Donation Delivery Policy

All donations made through PayPal Giving Fund programmes are made to PayPal Giving Fund Ireland, a registered charity. Donors will receive a date-stamped receipt of donation from PayPal Giving Fund marking the date the donation was made to PayPal Giving Fund. All grants made by PayPal Giving Fund are effected in a manner that is consistent with our policies and applicable laws and regulations.

The PayPal Giving Fund enrolment status of a charity will determine the method and speed at which we grant funds to that charity. While we always endeavour to follow donors’ recommendations, donations are made as an outright gift, free of any right or interest retained by the donor, and PayPal Giving Fund owes no duty of care to the donor in respect of the donation under this agreement or in law. As described below, PayPal Giving Fund pursues multiple specified steps to grant donations it receives to its donors' recommended charities. Pending distribution of grants, PayPal Giving Fund holds all donations in a dedicated, non-interest-bearing bank account or PayPal account.

PayPal Giving Fund grants donated funds to charities enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund ("Participating Charities" pursuant to the PayPal Giving Fund Ireland Charity User Agreement) on a monthly basis at the end of each month, typically 15 to 45 days after PayPal Giving Fund's receipt of funds. This schedule enables us to streamline processing by providing a single lump sum payment to the charity each month, making it simpler for the charity to identify our payments and account for the funds we have raised. We distribute grants to enrolled charities via PayPal as we have determined this to be a fast, efficient, secure, and cost-effective way to do so. Donors can be confident their donations will reach their chosen charities securely, and the charities receive the payments into their PayPal accounts quickly and free of charge. Enrolled charities can also review the donations granted to them by PayPal Giving Fund, including donor details (except when donors choose not to share them), on their PayPal Giving Fund dashboard.

Through certain partner programmes, donors may have the option to recommend that we make grants to charities that have not yet enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund. PayPal Giving Fund attempts to make grants to charities that have not enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund after making reasonable attempts to contact them and invite their enrolment in PayPal Giving Fund. We receive information about these charities from publicly available sources, such as the Charities Regulator. We will grant funds to an unenrolled charity provided that (1) we have been able to confirm that the charity still complies with the requirements of our Charity Certification Policy, and (2) we have verified the charity's identity and conducted an appropriate level of due diligence into the charity, its officers and directors to be confident that it does not promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, and does not engage in money laundering or other illegal activities.

We will first notify an unenrolled charity about PayPal Giving Fund's intent to grant it funds shortly after donors have first indicated a desire to support it, and we will invite the charity to enrol with PayPal Giving Fund, enabling it to receive funds quickly and securely, to receive details of relevant donors, to make additional information about the charity available through our directory, and to participate in additional PayPal Giving Fund programmes. We will make multiple subsequent attempts to contact unenrolled charities, via email, letter and, in some cases, by phone. If a charity does not enrol with PayPal Giving Fund, we endeavour to deliver the grant funds by other appropriate means, including a payment via the charity's website or by sending a cheque, typically within 90 days of the original donation. If a charity does not enrol and we are unable to pay the charity by other means (e.g., a cheque is returned or is not cashed within the time period specified on the cheque), we may, at our discretion, remove the charity from our directory of eligible charities and reassign funds in the manner described below.

While we take multiple steps to attempt to grant donated funds according to the donor's identified preference, PayPal Giving Fund retains exclusive control over all donations. If a charity fails to meet the terms of our Charity Certification Policy and/or fails to meet PayPal Giving Fund's due diligence standards as described above for receipt of a donation at any time, we reserve the right to reassign funds to another charitable organisation of our choice. We may also reassign donations in the event we are unable to distribute the funds successfully (e.g., the charity fails to cash the cheque(s) we send).

The tax relief and tax status of a donation does not change if funds are reassigned because PayPal Giving Fund is the charitable organisation of record for the donor's original donation. In the event that the original donor has completed a tax relief declaration, PayPal Giving Fund will claim the tax relief and deliver the full amount to the charity that receives the reassigned donations.

In the rare cases when PayPal Giving Fund reassigns funds, we will (whenever possible) ask the donor to recommend an enrolled charity from the PayPal Giving Fund Directory to benefit from the donation. If PayPal Giving Fund is unable to reach the donor, or the donor chooses not to respond, we will instead select charities that operate in a similar cause area (and sometimes a similar location) to the charity originally recommended by the donor. Where the cause area is unlikely to reflect the donor's original intent, we will instead grant the funds to a charity with a broad humanitarian mission. In selecting charities to benefit from such grants, we favour charities that have enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund, to enable efficient, more secure and cost-effective delivery to charities that have accepted the PayPal Giving Fund Ireland Charity User Agreement. For example, if we are unable to fund an unenrolled local organisation providing housing services, we may reassign the funds to a national organisation enrolled with PayPal Giving Fund, or to a nearby local organisation, with a preference for organisations that also provide housing services.

In response to disasters In response to natural disasters, humanitarian crises or other events requiring urgent action, PayPal Giving Fund may seek to accelerate the payment of grants to charities undertaking relief and recovery work. We aim in those circumstances to help enable access to funds as soon as they are needed.

However, we aim only to grant funds to charities that meet the requirements of our Charity Certification Policy, and certain checks we carry out to protect donated funds are mandated by regulations and take time to complete.