As we are not listed as a non-profit (501 3c), any thing you give is considered a gift and not a write-off donation. We are very sorry about this but we don't have the time or knowledge to fill out the piles of paperwork required for official non-profit status.
Direct Gifts
Art
If you have art that you would like to give to the cause, please email Josh or Becky at ArtRaiser.4.Scout[a]gmail[dot]com <-replacing [dot] with a . and [a] with @. We will do our best to respond to you within a day. If you don't hear from us in over two days and Scout's updates don't indicate any cause for non-response, please email again as we might have not received your first email. What we plan to do with art gifts is to put individual pieces of art in the auction and pieces where there are multiple of one kind (ex. Multiple pairs of fimo sushi earrings that Josh plans to make) in the Etsy store. Depending how many pieces we have offered, we may not be able to handle them all at our house. So in that case, we will have each artist photograph their piece and supply that with a detailed description to us for posting on the auction or Etsy. At this moment we just want to take inventory of the art being gifted.
Monetary Gifts
Art
If you have art that you would like to give to the cause, please email Josh or Becky at ArtRaiser.4.Scout[a]gmail[dot]com <-replacing [dot] with a . and [a] with @. We will do our best to respond to you within a day. If you don't hear from us in over two days and Scout's updates don't indicate any cause for non-response, please email again as we might have not received your first email. What we plan to do with art gifts is to put individual pieces of art in the auction and pieces where there are multiple of one kind (ex. Multiple pairs of fimo sushi earrings that Josh plans to make) in the Etsy store. Depending how many pieces we have offered, we may not be able to handle them all at our house. So in that case, we will have each artist photograph their piece and supply that with a detailed description to us for posting on the auction or Etsy. At this moment we just want to take inventory of the art being gifted.
Monetary Gifts
You can give by the Paypal Donation button on the side of the blog or the button below. This will take you to Paypal where you can donate by Credit Card, Paypal or Bank Account.
If you would prefer to give in person, you can email us and we can send you our address for a check. We would prefer not to accept cash, but if you're a cash kind of person... we can meet up and accept your gift. During a meet up, we would write up two receipts of the amount you gave us and we would both sign. This way we have a record for Uncle Sam.
Small Art Pieces
Once we get the Etsy site setup for the small art pieces... you will find designated gift amounts for Scout as the price of the Thank You art gift we will be giving you for your generosity. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtRaiser4Scout
Larger Pieces of Art
We will be having an auction using this blog within the next few weeks, once we have complied a list of all the gifted works. We hope to have actual start and end dates of the auction listed on this page by September 3rd. Each piece will have it's own blog post and bidding will occur by commenting on the post. (Thanks for Operation Layla for the wonderful idea) We will start the bidding by commenting the starting bid amount for each piece which will vary based on the estimated value by each artist. Whomever has the highest bid (aka gift amount) for each item will be contacted by email from us. You will then be asked to give the amount of the winning bid via the Paypal donation button. If that is not possible for you and you are in Pittsburgh, we can meet you for the gift or give you our address for you to send a check payment. Once the payment is processed, we will get the donor and the artist in contact with each other to determine the best method for shipping. As shipping for each piece will vary based on size, this is something we can not work out ahead of time. Plus to avoid IRS issues with Scout's medical gifts getting mixed up with shipping, we would prefer those to be handled separately between artist and donor. We will be looking up methods for shipping and determine what might be the easiest way for a donor to pay for the shipping of their artwork as shipping cost will depend on how safe they would like it shipped. Additionally, if you like in the Pittsburgh or DC area... we will have the means to get the Art to you in a direct manner. We can meet up with you for art delivery in Pittsburgh while Josh's mom or Becky's sister could assist us in delivering the art in DC.
Fees and the Legal Stuff
As always sites have processing fees. Our banker Shawn reminded me that most of this is due to the fees that they are charged by the credit card companies in addition to their own costs of operation. Below is the list of the fees for each method of giving as per what the individual sites have listed. What this means is that the overall gift to Scout's medical fund will be what you donate minus the fees imposed by each individual site.
PayPal - Direct Gift & Large Art
* [2.9% of gift + $0.30] for each gift ex. A $20 donation via paypal becomes $19.12 after fees.
Etsy - Small Art
* [3.5% sales fee on item cost only (not shipping) + $0.20] for each item
FundRazr- Direct Gifts by facebook widget
* [4.9% of gift (this fee includes the paypal fees in the 4.9%)+ $0.30] for each gift
And as listed at the top of this page, gifts can not be used as a tax write-off as we aren't an official non-profit. If anyone would like to fill out the paperwork and set it up for us to become a non-profit, we won't complain. =) But we don't have the means to do so on our own.
