Chariot - US DAF aggregator
All US-registered nonprofits can use our Chariot integration to give their donors the option to donate to their campaign (and soon to their donate page) from any of over 1,000 donor advised funds (DAFs). These include DAFs common in the Jewish community (eg Donors Fund and OJC, both of which we are also directly integrated with, and the Jewish Communal Fund), but also many general ones, large (eg Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable) and small. Chariot continues to add more DAFs.
What are DAFs?
Donor Advised Funds allow donors to assign their charitable funds to the DAF, and then distribute those funds as they choose to different non-profits, which receive their donations directly from the DAF. For the donor, this simplifies the tax receipt process, and can increase the value of their donations over the longer term. For registered nonprofits, DAFs make it easier for donors to transfer them larger sums that have already been designated for charitable giving. Generally DAF donations are several times the value of credit card donations.
The benefit of Chariot
Since there are many many DAFs that donors works with, that currently hold approximately $230 Billion awaiting distribution, co-ordinating online integration with each one would be an impossible task for most non-profits. Chariot provides a simple single integration for platforms (including CauseMatch) and websites, allowing donors to securely donate to your campaign or donate page without clicking away.
Using Chariot on your CauseMatch campaign
While we recommend doing so, you do NOT have to pre-register with Chariot to have the integration on your campaign page (and soon on your donate page). As long as your organisation is registered with the IRS under 501c3, OR you are using a USD fiscal sponsor who agrees to use Chariot on your behalf, your campaign page can be connected to Chariot very simply as an additional US gateway, simply using your organisation's registered EIN, and providing a contact email and name within your organisation. This should be someone from your finance, development or administrative team, who will be able to co-ordinate the receipt of funds from DAFs.
For organisations which are not already registered with Chariot, they charge 2.9% fee on these donations. Registered organisations will be charged within their existing fee structure.
Making a campaign donation via Chariot
On the donate page, the donor sees various options, including one for Donor Advised Fund.
Once they click on this, and fill in the information you need about your donors, they click on the Donor Advised Fund button at the bottom.
This will open up a separate window with a list of DAFs.
Once they choose their DAF, the donor will be asked to log in to the DAF to complete the donation.
Once the transaction is completed within Chariot, they will return to the CauseMatch Thank You Screen, and be able to see their donation on the page as normal. They will receive a Thank You notification email from CauseMatch, confirming their donation. Please note that this is not a tax receipt, since they will have previously received that from their DAF.
Refunds and donation corrections
If the donor needs a change in the display information on the campaign page (the display name, comment, ambassador, etc) you may be able to make this change directly, or our technical support team will be happy to assist via the donation edit form and/or the CauseMatch dashboard chat.
If there is a mistake in the actual donation and the donor wants a refund, they should be in touch with their DAF directly as soon as possible to make the correction. Once the DAF has already sent the donation to the organisation, refunds cannot be made by Chariot or the DAF. Since the funds have been signed over to the DAF by the donor, completed transfers to organisations are generally non-revokeable. In most cases, this should have been made clear to donors when they signed up with their DAF.
Receiving DAF donations
As a new/unregistered Chariot user, you will receive your DAF donations directly from the DAF in the form of checks. Each DAF has its own accounting process, but there's a general timing for each one. If you wish you can sign up to receive these donations as bank deposits via Chariot.
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