographies. Each fiscal host determines its own policies and fees. Some projects can’t be fiscally hosted by the entities Donate PR runs itself, because they are in a country we don’t cover or don’t fit under our entities' missions. For example, Open Source Community is only for Open Source software projects. So we welcome external hosts on the platform. ### Do all Communities need a Fiscal Host? Every Community that receives or pays out money needs a fiscal host because they need to connect the host's bank account, Stripe account, and PayPal account to activate DonatePR’s payment features. If you already have a legal company set up, or you are comfortable taking on the responsibility as an individual, you can create your own [independent community](/independent-communities/about-independent-collectives). If not, you can join an existing host. ### How do I find a Fiscal Host? Go to the fiscal host's page and click “Apply”. You can see [all hosts here](https://donatepr.com/hosts). If you already set up a profile for your community, you can also apply wtihin your Community's **Settings** -> **Fiscal Host.** ### I'm interested in creating a Fiscal Host Please see our documentation on [becoming a Fiscal Host](/fiscal-hosts/become-a-fiscal-host). # Becoming a Fiscal Host ### Why become a Fiscal Host? By becoming a Fiscal Host, you can enable Communities to accept and disburse money in full transparency, without the Communities having to create their own legal entity and bank account. Communities can then pursue their activities, be accountable to funders, and automatically keep good records. Fiscal Hosts provide an umbrella structure for *multiple Communities* to operate. If you only want to have a single Community plugged into your own bank account, create an [Independent Community](https://github.com/abpart/donatepr-documentation/blob/master/fiscal-hosts/broken-reference/README.md) instead. ### What kinds of things are Fiscal Hosts used for? * Open source projects or similar unincorporated distributed collaborations * Decentralized organizations with semi-autonomous teams or projects * Movements with chapters or subgroups * Meetup networks with many local groups under one umbrella * Citizen groups in a geographical area * Foundations that give grants to unincorporated projects * Advocates who want to help certain startup ventures get going, such as cooperatives * Incubators or accelerators supporting many early-stage teams * Hosting a single Community to enable transparent budgeting ### Who are Fiscal hosts? * HQ/umbrella organizations with Communities for each of their chapters. * Organizations that support an ecosystem by hosting Communities in a specific area/vertical/topic. * Charitable organizations that host Communities that align with their mission. * Organizations that host different Communities in a certain city or country. ### Things to consider when becoming a host * Have you looked into the tax implications in your country of being a fiscal sponsor? * Have you thought about a system and policies for onboarding new Communities? * Do you have a Stripe and PayPal account set up, and a bank account to connect them to? * Do you have admin capacity to validate and payout approved expenses for your Communities? ### What are the legal liabilities? As a Fiscal Host, you are responsible for the financial activity flowing through your bank account. You need to make sure that your Communities are not doing money laundering or other nefarious activities. You don't want to open the door to just anyone to create a Community under your umbrella. Think about some policies for determining whether a Community is a good fit. We give you the tools you need to manage applications by new Communities. You can specify your policies on your host page, and if a Community wants to join you'll get a notification with the option to approve them or not. Donate PR is designed to make it easy to validate every expense as part of the two-step approval process. The first step is approval from the Community admins, who check if the expense is a legitimate use of funds to further the project, and then it goes to the Fiscal Host admin to check that the paperwork is in order (like receipts) and nothing looks fishy. Only then do you actually pay out the funds. ### Requirements To be a Fiscal Host, you need: * A legal entity * A bank account * Payment processor merchant accounts (Stripe, Wise, PayPal), if you wish to use the integrations and automations which rely on them (optional) * Someone to serve as admin (or multiple admins) ### Fees Donate PR is free for Communities, and for Hosts who do not charge a Host Fee to the Communities they Host. If you do opt to charge a Host Fee, then 15% of that revenue will be charged as the Platform Share. I.e, if you charge a 10% Host Fee and your Communities bring in $1,000, Host Fees will be $100 and of that 15% ($15) goes to Donate PR. This model is designed to keep fees low for users without revenue and share back with the platform from revenue created on the platform, enabling us to continue to build and improve Donate PR for everyone. [More info](https://donatepr.com/pricing) about pricing. # Creating a Fiscal Host {% hint style="warning" %} If you don't have an account yet, please [create one](https://donatepr.com/create-account). You need an individual account to be able to create a Fiscal Host — so fill the form with the info of the **individual** **administrator** of that Fiscal Host. {% endhint %} ## Check your starting point The procedure to create a Fiscal Host depends on your starting point and your end goals. Click on the link that fits your case to get the appropriate instructions: * [I don't have a Community and I just want to create a Fiscal Host](#i-dont-have-a-collective-and-i-just-want-to-create-a-fiscal-host) * [I already have an Organization and want to transform it into a Fiscal Host](#transforming-your-organization-into-a-fiscal-host) * [I don't have a Community or a Fiscal Host, and I want to create both](#i-dont-have-a-collective-or-a-fiscal-host-and-i-want-to-create-both) * [I'm a new Community and want to create a Fiscal Host](#add-a-fiscal-host) * [I want to leave my current Fiscal Host and create one myself](/communities/change-fiscal-host) ## I don't have a Community and I just want to create a Fiscal Host ### Create an Organization {% hint style="info" %} If you already have an Organization, you can skip this section and go to [Transforming your Organization into a Fiscal Host](#transforming-your-organization-into-a-fiscal-host). {% endhint %} Open your user menu and click on the **+** (plus symbol) next to the **My Organizations** section.

Give it a **name**, a **short description**, add its **website** address and a few **tags**.

### Transforming your Organization into a Fiscal Host Once your Organization is created, go to **Settings** > **Fiscal Hosting** and click on **Activate as Host**.

You will then have access to all Fiscal host settings, such as whether you want to be open to applications from Communities, your host fee, etc. Don't forget to go to **Receiving Money** and activate a method for people to give money to your Communities, either credit cards (via Stripe) and/or bank transfers.

## I don't have a Community or a Fiscal Host, and I want to create both ### **Create a Community** {% hint style="info" %} If you already created a Community and want to add a Fiscal Host of your own, go to [Add a Fiscal Host](#add-a-fiscal-host). {% endhint %} This will be the page for the first project, group or budget you will be hosting. Open your user menu and click the **+** next to **My Communities**.

When choosing what type of Community you want to create, choose the **For any community option**. {% hint style="info" %} If you need detailed instructions on how to create a Community, please read our [Creating a Community](/communities/create-collective) page. {% endhint %} ### **Add a Fiscal Host** To add a Fiscal Host, click on the **Start accepting contributions** button on your Community page. ![A message on your Community page prompting you to choose a Fiscal Host.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6d57ef851cce6fe0116148097d47108b98ea1d3c%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-08-28%20at%2010.38.52%20AM.png?alt=media) When asked who will hold your money, choose **Our organization.**

You can either choose to add an existing Organization as a Fiscal Host or create a new Organization for that purpose.

### **Connect a Stripe account and/or add a bank account** To receive financial contributions, you have to connect a **Stripe** account and/or add a **bank account**.

#### Connecting a Stripe account

1. Click on **Connect Stripe**. 2. Create a Stripe account, or log into your existing account by clicking **Sign in** in the upper right corner. #### Adding a bank account

Choose a currency and add your bank account details to accept payments by bank transfer. **Your Fiscal Host will now be active.** [**Next: customize your Fiscal Host and set the Fiscal Host fee.**](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings) # Organisation Settings Go to your Fiscal Host page and click on the gear next to your logo to reveal the different settings and options for your Fiscal Host.

Here's an overview of all settings available for Fiscal Hosts:

### Add more information about your Fiscal Host {% content-ref url="/pages/fH4b8hRnQkQIUaWSDOSc" %} [Info](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings/add-more-info) {% endcontent-ref %} ### Control the visibility and order of sections of your profile page {% content-ref url="/pages/JWulHEZm3iBWwYv6Fr80" %} [Customize Profile Page](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings/customize-page-sections) {% endcontent-ref %} ### Connect external accounts {% content-ref url="/pages/6eJuPPdbfvwgaoSmQmgR" %} [Connect external accounts](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings/connected-accounts) {% endcontent-ref %} ### Manage updates {% content-ref url="/pages/TQ6pzQhcdMhS1WVbjSyY" %} [Manage updates](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-settings/manage-updates) {% endcontent-ref %} # Info Add more information about your Fiscal Host In this section of your settings, you can:

#### **Edit your Fiscal Host Display Name** The display name is used whenever we refer to your profile publicly (your profile page, your comments, your contributions, etc). Anyone can see this name. #### **Edit your Legal Name** The legal name is private and shared with the hosts for donation receipts, tax forms and when you submit an expense. This name is not displayed publicly and it must be your legal name. #### Short description Add a short description about your Fiscal Host #### URL Slug Control your URL slug #### Twitter + GitHub Add links to your Twitter and GitHub profiles #### Website Add your website #### Address Specify your address and country #### Currency Choose your currency - Active Communities, Funds and Fiscal Hosts can't edit their currency. Contact if this is an issue. #### Tags Add tags to make your Fiscal Host more discoverable # Customize Profile Page Control the visibility and order of sections of your profile page In this section, you can control the visibility and the order of all sections of your profile page.

To change the visibility of a specific section, use the dropdown menu to change its state to either **Always visible** or **Disabled**. {% hint style="info" %} Your data is preserved when you hide a section and you'll be able to re-enable it whenever you want. If hidden, the section will be hidden for everyone — including you — and you will not be able to edit it. {% endhint %} ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-86607be853adde4dee6eaac2906d29ae85788c62%2Ffiscal-host_fiscal-host-settings_page-visibility_dropdown_2020-07-13.gif?alt=media) To change the order each section is displayed, drag and drop a certain section to the desired position. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a4e68f441def2025bfb3c3299e58bd3632ecf6f4%2Ffiscal-host_fiscal-host-settings_page-visibility_change-order_2020-07-13.gif?alt=media) Don't forget to save in order to apply any changes! # Connect external accounts You can connect social media accounts to automatically thank new financial contributors ## Connecting a Twitter account Click on **Connect Twitter**. You will be prompted to either directly authorize Donate PR to access your account or to log in and authorize it. Connecting your account will provide you a few automation options based on how many financial contributors Communities you host have reached: ![Options for activating automated tweets whenever a Community you host reach 10, 100 and 1,000 financial contributors.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-ac02b55b0a0c3b21c389f0b6b8f00842ced2c820%2Ffiscal-host_fiscal-host-settings_settings-connected-accounts-settings_2020-07-13.png?alt=media) To use a template parameter, put it in brackets like this: `{collective}`. Here are the parameters supported by each template:

Parameter	Templates	Description	Example
`backerTwitterHandle`	New financial contributors	Twitter Handle of the contributor without the `@` prefix (can be empty)	`myUsername`
`amount`	New financial contributors	Contribution amount with the currency	`$10.00`
`collective`	Ten contributors Fifty contributors One hundred contributors	Either the community name or, if set, the Twitter handle prefixed with an `@`	`@babel`
`topBackersTwitterHandles`	Ten contributors	Top 10 contributors names or handles	Facebook, @airbnb, company3, joe, @anotherAccount, anotherAccount2, anotherAccount3, anotherAccount4, anotherAccount5, anotherAccount6, +6

## Receiving contributions through PayPal {% hint style="info" %} This feature is currently in **beta**, meaning it's still being tested. To turn on PayPal contributions, [email support](mailto:support@donatepr.com). {% endhint %} ### Fees Payment processor fees charged by PayPal will be automatically deducted. If any platform tips or platform share is paid through PayPal, it will go to your account and will be paid later, via the monthly settlement expense. ### Connecting PayPal If you're already in the beta test group, you can follow these instructions: * [ ] Create a new PayPal app * Open [PayPal's Developer](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/applications/) page and Log In. * In *My Apps & Credentials* page, select the **Live** environment, and click in *Create app*. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-aedd85fb98444040bafa197bea1249e0228ba785%2Fimage%20$34$.png?alt=media) * Name this App after Donate PR, this way you'll always remember where this token is being used. * Click *Create App.* ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6f72e611dced2ee1632acba0b33a9b603ee72203%2FScreen%20record%20from%202020-07-10%2013.30.21.gif?alt=media)

To receive contributions, enable "Accept payments" and "Transactions search"

* [ ] Then scroll down to "Live App Settings" and make sure "**Accept payments"** and **"Payouts"** are checked * [ ] Now, copy the necessary information to Donate PR. * Open a new tab and go to [Donate PR](https://www.donatepr.com). * Open your Host community settings page and click in the *Receiving Money* option in the menu. * Copy and paste *Client ID, Secret* in the respective fields, leave Webhook ID empty. * Click *Connect PayPal.* # Accounting Categories Configure your chart of accounts and surface expense categories for expense submitters, community and fiscal host admins ## Configure a Chart of Accounts As a fiscal host admin, you can define your chart of accounts by navigating to **Dashboard > Settings > Chart of accounts**. The table will let you add, remove, and edit entries. * `Accounting Code`: The unique accounting category code from your Chart Of Accounts. This code won't be displayed to expense submitters and community admins. * `Category Name`: A name for you to identify the accounting category. * `Friendly name`(optional): An alternative name to show to expense submitters and community admins in case the one from your chart of accounts is not clear enough. * `Applies to`: Define whether the accounting category applies to your managed funds (money held on behalf of communities) or operational funds (the host organization). * `Category Kind`: Indicate whether the Chart of Accounts is for Expenses or Contributions. * `Host Only`: Only display the category to Host Admins. * `Expense Types`: Indicate under what expense types the category will show i.e All expenses, Virtual Card Charge, Grant, Invoice, Reimbursement, Settlement, Unclassified. * `Instructions`: Specify further information to help with the categorization process.

## Contribution Categorization Contribution categorization can be assigned by fiscal host admins to added funds & expected funds.

Submitters can still select "I don't know" if they are unsure about the contribution category. ## Expense Categorization Expense categorization policies allow you to control how expense categories are assigned to expenses. These policies can be configured by navigating to **Dashboard > Settings > Policies > Expense categorization**.

**Require expense submitters to select a category when submitting an expense:** If this policy is enabled, expense submitters will be presented with an input field (required) to choose an expense category before submitting the expense. This helps ensure that expenses are properly categorized from the outset. Submitters can still select "I don't know" if they are unsure about the contribution category.

**Require community admins to verify expense categories when reviewing and approving expenses:** This policy introduces an additional layer of review for expense categorization by requiring community admins to verify and potentially modify the expense category during the expense approval process. When enabled, community admins will see an input field in a new confirmation modal that appears when approving the expense. This additional review step can enhance the accuracy of expense categorization. ## Editing the category of an expense (as a host admin) As a host admin, you can change an expense category regardless of its status. This can be done from the expense page or any expenses list by clicking the category pill: When adjusting the accounting category this will trigger an educational email to be sent to the expense submitter or community admin who initally selected the incorrect category. These emails are bundled and triggered every Monday. Here are some examples: **Single expense submitted** **Single expense approved** **Multiple Expenses Submitted** # Security Fiscal Hosts can opt-in to enforce 2FA for all of their admins. Any attempt at triggering admin operations or visiting the admin pages will be blocked until the admins enable 2FA on their profiles. A rolling payout limit can also be set so that 2FA is triggered when this limit is met.\ \ Projects and events inherit the 2FA settings from their parents. ### How to enforce 2FA for all admins and set your rolling payout limit #### 1. Go to your fiscal host page #### 2. Click on ADMIN on the right-hand side ![Step 2 screenshot](https://images.tango.us/workflows/0b3f9b5a-9046-4917-9334-a54a044f884b/steps/965cf509-8ddc-4974-8d01-1a744ab28851/dfcc53d7-dd97-4729-9366-0088b3f3e3fd.png?crop=focalpoint\&fit=crop\&fp-x=0.7878\&fp-y=0.5820\&fp-z=3.1814\&w=1200\&mark-w=0.2\&mark-pad=0\&mark64=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFnZXMudGFuZ28udXMvc3RhdGljL21hZGUtd2l0aC10YW5nby13YXRlcm1hcmsucG5n\&ar=2752%3A1536) #### 3. Click on Organization Settings ![Step 3 screenshot](https://images.tango.us/workflows/0b3f9b5a-9046-4917-9334-a54a044f884b/steps/b0547adc-c16d-4e04-bd10-31d59e9486cf/ed36afd5-4db6-4bb6-9df2-1220076a461c.png?crop=focalpoint\&fit=crop\&fp-x=0.0983\&fp-y=0.7422\&fp-z=2.5142\&w=1200\&mark-w=0.2\&mark-pad=0\&mark64=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFnZXMudGFuZ28udXMvc3RhdGljL21hZGUtd2l0aC10YW5nby13YXRlcm1hcmsucG5n\&ar=2752%3A1536) #### 4. Click on Security ![Step 4 screenshot](https://images.tango.us/workflows/0b3f9b5a-9046-4917-9334-a54a044f884b/steps/c1801a19-a37c-4c0b-9d98-491b944e3806/bd39e8f4-c42b-4f8f-ab5f-2987cd7d164c.png?crop=focalpoint\&fit=crop\&fp-x=0.1221\&fp-y=0.8633\&fp-z=2.1608\&w=1200\&mark-w=0.2\&mark-pad=0\&mark64=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFnZXMudGFuZ28udXMvc3RhdGljL21hZGUtd2l0aC10YW5nby13YXRlcm1hcmsucG5n\&ar=2752%3A1536) #### 5. Check All 'Your Fiscal Host' admins must have two-factor authentication and/or set a rolling limit 2FA for payouts

**6. Click Save**

**When visiting admin pages without 2FA, admins will be prompted to enable it** [![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1556356/202162859-7e9cf92e-cb93-49fe-975d-701e7c0b76e6.png)](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1556356/202162859-7e9cf92e-cb93-49fe-975d-701e7c0b76e6.png) # Manage updates Updates is a way to keep your community posted on your progress. They are sent by email to all your communities, contributors and followers and displayed on your page.

Click on the + New update button to start drafting.

You can then preview your update and select who should be notfied.

# Policies ## Required Admins You can use this policy to enforce the minimum number of admins that a community needs in order to be accepted by your host. In order to do so, simply select the number of admins you want to enforce. To turn it off, select *Do not enforce a minimum number of admins*.

Note that, after setting a minimum number of admins **you won't be able to approve Pending Applications** from communities that do not have enough admins. You'll be able to **open an exception** for communities that already invited enough admins, even though these invitations are still pending. ![You're not able to approve pending applications that do not have enough admins.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9c8483fff49f0f17c7228f7f30d640251252757e%2Fimage%20$49$%20$1$.png?alt=media) ![You're able to approve applications that have enough invited admins, even if some of the admins are still pending.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-aede20c74da55d922c8925df27674d4a2eb8b8bf%2Fimage%20$53$%20$1$.png?alt=media) It is also possible to automatically prevent these communities that have pending admins from receiving contributions with the freeze feature:

In this scenario, if you decide to open an exception to a community that still doesn't satisfy the minimum number of admins, you'll make sure they only start to raise funds after they have enough signed-up admins. ## Expense Approvals Set rules for expense approval.

## Expense Types Specify the types of expenses allowed for all the communities you're hosting.

If you wish to customise these options for specific communities head to the [Hosted Communities](/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-host-dashboard/hosted-collectives) section.

## Rejected categories

# Fiscal Host Dashboard **The Fiscal Host Dashboard is your one-stop-shop for seeing all the information and completing your actions as host admin.** ## How do I get to the Host Dashboard? Click the **Dashboard** button on your host page, while logged in as host admin.

## What can I do on the host dashboard?

![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a31e514d8620ee3206ff8064bf36b72a0bd418e7%2Ffiscalhosts_dashboard_reports_2022-05-2.png?alt=media) # Expenses ### **Filter** #### **Type** * All expenses * Charge * Invoice * Receipt * Grant * Settlement * Unclassified #### **Payout** * All methods * Donate PR * Bank Transfer * PayPal * Virtual Card * Other #### Period * All time * Today * This Month * Past Week * Past Month * Past Year Custom Date selection * Timezone - Local or UTC - By default, all dates are filtered and displayed using your local timezone. You can switch to UTC to indicate that the dates provided above use the Coordinated Universal Time format, which matches how email reports are generated. * Start Date * End Date #### Amount * All * $0 - $50 * $50 - $500 * $500 - $5,000 * $5,000 and above #### Status * **Pending:** Expense was submitted to the community. We're waiting for the community admin to approve this expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9eca36e871a83d74f670b3354fc3f9fe842e8936%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_pending_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) * **Approved:** Expense was approved by a community admin. We're now waiting for the Fiscal Host admin to pay for it. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b3a8b64d3294eda31e348c919ef0ec5324ed7414%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_approved_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) * **Rejected:** Community admin rejected the expense. This is a possible final state for the Expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-11ded67243ac9d7b864007e9ad651a1f4167a7d3%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_rejected_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) * **Processing:** Expense was paid by the Fiscal Host. We're waiting for a third-party service (Wise or PayPal) to confirm the transaction was completed. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-721be4dcd8afc3d45b0bb518155e69ed89543a3f%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_processing_2022-05-24%20$1$.png?alt=media) * **Error:** Expense was paid by the Fiscal Host but something went wrong with the transaction. This is a possible final state for the Expense, the Fiscal Host will probably reach out to the User to solve any possible issue. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-29cc0cc66767f125c1dbbb6d2034fce65c9d3b20%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_error_2022-05.png?alt=media) * **Paid:** Expense was sucessfully paid. This is the final state for the expense. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-0fe4d530d7ac105ed6ab5bfd1a9911aa19317bfb%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_paid_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) * **SPAM:** This Expense was marked as SPAM and will be ignored. This is the final state for the expense ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-d86fe0f62797c81cdb29b33b58ea03854c5ca2da%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_spam_2022-05.png?alt=media) * **Incomplete:** Marks the expense as incomplete if there are important details missing to complete the payment. Only Approved/Error expenses can be marked as incomplete. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-585a9ceb5222d0f28953253a65f3e87bcb51f3f2%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_incomplete2_2022-05-24%20$1$.png?alt=media) ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6a83cd5d74c3c783a04fe8bdc6d7c38a4bad023f%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_incomplete_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) This action allows a comment to be added to the Expense activity logs and also emails the user requesting their attention. ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-343c74ab87fa0932e67bf6698f7ed56228d2ad3c%2FFiscal%20Host_dashboard_markanincompletecomment_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) After the user edits the expense, the expense is moved back to its previous state unless the amount is also changed, which will set the expense as Pending so the community admin can reevaluate it. * **Ready to Pay -** Reference the [Go to Pay](#go-to-pay) section below. #### **Order** * Newest First * Oldest First ## Paying Expenses ### Security Checks {% hint style="info" %} This is the first batch of security checks we have implemented. They were created based on past cases we had on the platform, and we plan to keep iterating on these checks with the input of fiscal hosts. {% endhint %} We're adding warnings about payees to protect Communities and Hosts from fraudulent expense claims. These warnings are designed to inform you as to whether you should approve or pay an expense. They are not a part of an enforcible policy within Donate PR but we encourage hosts and Communities to consider creating and documenting policies as part of their terms or code of conducts if needed.

You'll find the Security Checks with other expense processing buttons.

You can review the Security Checks by clicking the shield button. This button varies in color following the highest risk level we found in the expense. In the case the expense poses a high-security level, we're also presenting this information as a necessary confirmation before you go to the Pay modal.

The security checks are categorized in scope and risk level. The categories are: * **User:** The user who submitted the expense, the author of the expense or draft sent as an invite to submit the expense. * **Payee:** If the beneficiary is not the user who originally submitted the expense, we also list checks on that profile through the *Payee* scope. * **Payout Method:** The actual beneficiary information that is going to be paid by the expense. The risk levels are: * **PASS**: Opposite of a security risk, actually indicates good record or behavior. * **INFO/LOW**: Contextual information for transparency sake, these are informations that may be important on a particular context but are not meaningful by themselves. * **MEDIUM**: Important to consider, may require some investigation given the context. * **HIGH**: Represents a risk or complete lack of information and requires investigation. This behavior was previously related to fraud. It is important to understand that these checks are evaluated independently, and it is up to the host admin to evaluate the whole context and take their decision. The security checks currently implemented are listed below, but keep in mind that we'll keep working on adding new check routines and adjusting their existing levels. Some of the existing security checks include: * User impersonation checks based on IP correlation and Connected Accounts username overlaps. * User 2FA status conveys the security risk of the author account itself. * User role in the Community and/or Fiscal Host exposing how the user relates to the community or fiscal host. * Past user behaviour based on expenses rejected or marked as spam. * Past expenses that have been submitted on the platform and in the same community. * Bank account information and PayPal email correlation between users and communities. ### Go to Pay ![](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-42fb263920f41205dfb9d73f5c9f2e8259ea83cf%2Ffiscal%20host_dashboard_gotopay_2022-05-24.png?alt=media) Green button showing that an expense has been approved and there are sufficient funds. If you click this button, the pay expense modal will be displayed and you'll be able to pay for the expense using a suitable method. ![Pay Expense modal displayed for an expense submitted with Bank Account on a Host connected to Wise.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-261eee442b002a1a8293c101de49c9c5892c8ae6%2Fscreenshot-from-2021-06-29-16-11-03.png?alt=media) The action button displayed in this modal will vary with the available integration the host have and the payout method selected by the user who submitted the expense. In the case you're paying with PayPal, if you click the action button the expense will automatically be paid from the connected PayPal account. If you're using PayPal Payouts, the expense will be marked as Scheduled for Payment and automatically processed by the payment worker. In the case you're paying with Wise, if you click the action button the expense will automatically be paid from your main Wise balance. If your Wise requires OTP authorization, the expense will be Scheduled for Payment and a banner will be displayed on top of your expenses list so you can pay all the scheduled expenses in a batch with a single validation. ![Scheduled Wise expenses are paid manually in batch with your account requires OTP authorization.](https://1948397550-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FuNQPJeCQS3kEc00OAwaT%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8207edd9ee46e6b09e50c1683d3eeb3833be974d%2Fscreenshot-from-2021-06-29-16-18-33.png?alt=media) #### Mark as Paid Green button for manual payments. After paying via another method (bank transfer, etc), click this to deduct the amount for the Community's budget in the system. #### Edit Host admins have permission to edit expenses at any time. For example, someone wasn't able to attach their receipt and emailed it instead, and you are adding it for them. **Note:** If you edit an expense, it must be re-approved. #### Open Expense If you click the title of an individual expense, you will go to that expense's page. There, you can see all details and read or add [comments](/expenses-and-getting-paid/expense-comments). #### Connect PayPal & refill balance PayPal allows you to pre-approve $2,000 at a time to be paid through the API. This is a security feature. This means after you've paid out $2,000 in expenses, you need to refill the balance. If you try to pay an expense and get an error about the PayPal balance, it's time to refill. When you click "refill balance" you will be prompted to log in to PayPal, and afterwards you'll be taken back to your dashboard. You can see the connected PayPal account in the top right. This is the account expenses will be paid out of. If you manage multiple PayPal accounts, make sure it's the right one! If it's not correct, open PayPal in another tab and manually log out, then click "refill balance" and use credentials for the right account. #### Payment Error Troubleshooting Payment errors will show in red next to the expense if they come up. Common reasons for a payment to fail after clicking the "Pay with PayPal" button: * Need to refill the pre-approval balance * Click the 'refill balance' button * Insufficient funds to cover fees * There are not enough funds in the Community to pay this expense. Many Communities submit expenses in anticipation of future funding. * If a user submits an expense for 100% of the Community's balance, there won't be enough to cover processing fees * Edit the expense total down to leave enough for the fees and inform the user by leaving a comment * User's PayPal account is restricted * Ask the user to log into PayPal and resolve the issue on their side ### Multi-Currency Expenses Here is an example of how a Multi-Currency expense will show in the expense list. The amount will show in the expense currency, with the amount converted into the host currency below.

The same will show in the pay expenses modal. Example below.

--- [Next Page](/llms-full.txt/1)