User talk:68.1.191.229

Donation to WikiMedia Foundation

Hello Jeanne. This is a copy of my response to this question from you at the Help Desk. about charges added to WMF donations:

Firstly, thank you for your generous contributions to the Wikimedia Foundation, none of which goes to any of the volunteers here, I might add. Whilst 331dot is right to say that we can't really help you here on this help desk, I am stepping in to offer you some good, helpful advice.

I recently had exactly the same experience with GoFundMe who, by default, add on a so-called 'Tip' of 15% to every donation they process. I was contributing to a church on the street group' who were feeding unemployed and starving families in Northern England. I was upset to see the pastor who was running it break down in tears on BBC TV News as he described the dire situation, and felt moved to give something. And just like you, I was utterly incandescent with rage when I found this extra fee had been added on, and I hadn't noticed, so I took to Social Media to call them all rogues and thieves! But, having then calmed down a bit, I explored the GoFundMe website a little further and found (https support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/204150420-Refund-Requesting-a-Refund), from where a big green link allowed me to claim back that 15% 'tip'. To be fair to them, my request was acknowledged within the hour, and five hours later the money was back in my PayPal account. Ten minutes after that, I donated that same amount back to the original project. Do please follow that link to get back that obscene amount of money they took. I know they have overheads in processing payments, but that percentage is ridiculous.

One last thing: I see the official Wikimedia Foundation donations pages here and here make no mention of GoFundMe, and that they do accept direct payments. But I also found (charity.gofundme.com/wikimediafoundationi) which is an official looking donation page on GoFundMe. I think I will enquire by emailing donate@wikimedia.org to ask whether it really is legitimate, and why it is not mentioned on that donations page. I hope this helps. I will leave a copy of this reply on your IP user page, and let you know what WMF say, too. Many thanks, once again.

Note that I cannot include live hyperlinks to GoFundMe as these are automatically blocked by our spam filters), but youc easily work out the correct pages to go to. Regards from the UK Nick Moyes (talk) 23:17, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello again Jeanne. I have now received a reply from the Donor Services team at Wikimedia Foundation, who confirm that the GoFundMe page for WMF is definitely legitimate, even though it wasn't listed as a means of giving on the donations page. They wrote:

"Our Legal team have looked into it and we are happy to confirm the link, created via the PayPal Giving Fund and GuideStar, is actually legitimate. We are most appreciative of you for reaching out to us about this matter."

I'm pinging 331dot as they initially responded to your question, and I hope by now you've followed my advice and have managed to reclaim back that exorbitant 'tip' the GoFundMe site took from you on top of your kind donations. Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 11:10, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

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