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By default, fundraising programs at RaiseRight allow participants to choose “Pay Coordinator Directly” and/or “Ship to Coordinator” when placing orders for gift cards. When these options are chosen, program coordinators become responsible for managing the collection of payments, receipt of gift card shipments, and distribution of orders. 

With Organization Settings —a new tool available on the Coordinator Dashboard—coordinators can now actively toggle these payment and shipping options on and off for their organization’s participants. 

While there are many benefits for coordinators who run programs that have “Pay Coordinator” and “Ship to Coordinator” turned off, there are also several implications to consider including limited availability of products for participants, shipping costs for participants, and a potential impact on organization earnings.  

Please refer to FAQs below for detailed information on how these Organization Settings work and their potential impact on your program. 

Ship to Coordinator FAQs  

Turning this ON gives participants the option to ship orders to their designated coordinator.  

Turning this OFF removes this shipping option for participants and limits their direct ordering product options to eGift cards, reloads on existing physical cards, and physical gift cards eligible for Ship to Home. All products remain available for bulk and proxy orders placed by coordinators. 

How do I know if turning Ship to Coordinator off is right for my program?

Coordinators can turn Ship to Coordinator on or off at any time, so depending on the needs of the organization or coordinator, it may make sense to turn OFF for the following program types or scenarios:

  • Prospective coordinators exploring and learning about RaiseRight 
  • Programs with seasonality, or breaks in participation
  • Programs that are transitioning from one coordinator to another
  • Coordinators that prefer to be hands-off, relying solely on virtual fundraising 
  • Coordinators on national organizations 
  • Coordinators that go on a vacation

How could I use this to set up a virtual-only program?

Turning Ship to Coordinator off (in combination with turning Pay Coordinator off) supports virtual-only fundraising because participants can earn for their designated organizations without involving the coordinator. (Except for proxy orders, when a coordinator places an order on behalf of a participant.) 
 
Participants who cannot choose Ship to Coordinator can continue to earn on digital products like eGift cards and reloaded funds on existing physical cards, or physical cards that are eligible for Ship to Home. To learn more about fees and shipping costs associated with Ship to Home orders, see Shipping Options

What is the difference between Ship to Coordinator and Ship to Home?

Ship to Coordinator is a shipping option that participants can choose during checkout, where their gift card orders are added to the designated coordinator’s Order Queue, then approved and submitted by the coordinator all at once through a Purchase Order. The shipping cost for the Purchase Order is paid for by the organization. Upon receipt of the gift cards, the coordinator is responsible for distributing gift cards accordingly to participants.  
 
Physical gift cards that are eligible for Ship to Home can be sent directly to the participants’ home address. Ship to Home orders include a shipping fee for participants, as well as a small handling fee per card. For more on shipping and handling fees, please see our Shipping Options page. If Ship to Coordinator is turned off, participants who want to purchase physical gift cards are limited to Ship to Home eligible products. 

Is there a list of brands that will no longer be available if I turn Ship to Coordinator off?

While availability of products is always subject to change, brands that only offer physical gift card products that are not eligible for Ship to Home will no longer be available. This includes any custom local products the coordinator has added for their programs, and popular brands such as: McDonald’s, Publix, Festival Foods WI, Piggly Wiggly WI, ShopRite, Menards, Marathon, Dairy Queen, Wawa, Sprouts, Stop and Shop, Giant Foods, Holiday Station Stores, Noodles and Co., Cenex, Stater Bros., Qdoba, Michaels, American Express, QuickCheck, Hilton, Advance Auto 
 
To view a full listing of physical cards that are eligible for Ship to Home and still available to participants when Ship to Coordinator is turned off, visit the Shop page on RaiseRight.com and choose the Card Type filter, then select Ship to Home.

What are local products? Will they still be available to participants if Ship to Coordinator is turned off?

If there are local brands or retailers that offer gift cards, coordinators can work with those local brands to include them as part of their fundraising programs. Once the coordinator and local retailer have determined the earnings % that their gift cards will offer, coordinators can set these products up for their participants to see when they shop online. Note: Local products are only available to participants on organizations where the coordinator has added the local retailer as a product option, along with the 750+ brands offered through RaiseRight. 
 
If Ship to Coordinator is turned off, these custom local products will no longer be available to participants. These local products will only be available through bulk orders or proxy orders that coordinators place on behalf of participants. 
 
To learn more about adding local products to your program, please see our Program Management FAQs.

What changes will my participants see?

Brands that are not available after turning Ship to Coordinator off will be omitted from search results when browsing the mobile app or website. While product description pages will still be visible for all brands from external links (such as bookmarks or links in an email), the “Add to Cart” option will be disabled, and participants will see the following message: “This card is not available because your organization only allows Ship to Home eligible physical cards.” 

  

Will coordinators lose any functionality?

No—coordinators can still place bulk orders for the organization, as well as proxy orders (orders placed on behalf of participants). Coordinators placing personal orders, however, will have the same ordering options as the organization’s participants.

What if I turn Ship to Coordinator off, but have existing open orders?

When Ship to Coordinator is turned off, any previous or existing orders placed by participants using Ship to Coordinator will remain in the coordinator’s Order Queue until added to a Purchase Order or canceled by the coordinator. Orders placed by participants after Ship to Coordinator is turned off will not appear in the coordinator’s Order Queue. 

Can I turn this on or off at any time?

Yes. To turn Ship to Coordinator on or off at any time, visit Organization Settings in the Coordinator Dashboard and toggle the setting accordingly.

Will my participants be notified whenever I turn this feature on or off?

Currently, there are no automatic notifications for participants when the Ship to Coordinator setting is changed, however this is a feature that we plan to implement soon.

Can I turn Ship to Coordinator off, but leave Pay Coordinator turned on?

Yes.

How can turning Ship to Coordinator off impact my organization’s earnings?

Removing the option for participants to choose Ship to Coordinator means that they can only earn on digital products (eGift cards or reloading funds onto existing physical cards) and physical gift cards that are eligible for Ship to Home. Note: Not all physical products are eligible for Ship to Home. Local products will also not be available for participant ordering and will only be available through proxy orders that coordinators place on behalf of participants. 
 
Ship to Home gift card orders include a $0.50 handling fee per card (with a maximum of 16 cards per order), plus applicable shipping costs. For more on shipping costs, please see Shipping Options.

How much is shipping?

Shipping information for organization and participant orders can be found on our Shipping Options page.

What if I have more questions about how this might affect my program?

 If you have additional questions, please Contact Us. Our customer support team is happy to help. 

Pay Coordinator FAQs 

Turning this ON gives participants the option to pay coordinators for orders they place online. 

Turning this OFF removes this payment option for participants and limits their direct payment options to using ACH (a linked a bank account) or credit card. 

How do I know if disabling Pay Coordinator is right for my program?

Turning Pay Coordinator off works best for organizations that meet the following criteria:

  • The organization has online payments enabled 
  • Most participants in the organization already have (or will have) an online payment method set up in their individual RaiseRight accounts
  • The coordinator cannot, or prefers not to, collect and manage payments from participants

What changes will my participants see if I turn Pay Coordinator off?

Upon checkout, participants will no longer have the option to select Pay Coordinator and will only be able to pay for orders directly through their bank account or with a credit card.

Turning Pay Coordinator off for participants will have no impact on the availability of gift cards—all products remain available for participants to purchase directly online.
 
(If Ship to Coordinator is also turned off, product availability for participants is limited to eGift cards, reloads on existing physical gift cards, or physical gift cards eligible for Ship to Home. All products, however, remain available for bulk or proxy orders that the coordinator places.)

How could I use this to set up a virtual-only program?

Turning Pay Coordinator off supports virtual-only fundraising because participants can earn for their designated organizations without the coordinator needing to collect payments. Participants can pay for their gift card orders directly online with a bank account connection or credit card added to their account.  
 
To learn more, watch and share this brief tutorial video on how to set up online payments.

What if I have existing open orders?

When Pay Coordinator is turned off, any previous or existing orders placed by participants using Pay Coordinator will remain in the coordinator’s Order Queue until either:

  1. Payment is received by the coordinator and the order is added to a Purchase Order, or 
  2. The order is canceled by the coordinator

Orders placed by participants after Pay Coordinator is turned off will need to be paid for directly by participants via bank account or credit card. 

What if participants don’t have a bank account connected?

Participants can quickly and securely connect a bank account to their account by visiting Account > Settings > Payment Options. To watch and share a tutorial video on how to set up online payments, click here. 

Alternatively, during checkout, participants can choose to pay with a credit card. (Note: Purchases made with a credit card include a 2.6% transaction fee.)

I’m a coordinator on a ‘Pay by Check’ organization. What is the Pay Coordinator setting, and why can’t I use the toggle?

As a “Pay by Check” organization, by default, the only way your participants can order gift cards is by paying the coordinator, so this setting must remain on for your organization. The option to turn the Pay Coordinator setting on or off is only for organizations that have online payments enabled—when Pay Coordinator is off, participants can still pay for orders directly online through their individual accounts. 
 
If you would like the flexibility of having your participants pay for orders directly online, please email [email protected] to enable online payments for your organization. To learn more about enabling online payments for your organization, see our Finance FAQs page.