I am having trouble figuring out how to establish a "bank account" (taking money in; a savings type account) and a "pay pal" or charge account (where people can use credit cards to pay for tickets, etc.) for our class website. Let me explain . . . So far we have not been able to enlist anyone to be our Finance Chairperson but we are still searching. Meanwhile, we need to solicit donations in order to pay for deposits, supplies, copying, etc. We are not ready to activate the total Planner II yet because the Finance Chair should do that. We have several volunteers who will solicit donations but we do not have a way for a donation to be credited to "our account" since we don't have an account. My husband is willing to try to set up the accounts needed and to function in this capacity temporarily until we can find a Financial Chair. The problem is that he and I have not been able to find an easy set of directions to follow on this. I have read many of the questions & answers in this section and the Frequently Asked section but no one seems to be asking what I need. I need a set of very specific directions to follow. Planner II does not seem to "fit the bill" unless we activate a button on our main home page, and we are not ready yet for that. We want to start slow with a limited number until we really get started financially. I have also read a lot of the threads for the topics of Pay Pal and Donations. I am totally confused on the Pay Pal issue as well since Class Creators now seems to have its own system and my impression from what I read is that Pay Pal has been done away with and you have your own system. Where is this explained in an easy to understand and detailed manner? So is there an easy way to establish a beginning financial system? Is it possible for my husband to establish our class accounts and then hand over its management to the Finance Chair when we find that person? (Do I even make sense?) I find that everything I read is very complicated and I can't seem to find a place to go where there is an easy, logical and simplistic set of directions.

As you can see, I am having several problems all connected in some way with the financial side of our reunion. I am a member of the core steering committee for the reunion but I am not a financial person (as you can tell). Please help.

Thank you!

I'm going to ask Jessica to give you some information about establishign a bank account, but I want to make something very clear here. Our Reunion Planner II store currently does not offer a PayPal option, as tigher integration with the merchant gateway was required to give people the current and upcoming functionality they want.

This has nothing to do with accepting PayPal donations though. We're big supporters of PayPal, and only dropped the option from the Reunion Planner II store for technical reasons (we're looking into some PayPal API stuff right now, but that's another story for later). The Donate Module you have under your home page ONLY uses PayPal. It has not changed. If you want to take donations via PayPal, simply activate that Donations module and follow your instructions on screen.

Thank you, Brad, for your help.

We have now set up a Pay Pal Business Account for our reunion and the Donate button has been activated. It was not really that easy to set up because the questions asked to set up the account were more geared towards a business rather than a reunion. I realize that this is Pay Pal rather than you all (right?) but a few suggestions on the best way to do the set up for a reunion wouldn't be a bad idea on this site. Just a an observation and possible suggestion.

Now I have another question . . . . We did not have a Finance Chair for our reunion and we needed to get going so we could start advertising for some donations (our class has no money but we do have expenses) so my husband set up the PayPal Business Account and activated the donate button, but he is not going to be the Treasurer or Finance Chair. Then late last night we had someone volunteer to be our Finance Chair but not until after April 15th (he's working taxes now). My question is, how do we change the name of the person on the account (mine) and all the details (like SS#, passwords maybe, email address definitely) that are currently set up to the new person coming in? How do we go about changing over all the pertinent details to fit the new person coming on board in another 2 weeks? For now, everything concerning that Pay Pal Business Account and donate button come to me.

Thank you for your assistance.

You would have to change all of those things in the PayPal account, and I'm not even sure you can change all of those things there. You'd need to ask them. Or you can always set up a different PayPal Business Account at that time, and then on your Class Creator site simply change the PayPal Business Account email address. That would immediately redirect any new money coming in over to the new person.

Hi Sharon,

See This Thread about getting an EIN for your reunion if you don't already have one. Once you have that you can open the bank account specifically for the reunion.

Dear Jessica,

Thank you so much for this thread. There is some really interesting info on how to get an EIN number and even the number for the IRS is listed. That is such great info and makes it easy.

I don't know yet whether we will get an EIN number or not. Some of our group think it is not necessary and others think it is a good idea. So while we decide, it is good to have precise info on how to do it!

Again, thank you!

Jessica,

I am still trying to find out about a bank account for our reunion. I have been to the bank and they do not require an EIN number but they recommend getting one. I am currently on the phone with the IRS and have been for 1 1/2 hrs. They keep switching me from one dept. to another. The question has to do with the organization (reunion) being tax exempt or non-profit. This seems to be a big issue with no easy answer. So this is very confusing to me. It actually is a huge issue in that there are state rules, IRS rules, etc. There is tax exempt status or non-profit status. The reunion is in one state but the person writing checks and needing the bank account is in another state. So asking the IRS is difficult (I have just been thru all this) because of location and individual state rules. So now I have to go online to the IRS site and study a lot of info before applying again for an EIN number, and I may have to make decisions on whether to apply for one of these designatons and which one. You gave me a thread to how to get an EIN number and the girl who got hers so easily was very lucky in my opinion. I am not so lucky.

So I have to move on to another question. Our reunion has set up its Pay Pal Business Account and activated its Donation button. Now we need to set up our Planner II and whatever goes with that. When this is set up, do we then end up with TWO accounts? Basically, will we have TWO business accounts? One that handles donations only and uses Pay Pal; and one that handles tickets, selling merchandise or whatever, and uses Class Creators' payment system (have no clue what it is called) for credit card sales? Could you please clarify this?

Thank you.

You will only need one bank account. Both Paypal and the ticket sales can go directly into the same bank account.

Unless you are registered as a non-profit I believe the IRS is suppose to just set up you as tax exempt since the funds are collected and expensed out for one purpose. That was my understanding from the other thread. Tax Exempt rather than non-profit (unless of course your organization is already a registered non-profit).

Jessica, thank you for your prompt response.

I think we need to clarify terminology. By the term "bank account", I am not sure to what you are referring. In this last question I was referring to what is on Class Creators and our website. Does your answer refer to that? At the real bank (Sun Trust or whatever bank we use) I would have only one bank account, but online with you all would we have only one account integrated together somehow or would we end up with 2 business accounts? (I use the word "business" to refer to you all and I use the word "bank" to refer to the bank out in the real world).

Thank you!! Sorry to be such a dunce but communication is everything and terminology can be confusing.

No problem.

You will have:

One bank account at your bank.

One paypal account for your donations - funds can be transferred to your bank account within Paypal under My Account > Withdraw.

And one website reunion planner which collects funds that will be sent via check - in the very near future we'll have ACH processing of payments rather than checks.