The Offer
It’s almost the end of the year so I imagine a lot of you are making charity donations (we just gave $1,200 to charity ourselves). Paypal is running a promotion at the moment where they will match 1% of your donation when you give to a charity. This means if you donate $100, they’ll give $101 to that charity.
The Fine Print
- Donation must be $10 or more
- Valid until December 31, 2014 at 11:59:59 PDT
PayPal Fees
PayPal does charge non profit fees, how much they charge is dependent on how much volume the charity does.
- $0 – $100,000: 2.2% + 30¢
- $100,000+: 1.9% + 30¢
It’s not clear if these fees are being waived, I think they are though. When you go to a selected charity it has the following fine print (emphasis mine):
Gifts that do more good. Your donation will be processed and disbursed to your selected nonprofit by the PayPal Giving Fund, an IRS-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Federal Tax ID: 45-0931286). You will receive a tax receipt for your gift and thanks to PayPal’s support, 101% of your donation will reach the nonprofit of your choice.
I don’t think they could realistically make this claim if they were charging the charities 2.2% + 30¢ so it looks like these fees might be waived.
5% Cash Back
It’s usually possible to get 5% cash back on charity donations by using the US Bank Cash+ card, but because you’re donating through Paypal this might not work. Instead you could use your Discover it (or Discover it secured) card which is earning 5% cash back on online purchases, Paypal has been confirmed as working for this so it should work. Although if it codes as a charity contribution, it might not.
[Read: Best credit cards for charity contributions]
Our Verdict
Obviously this isn’t a money maker, but anyway you can get extra cash back whilst the charity your donating to gets more of your donation is a good thing in my eyes.
Thanks to Happy_Harry from reddit.com/r/churning for the idea
We’re a paypal recognized nonprofit, and as of Dec27, we were charged 2.2% + 30c for donations.