The great guys at For A Friend contacted me about some odd things occurring with PayPal and we need your help.
You see, For A Friend is a website for missionaries from all of the world to be listed. If you’re interested in supporting a missionary in the Ukraine, for example, you can see if there is one in the area that you can support. It’s a really awesome concept. Check it out!
However, PayPal has denied them service. So, if you would like to give money to a missionary via PayPal, you can’t.
I asked For A Friend to email me abou their story, in hopes that the ChurchMag community could be of some help.
Here is their story:
Forafriend.com been denied a PayPal account and has been blocked from ever getting an account. When we first started our site we tried to open a PayPal account and they told us we could not open an account because they thought we were trying to aggregate funds. We told them how we were using the funds to help missions and the way funds were to flow from the giver to the missionary.
After this happened, we just thought we would try later when we have more business and had completed the 501c3 process. We had only applied for 501c3 status and it takes about 6 to 9 months to be completed. We had no issues getting Amazon Payment, Chase Quick Pay or credit card processes before getting our 501c3 status, so we did not understand why PayPal would not let us have an account.
In late February, we got approved for 501c3 with the US Gov. So I sent the info to PapyPal and they lifted some of our restrictions, but not all since they asked for more information from us. After going back and forth, sending them more papers, void checks, proof of address, etc .., we assumed all would end well. Just when I thought they had all the info they needed, they told me over the phone that a board had to review everything and we would be all set in a few days.
Great!
But wait …
A few days later they came back and said,
Sorry, we can not lift the restrictions.
So I called them to find out what happened. They told me paypal is not the, “right fit for us at this time”. Naturally, I asked at what time would be the right time. He said,
“Never.”
I asked a few more questions and got no answers on why they would not give us an account. Finally, he hung up on me.
Has anyone else had issues like this with PayPal? Would anyone know what we can do from here?
Have you ever heard of this happening? Can you help?
Jeff Heck says
I would suggest trying Google Checkout. They waive credit card fees for 501c3 organizations. Also, you can set up recurring payments/donations through the API.
Jeremy says
Sounds like it’s time to try Dwolla.
Daniel Berman says
Second that.
Adam says
The only issues with Dwolla is that it only works in the USA and we already have Amazon Payment that also only works in the USA. The only reason we would want paypal is that it does international payment and also a lot of people already have accounts with them. We don’t want to make our missionaries make a new account to something if they don’t have to. Thanks for the idea thought.
daryl says
Eric, thanks for posting this. I’m the developer at forafriend and yeah we’ve been really frustrated by this. In the end, we don’t really care that much to accept payments through them anymore. We’ve got credit card processing and I think that’ll be fine for now. We’d simply like to use them to send the money on to missionaries, since most missionaries already have a PayPal account, but they aren’t willing to let us do that either unfortunately, even though I can’t see how it poses a risk to them.
Steve says
Incredible! As told, PayPal’s actions can only be interpreted as bias against the work of Christians “imposing” their beliefs on unsuspecting people around the world. Maybe if the missionaries promised to distribute free contraception, PayPal would be more cooperative.
I hope word about this spreads so that PayPal feels compelled to offer a more thorough explanation (even though forafriend is justifiably put off from using their services).
Adam says
Thanks for your thoughts Steve and helping spread the work about how paypal has a bias against the work of Christians.
daryl says
Steve,
I appreciate your sympathy, but I don’t think it’s helpful to assume that Paypal is anti-Christian. I do hope Paypal offers us a more thorough explanation, but I don’t hope it happens through them being accused of being anti-Christian.
My assumption is that they just had some suspicions about us at first and since we’re small and it doesn’t necessarily benefit them much to take the time to try to understand what we’re doing, they’ve just decided to close the door and not mess with us. Please be careful about making assumptions about why you or others are being misunderstood or wronged. We’re not sure why it is, but we are sure that God doesn’t need them to work with us to do what He wants to do through forafriend so we don’t feel the need to try to create a big issue out of it.
If someone does some research and finds a patter of PayPal refusing to work with Christian or Missions organizations then we may have a reason to believe that’s what’s behind our problem with them.
“Blessed are the peacemakers”
Brandon Greene says
I had a similar situation with Paypal a few years ago. I have been a missionary in Europe for 13 years. After using Paypal for a year and a half they restricted my account. They said that it did not have the required documentation. I faxed all the ‘required’ documentation (which was more than was needed for a merchant account), and they refused to change my status. I even secured a letter from the Secretary of State of MS and a letter from the BBB. After a time Paypal refused to accept my calls or respond to my emails and closed my account without explanation. Oh well… an inconvenience for me but horrible policy and business practice for Paypal.
Keith says
It would be good to have a lawyer contact PayPal to get a more concrete, written explanation of the basis upon which your request was denied.
David says
Dear all,
I am having a similar issue. Paypal requires a USA bank account. Where I live in Cambodia, I can not do that. Right now I am in need of financial support and friends are willing to give small payments a month, but if they send through the bank, then there wont be hardly anything left over once it reaches Cambodia. So I want to ask, is there another way?
David
Eric Dye says
How have you had U.S. moneys sent to you in the past?
Tim says
I develop resources and training for youth workers around the world and have used PayPal to pay employees since 2001. I am an employee of a U.S. 501C3 and recently received an email from PayPal saying that “missionary work” is a violation (i deleted names and details):
Hello (name removed),
Our review is complete and we have returned your account to regular
standing. PayPal cannot be used to process payments related to ____ ____
or missionary work. Any further violations will result in account closure
We appreciate your patience and thank you for your help in making PayPal
the safest and most trusted online payment solution.
Thanks,
(name removed)
PayPal