Check, please!

It’s January, and I’m excited to announce that Second Serve Resale has made an upgrade. For real!

We have a more streamlined way for shoppers to support wonderful nonprofits. Last year, we used a third-party app to send funds to nonprofits, and this allowed donors to designate any nonprofit as the beneficiary. We found, however, that  it took a while for some nonprofits to get their money.

Too Long

Little known fact: if someone gives through the PayPal Giving Fund, which our third-party app used, and the amount is less than $50, then the money SITS for 18 months, EIGHTEEN MONTHS!, before the PayPal Giving Fund distributes the money to the nonprofit. 

Too long. Way too long, everyone.

And not exactly transparent

Moreover, it is not clear whether nonprofits are notified that they have money sitting in a Paypal Giving Fund account. Some nonprofits do not have an account, and they have no way of knowing they should open one. And who’s to say they want to open an account with PayPal Giving Fund? The bigger nonprofits are already hooked into the system to retrieve funds. It is the smaller ones that are concerning to me.

And even if you have an account, it is hard to tell what money comes from what source. 

Why do I know all this? Because we partner with nonprofits where we know the executive directors. We checked up on this third party giving system. And, lucky for us, one of our board members is a nonprofit consultant.

The bottom line is that a more direct approach to nonprofit giving was needed, an approach with more transparency.

Sometimes the old ways are the best

So….as of now, we are sending checks, written with my own left hand and pen, to the nonprofit the shopper chooses. We will send actual paper checks via snail mail to an actual person. SNAIL MAIL! I will tell you what snail mail isn’t: Eighteen months! Our nonprofit beneficiaries will get their money once a month.

We will have a curated list of nonprofits for you to choose from. These are nonprofits that we know. We have carefully chosen them to give our shoppers a range of options while ensuring that the money gets put to use making the world a better place. 

I originally thought a third-party app would make the distribution of funds easier for Second Serve Resale. But what is easier is to know, with 100% certainty, that the money we promise to a nonprofit is being safely delivered to them quickly. 

SO THEY CAN USE IT!

If you want something done right, do it yourself. We are all over it.