Understand the special check for multiple months of Giving Basket donations

This article is intended only for nonprofits that fit all of the following criteria:

• You received a special lump-sum check from Give Lively for donations directed to your nonprofit via Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket, powered by Give Lively.
• The check was sent because direct-deposit transfers are no longer possible. Although you previously connected a Stripe account to Give Lively, Stripe restricted your account sometime in the past.
• We have deactivated your Give Lively membership. Learn what happened when your Give Lively membership was deactivated.

What should I know about the check?

The check is a lump sum for the net value of donations directed to your organization via the Giving Basket. It includes all Giving Basket donations dating back to when your Stripe account was restricted – see the letter included with the check.

As advised in the letter:

• There are no conditions attached to these funds. Charity Navigator is the world’s largest and most-utilized independent nonprofit evaluator. Its free Giving Basket is a tool that helps donors give. Learn more here.
• A donation acknowledgment/tax receipt was sent to each donor by Give Lively at the time of the donation.
• A free Reports Portal, also powered by Give Lively, contains comprehensive data about these donations.

Learn more about checks for Giving Basket donations. Please consult your tax professional to understand the implications of these funds.

Why is the check from Give Lively? 

Give Lively builds, supports and powers practical and free fundraising platforms, including Charity Navigator's Giving Basket.

I'm already a Give Lively member, so why am I getting a check?

You previously connected a Stripe account to Give Lively, and Giving Basket donations to Give Lively member nonprofits are usually disbursed as transfers via Stripe. However, transfers can’t be completed to a restricted Stripe account and your Stripe account is restricted.

To ensure that you get your funds anyway, we've sent a check.

Without remedial action (see below), future donations through Charity Navigator's Giving Basket will also be disbursed by check.

How can I learn who made these donations? 

Details about the funds included in the lump-sum check are available via a secure Reports Portal also powered by Give Lively. See the letter and this article about how to access it.

To find relevant donor date within the Reports Portal:

• Click on “Checks” in the left-hand navigation. If you have received other checks from us, such as for donations made using PayPal via the Giving Basket, those checks will also appear in the on-screen report. If needed, use the search tool to find the number of the check you received. Click on the line with the check number for more information.
• The on-screen check report will show all donations included in the lump-sum check. Take note of the overall date range of those donations. Click on any line to learn more about a particular donation.
• To download a comprehensive CSV of donor data, click on “Line Items (Giving Basket)” in the portal’s left-hand navigation. Use the date filtering tool to capture the full date range of the donations covered by the check. Click the “Download CSV” button just above the table of charges. Note that the CSV will also detail donations in your chosen date range that may have been paid by other checks, like those made via PayPal. The “Check Number” column in the CSV will make that clear.

What can you tell me about the restricted Stripe account?

Stripe restricts accounts when, according to Stripe, “Additional information usually needs to be collected to enable” the account. For example, this could be bank documentation to verify a business, the identity of the primary account holder and/or other incomplete Know-Your-Customer (KYC) compliance requirements.

Because your Stripe account is restricted, we've deactivated your Give Lively membership. 

Learn more about what this means for Give Lively fundraising pages and Giving Basket donations.

How can I remedy my restricted Stripe account and/or reactivate my Give Lively membership?

To manage a Stripe restriction, it is critical to check your Stripe dashboard (dashboard.stripe.com/login) and contact Stripe Support (support.stripe.com/contact/login - open 24/7) for further assistance.

To reactivate your Give Lively membership, please contact our customer service team.

Why has there been a delay in disbursing these funds?

When we launched the new Giving Basket with Charity Navigator, we agreed to disburse funds to any nonprofit that received donations through it. The default disbursement mechanism for nonprofits that are Give Lively members is transfers via Stripe. However, as described above, transfers can’t be completed when a nonprofit’s Stripe account is restricted.

After informing the relevant Give Lively member nonprofits about a restriction on their Stripe account, we continued to push transfers in a timely manner, assuming that these nonprofits would remedy the issues with Stripe and recover the transferred funds.

However, after a delay and despite efforts to contact the account holders of the restricted Stripe accounts, it became clear that some nonprofits would not give attention to their Stripe situation.

Committed to disbursing these unclaimed funds, we’ve chosen a different path: the special check you received.