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Drizzle donations for WPI - idea what you think?

caledonia

Senior Member
I had this idea to get more funding for the WPI.

Most of us can't give much but we can give a little. A little each month is easier to come up with than a bigger chunk at at once. Even $50 can be hard to come up with if you're on disability.

If you bank with a major bank, you can bank online. You should be able to set up recurring payments through your online bank.

If we all set up a payment we thought we could afford, even $1, $5 or $10 a month and sent it to the WPI, they would have a steady income coming in from patients, which would go to research.

Once you set it up, you wouldn't have to manage it, the donations would be automatic, but you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you support the WPI each month.

All those little drizzles could add up to a river.

Comments?
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I think there's a lot of wisdom in this suggestion. This is something we all could do, even if any individual can't contribute much, it's a way to ensure at least some consistent income for WPI.

This is also something we can suggest to friends and family when they ask how they can help.

Does anyone know if many, many tiny monthly donations could in any way be a problem for WPI? I can't think of one, but I'm not a money person.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Sorry for being so slow responding to this, but just now feeling recovered from the holidays and other stuff.

Ok, so I emailed the person in charge of donations at the WPI, Angelina Gordon. She says that you can use either the Causes page on the WPI Facebook or Paypal to automatically send electronic donations monthly. You can send as little as $1 a month.

Think of it this way - if you're on SS disability like me, then it's a sneaky way of redistributing government money to the WPI - lol.

Here's a link to the WPI Facebook/Causes donation page:
http://www.causes.com/causes/399439-cure-4-me
Click on the green Donation button at the top right.

Then if you don't like any of the preset donation amounts (starting with $10), you can select Other and fill in any amount you want. Select Monthly, fill in your credit card info, and you're good to go.

When I tried to set up my Paypal, I found out I need an email address to send it to. I will post that address when Angelina gets back to me on that.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Ok, I talked to Angelina again. The Facebook Causes page will suffice for this project, plus it will be easier to promote one link instead of two.

Through the WPI Facebook Causes page, you can set up automatic monthly donations of any amount, as small as $1. You don't have to be a member of Facebook to use it. International donations are accepted, and there have been no problems. The fees WPI has to pay for the service are similar to Paypal, so no problem there either.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
If you want to help support this project, and spread the word, you can add the same message I have to your signature line.

For this site, go to the Settings link at the top of the page. On the left side, under Settings, click on Edit Signature.

Copy and paste the following html code into the box, and you'll have a signature just like mine:

HTML:
[B][CENTER][COLOR="purple"]Drizzle Donations to the WPI[/COLOR]
[I]Thousands of tiny donations will make a River for Research![/I][/CENTER][/B]
Set up [B]automatic monthly donations[/B] via [URL="http://www.causes.com/donations/select_donation_method?ts=1294815918&m=&campaign_id=123267&cause_id=399439"]WPI Facebook Causes.[/URL] Affordable donations as low as $1. Facebook membership not necessary. International donations accepted.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Hi everyone, I dont know about the current situation, but looked like the issue would be fees and charges from the financial institions globally. There is no point in sending the wpi $1 a month if we will be charged $5 or $10 in fees. Its not just about paypal. If there are low fees or no fees then it can be done I think. As the fees rise, particularly for international donations (currency exchange fees for example) then it becomes infeasable. A single donation is far better when high fees are being charged.

To give you an example, and I dont think this is current, my bank used to charge $10 for any foreign transaction. So a $1 donation would cost me at least $11, under those old fees. I have yet to recheck current fee scedules

bye
alex
 

eric_s

Senior Member
Messages
1,925
Location
Switzerland/Spain (Valencia)
I like the idea, but fees are probably an issue, even with PayPal. But in this case you can put it aside and make the donation every 6 or 12 months, for example.
I've started working on such an idea with another forum member about 2 weeks ago. Everyone can give a little and combined it will make a big difference, if we really do it. And we should.

The big challenge in my opinion is to get everybody with ME/CFS involved. Even if we could get all the forum members to donate, it would still only be a small fraction of all the patients and we need everyone. So i believe such a campaign will have to be done through other channels than just this or other forums alone. But PR can be a good start... let's be the spearhead ;)
 

Frank

Senior Member
Messages
850
Location
Europe
Credit cards are not as integrated in Europe i think, as they are in the US. I myself will probably never get a credit card. Paypal on the other hand is an option for me. I've just donate a spare $7 to WP :)
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
Thanks Caledonia, I have set up a monthly transfer via the link you gave and have used your signature to make a similar one.

However, I'm in the UK and am worried my bank might be taking a significant chunk of my donations - do we know whether or not that is happening, or is it up to each individual's bank?

Cheers,

Cig
 

Tuha

Senior Member
Messages
638
I also want to do a monthly donation. I just dont know which system to use. is it better to use paypal or to go throught facebook cause or to send directly my money from my bank account to the WPI bank account? does someone know what is the most efficace? When I sent money throught paypal or facebook cause i never paid some extra money but i think the recipient (WPI) had to pay something. Maybe Caledonia can you ask the WPI person what is the most efficace also for them? how much they have to pay to paypal or facebook cause.
it would be also good to know if they are able to do some research from patients donations - anyone has an information about?
 

eric_s

Senior Member
Messages
1,925
Location
Switzerland/Spain (Valencia)
Credit cards are not as integrated in Europe i think, as they are in the US. I myself will probably never get a credit card. Paypal on the other hand is an option for me. I've just donate a spare $7 to WP :)
I don't know about the specific situation in Belgium, but i think in most countries you can get a credit card almost for free. There are websites that compare the fees, so you might want to check them. The only problem is that with the income most of us probably have, they will not give you a very high limit. So i have 2 now :tongue: I think it's good to have, for example for all types of online shopping, so you don't have to physically go to places unless you want to.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Hi, everyone, some how I missed all of your posts. I'm now subscribed to this thread, so I'll be more on top of it.

Angelina at the WPI said that the fees between Paypal and Facebook were similar and she didn't act like small donations were a problem in terms of fees. I know that Paypal will take a percentage of whatever you transact with them, like 3%. So that would be 3 cents out of a dollar.

In the US, at least, if you don't want a credit card, you can get a debit credit card from your bank. It will work both as a debit card (like at ATM's) and a credit card (like online), except all the money comes from your checking account. In other words, you're not borrowing the money like with a normal credit card. I think these may also be known as check cards.

If your bank offers this service, you just call them up and tell them you want such a card.

For any questions about fees from your bank's end, you should ask your bank. If you do, can you report back here? It would be good to have a report from various countries to see if there is some sort of international problem with exchange fees.

I've done many transactions on eBay with Paypal, both buying and selling internationally, and I have never heard of such a fee, either on my end or from my buyers/sellers. It's just the basic Paypal transaction fee.

You can set up a monthly donation to the WPI on Paypal, however, you will need the email address of their Paypal account to send the donations to. Angelina didn't seem to quite understand what I was asking. Since Facebook offers the same service, and I thought it would be easier to promote one method than two, I didn't pursue it.

If you would rather use Paypal for monthly donations, then I suggest contacting Angelina directly and discussing it with her. Angelina Wyss Gordon
angelinawg@wpinstitute.org
 

caledonia

Senior Member
One other little glitch. I found out that you do need to be a Facebook member to do the monthly donations, because Facebook Causes manages the monthly donations.

However, if you don't really want to be on Facebook, you can set up a temporary email account and use a fake name to sign up with - lol. Even if you use your real email account, the preset is for you to be opted out of emails, so they won't be bugging you with emails.

Once we get all these little details worked out, Angelina said they're interested in publicizing this further and would help out by posting it on their Facebook page.

So if the international members can call their banks about any fees and report back, that would be helpful.

I'm also thinking about make a little video on how to do this and putting it on YouTube to pull in more people.