To sign up for NYCharities.org:
1. Go to this link to fill in your organization’s information:
https://www.nycharities.org/accounts/login/Signup.aspx
2. If your charity is not recognized by the IRS as a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization, you will be asked to fill in the name of a charity organization willing to act as your fiscal agent.
3. You will be asked for your charity’s EIN (Employment Identification Number);
4. The contact information for two representatives from your charity is required in the form. These are the people with whom NYCharities.org will remain in contact.
5. You will be asked to click agreement to NYCharities.org’s Terms of Services. This agreement was written by Simpson Thacher, one of the leading nonprofit law firms in the country. They wrote it to protect both NYCharities.org and the charities which sign up. It is an easy-in / easy-out agreement. You are not forced to stay in a long term relationship with NYCharities.org.
6. You will be asked to create your charity’s Login and Password, which you will use to log into your Account Manager and to monitor / download donor information and contributions.
After you have submitted your application, it is reviewed by NYCharities.org’s staff over a 24-48 hour time period. If your charity is approved, you will receive notification, and will be asked to fill in bank account and routing information for any funds transfers.

Following this final step, your charity account is activated and you can begin using the services.

This process can be accelerated by filling in the bank information immediately upon sign-up, and sending a request to [email protected] for immediate review. NYCharities.org accommodates such requests wherever possible.

Yes. Your charity may register with NYCharities.org online to make valuable changes to the mission statement, logo, and display of your donations screen. When you sign up, you will be asked to create a Login and Password, and to agree to the terms in an online Agreement, which states the relationship between your organization and NYCharities.org. The Agreement allows for easy termination by both parties.

Your organization's information is reviewed (normally within 48 hours), and if the application is complete, you will be asked to fax, or upload a copy of your bank information, before your account is turned on. Then you will have access to self-publishing tools which allow you to enhance your donations screen with your charity"s logo, URL, and mission statement and more.

No. NYCharities.org is available free of charge to all New York charities that have been recognized by the IRS as charitable and classified as public charities. There are no set-up costs, so your charity avoids startup costs, monthly fees, and commission charges which are sometimes involved in donor solicitation.

With respect to donations made via the web site, NYCharities.org deducts a (4%) credit card transaction fee, most of which is debited by credit card companies to carry out online transactions. So if your donor makes a $100 gift, $96 is sent to your charity.

Savings to charities that have signed up include the following services (all of which you receive at no cost): an automatic electronic receipt sent to each donor verifying the success of the credit card transaction on behalf of your charity; an online thank you letter with required IRS wording, which your donor can print out for their records; ability to access your charity's online donations history at any time of the day or night using your personal Login and Password; the ability to download your donor data into an excel file with the press of one button. Once registered, your charity is also able to customize the thank you letter that appears onscreen with your logo and additional wording.

Your charity saves on paper, postage, check writing, telephone calls, and all of the staff time required to manually accept and process donations. You benefit from also knowing that your donors are able to donate 24x7 in a highly secure web site; they receive immediate acknowledgements with wording recommended by the IRS; and they have access to online and telephone customer support during regular business hours.

Your donors appreciate that their time is respected. Online giving is the fastest, easiest way for donors to give to charities. Most online donors indicate they give "online" because it is easier.

Your donor information is solely the property of your nonprofit. Following the end of each month, and most often no later than the 12th day of the following month, you receive an email indicating that your funds from the previous month have been transferred to your bank account, and a monthly report is available for download in Microsoft Excel format through your Account Manager. The report lists the date, time, amount, and other available information for each donation. In instances where a donor requests that their information be anonymous, then your charity receives the date, time and amount with an indication that the donor selected “privacy.” Since most donors want to receive acknowledgement from the charity for a donation, we find that few donors select anonymity. To see a sample Charity Report, Click Here.

Over 90,000 New York State charities, which are part of the New York Metropolitan Statistical Area (NYMSA,) are listed. The Internal Revenue Service has recognized these organizations and has classified them as public charities, eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.

Yes. Within minutes of making a contribution, an electronic receipt is sent from NYCharities.org to the email address you provide during the donations process, verifying that the transaction has gone through. A Thank You Letter also appears on screen after you donate. You can print this letter for your records. The charity to which you donate is responsible for proving a substantiation letter for tax purposes.

You may wish to use the electronic receipt you receive and your printed Thank You Letter to ask your company to make a matching gift to the charity. Guidelines for matching gift contributions vary from company to company. Ask your company for its guidelines. You can also recommend that your company enter into an agreement with NYCharities.org to provide customized online matching gift forms.

Yes, you can.

Processing a refund can take 5-10 business days. You can request a refund by emailing [email protected] or calling our office at 212-844-0560. Alternatively, you can request a refund from the organization that you donated to.

Contacting your credit card company for a refund will often result in penalties, that will be pased on to the charity you donated to.

Recurring donations can also be canceled at any time in the same way as listed above.

On each charitys donations page there is an option to designate your donation to specific person(s) or program(s). This information is transmitted to the charity. If you wish to be sure that your designation request is honored, you must follow up with the charity to which you sent the donation.

Your credit card statement shows NYCharities.org because your dontion has been transmitted through our merchant account. We act as an agent on behalf of each charity in the NYCharities.org web site, and are responsible for the security and privacy of your transmission, and its proper dissemination to the charity you select. Important to note, however, is that the charity you select is viewed by the IRS as the recipient of your donation, and is responsible for acknowledging your gift.