Friends of Scouting electronic payments
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:43 pm
Hello, fellow financial brethren,
I have a number of members in my unit who are concerned about the new use this year of a payment clearinghouse for our Friends of Scouting donations to our BSA Council in Utah.
The company is called Patchfunding.com. It offers direct e-deposit options on the donation slip and gives members the chance to donate electronically rather than by cash or check. Several of our members used the system to process their donations without complication, but many of the members chose to simply use cash or check for their donation, as they have always done. We tried to turn in our final collective donation to the Stake leaders last week, but we received some push-back from them that we should convert the checks into "e-checks" by inserting the check number, routing number, account number and type, and the name on the checking account into the Patch Funding website, which would then process the e-checks directly to the BSA. We are to then write VOID on the paper check and submit it with the cash payments.
The problem I am having is that I do not feel comfortable, nor am I sure it is legal, for me to submit this detailed personal checking account information into a website database when the members have already had the opportunity to do so themselves and have chosen NOT to, especially when I do not have explicit permission from the member to do so. It seems that it adds another source of worry and concern for the member to have their checking account information sitting around in a database that they did not give permission to submit to, especially when they already had the opportunity to do so themselves and chose not to, nor do they even know that it is about to be given to another organization. Personally, I have financial organizations ask for my checking account information regularly, and I rarely give it out, simply because I am uncomfortable with that information floating freely about. I realize that in today's electronic world we have little in the way of privacy, but it seems that this is one more opportunity for something to go wrong. Am I being overly concerned about this?
I called several of the members about their donations and they explicitly told me that they gave us a check because they did NOT want to donate electronically. Isn't this just turning around and donating it electronically for them behind their back and without their permission?
It's another issue entirely to wonder about how much this clearinghouse in charging the BSA to process their donations. Is it really so hard for the BSA to actually deposit their donations themselves? Is it not enough for us to collect the money, but now they need us to deposit it directly into their bank account, with only a "small fee" taken from the donation and going to some unknown company for processing?
Something about all of this just doesn't feel right.
Do any of you have suggestions?
Thanks for your knowledge and advise!
Your brother clerk.
I have a number of members in my unit who are concerned about the new use this year of a payment clearinghouse for our Friends of Scouting donations to our BSA Council in Utah.
The company is called Patchfunding.com. It offers direct e-deposit options on the donation slip and gives members the chance to donate electronically rather than by cash or check. Several of our members used the system to process their donations without complication, but many of the members chose to simply use cash or check for their donation, as they have always done. We tried to turn in our final collective donation to the Stake leaders last week, but we received some push-back from them that we should convert the checks into "e-checks" by inserting the check number, routing number, account number and type, and the name on the checking account into the Patch Funding website, which would then process the e-checks directly to the BSA. We are to then write VOID on the paper check and submit it with the cash payments.
The problem I am having is that I do not feel comfortable, nor am I sure it is legal, for me to submit this detailed personal checking account information into a website database when the members have already had the opportunity to do so themselves and have chosen NOT to, especially when I do not have explicit permission from the member to do so. It seems that it adds another source of worry and concern for the member to have their checking account information sitting around in a database that they did not give permission to submit to, especially when they already had the opportunity to do so themselves and chose not to, nor do they even know that it is about to be given to another organization. Personally, I have financial organizations ask for my checking account information regularly, and I rarely give it out, simply because I am uncomfortable with that information floating freely about. I realize that in today's electronic world we have little in the way of privacy, but it seems that this is one more opportunity for something to go wrong. Am I being overly concerned about this?
I called several of the members about their donations and they explicitly told me that they gave us a check because they did NOT want to donate electronically. Isn't this just turning around and donating it electronically for them behind their back and without their permission?
It's another issue entirely to wonder about how much this clearinghouse in charging the BSA to process their donations. Is it really so hard for the BSA to actually deposit their donations themselves? Is it not enough for us to collect the money, but now they need us to deposit it directly into their bank account, with only a "small fee" taken from the donation and going to some unknown company for processing?
Something about all of this just doesn't feel right.
Do any of you have suggestions?
Thanks for your knowledge and advise!
Your brother clerk.