Causes Help Center

    Donation questions

  • How are donations processed?

    Donations to U.S. nonprofits:

    One of our core missions at Causes is to greatly reduce the overhead costs of raising money for nonprofits. Under the current system, most nonprofits end up spending 20-40% of the money they raise paying outside consulting firms to solicit money for them using expensive methods such as telephone and snail mail. In contrast, through Causes, there is only a 4.75% tax-deductible fee for completing transactions by credit card. Donations are processed by our nonprofit partner Network for Good, an industry leader in processing online donations. Donations can be made using Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

    Payments are sent on the 15th of each month and will include all donations made in the previous month. For example, donations processed in February will be paid on March 15th. Their 4.75% fee is used to pay banks, credit card companies, and other associated costs of donations through Causes.


    Donations to Canadian charities:

    Donations to Canadian charities are processed by the public charitable foundation Canada Helps, the only donation portal that provides access to all of Canada's charities. Donations can be made using Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Near the 15th of each month, they mail a check with the last 30 days’ donations to Canadian nonprofits.

    A 4.5% transaction fee is charged for each transaction to cover credit card processing fees, the costs of distributing checks to nonprofits, and running the Causes application in Canada.

  • How do I know that my donation is secure?

    Donation security is provided by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a recognized authentication and encryption software. SSL locks the site while you are giving us your credit card information and unlocks it only when you leave the secured area. Your credit card number is encrypted so it is unreadable to anyone outside the transaction process.

    Furthermore, Network for Good, who processes the US credit card donations, is a Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance accredited charity that meets all of the BBB standards for charity accountability (BBB). They have processed more than $250 million in donations for 45,000 charities through their giving system.

  • Can I donate anonymously?

    No, you can’t remain entirely anonymous because the information you choose to display on Facebook is also visible through the Causes application when you make a donation. For instance, your name and photo that is associated with your Facebook profile may be displayed on a Cause with the amount you donated similar to how other actions you take on Facebook are made visible.

    Your information will never be shared with the organization you are contributing to unless you choose to release it when you donate.

    Privacy settings are important to Causes and to the charities you are supporting, so we are working on a way to enable donations that are entirely anonymous in the future.

  • Is my donation tax-deductible?

    Your donation to a charitable organization is 100% tax deductible.

    For donations to U.S. nonprofits, Network for Good provides an electronic receipt at the time of the donation. Both the receipt you see onscreen at the completion of the donation process and the e-mail you receive shortly thereafter meet all IRS requirements as a record of donation. If you are asked to provide a paper receipt for IRS purposes, please print out a copy of your email receipt or send a request to donations@networkforgood.org .

    For Canadian charities, your email receipt is valid for tax deduction purposes for any amount. The CRA will accept this email receipt for any donation.

  • Is my information ever given to nonprofits?

    We highly value your privacy and never sell or give your personal information to anyone. However, as a donor, you do have the ability to manually opt-in to share information with a nonprofit organization and we encourage you to do so. Sharing your information with the nonprofit you are donating to lets you stay connected and up to date with the activities of that organization.

    Network for Good also respects and protects your privacy. Network for Good will never sell, trade or rent your personal information to other individuals or companies. The information that you provide is used only to complete your donation.

  • I am trying to donate and my country is not supported. What's going on?

    Due to high rates of fraud, donations to U.S. nonprofits are not accepted for cardholders from the following countries: Ukraine, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Israel, Nigeria and Ghana. We apologize for any inconvenience, and are working hard to support donations from more of these countries.

  • Can I make a donation using checks, cash, or PayPal?

    At this point we only support credit card donations using Visa, MasterCard and American Express. We do not accept PayPal.

  • Can I set up monthly recurring donations to my cause?

    Yes, when you click donate, you will have the option to choose to give an amount once or monthly. Choose monthly and Causes will make your donation to the beneficiary of your cause once a month. Your recurring donation will be managed by Causes and not by our credit card processor, Network for Good, so if you have questions or issues, please contact us at support@causes.com

  • Can I edit or delete my recurring donation?

    Recurring donations can be deleted but they cannot be edited. Do delete your recurring donation go here:
    http://apps.facebook.com/causes/...
    If you would like to edit your recurring donation, please delete your current one and make a new one with the adjusted information.

  • Why shouldn't I just give directly to a nonprofit and avoid paying fees?

    Contributing directly to an organization does not mean that you avoid paying processing fees. Even nonprofits themselves incur credit card or check processing fees when accepting your gift that are generally equal to or greater than the processing fees charged by our partner, Network for Good.

    As a point of comparison, when you write a check to a nonprofit in response to a solicitation by mail, an average of 30 - 40% of the money you give goes toward paying for the piece of mail you were sent as well as all other pieces of mail that were not responded to.

  • When I make a donation, I am being asked to “tip” Causes. What does this mean?

    Causes is a small team of activists dedicated to changing the world by making it easier for people to raise money and organize for change online. Even though the service is expensive to build and operate, Causes makes it available for free to everyone. By tipping Causes, you are helping Causes and its nonprofit donations processor, Network for Good, keep the platform running and free to use.