What is a CarePortal Fund & How is it Used by Churches?

Overview

This article introduces the option for any church to enable a CarePortal Fund (and CarePortal Card) within the CarePortal platform. This feature enables streamlined fundraising that remains separate from the church's internal accounts, budgets, or transaction processing costs, and equips church leaders and response teams to serve more families and kids through meeting CarePortal requests. 

Intended Audience

Church Leaders and Network Leaders

Included in This Article

• Watch the CarePortal Fund Training Video
• What is a CarePortal Fund & How Can They Help Churches?
• What are the Practical Benefits of Enabling a CarePortal Fund?
• How Does a CarePortal Card Work with a CarePortal Fund?
• Who Can Give to a CarePortal Fund?

Watch the CarePortal Fund Training Video

(to use or embed this video in your own resources, feel free to use this link)

What is a CarePortal Fund & How Can They Help Churches?

Enabling a CarePortal Fund allows a church to invite anyone to make tax-deductible donations that church leaders have stewardship of without requiring the church to have or use their own budgeted resources or online giving processes. Donations can be made by the congregation members, community members, local businesses, and even strangers, and are available for the church to use in meeting vetted needs of families through open CarePortal requests. 

CarePortal covers tax liabilities and transaction processing fees for donors and gifts given to each church's CarePortal Fund, including end-of-year giving letters.

This feature and service was created for multiple reasons:

1. Many churches do not have the capability to collect online donations or the staff to handle the increased financial paperwork and liability that comes with these processes. Having a CarePortal Fund empowers these churches to be more involved in meeting the needs of their communities than they otherwise could be. 
2. Some churches simply prefer to bypass their church's financial structure and processes (including tax liability) if they can, which simplifies their ability to empower members to get involved in the community. 
3. Many donors already know and trust the CarePortal platform, a ministry initiative of The Global Orphan Project, which has maintained the Charity Navigator’s 4-Star rating and Guidestar’s Platinum Seal of Transparency for several consecutive years. And since any money given to a church's CarePortal Fund must be used for meeting CarePortal requests, donors can make their donation without questioning where their resources will go.

What are the Practical Benefits of Enabling a CarePortal Fund?

• "Give to our CarePortal Fund" button available publicly and available to Church Leaders in their dashboard
  
  With a CarePortal Fund enabled, this button is added to the church's public page allowing anyone to make a tax-deductible gift and help build up that church's available resources for meeting CarePortal requests. Donors could include congregants, community members, local business partnerships, or even strangers! This button is also available to Church Leaders on the Transactions tab in their dashboard.
  
  
• CarePortal sends all tax-related donor letters and covers transaction fees
  When donations are made, the CarePortal platform will give the user the option to add an additional amount to help cover transaction fees. At the end of the year, all donor letters are sent by The Global Orphan Project (non-profit developer of CarePortal) to donors who've given to help meet needs through CarePortal.
  
  
• Church Leaders can use their CarePortal Fund to transfer money to their own CarePortal Card through an open CarePortal Request, equipping their own teams to directly serve local families. 
  The responding church leader would make sure their CarePortal Fund is the "contribution source" and that the checkbox is selected, indicating they want to transfer that money to their CarePortal Card. Unchecking this box means the church is interested in letting a different church use this money from their CarePortal Card. Fund-to-Fund transfers are currently not possible. The transfer of any money in a Fund requires it to be designated to a specific open request. 

How Does a CarePortal Fund Work with a CarePortal Card?

It's important to understand that a church's CarePortal Fund balance is not the same as the balance of their CarePortal Card. If someone gives money into a CarePortal Fund, the money is not immediately added to any church's CarePortal Card. 

To get money from a CarePortal Fund onto a CarePortal Card, the leaders of that church would need to:

• Make sure their CarePortal Fund is the selected "Contribution Source" for a specific request they want to respond to.
  Note: If a church has their CarePortal Fund enabled in their Settings, this contribution source should be the default option selected.
  
  
• Make sure the checkbox to transfer money from the CarePortal Fund to their CarePortal Card is selected.
  Note: This box is defaulted to be checked; unchecking this box would indicate that a church is interested in having another church use this money from their own CarePortal Card to meet the selected items.

• A confirmation email is sent to the church leaders when the money from their Fund is added to their CarePortal Card, and the balances of both their CarePortal Fund and CarePortal Card is available inside their CarePortal dashboard.

Have more questions about how CarePortal Cards work?

• CarePortal Card FAQs & Best Practices
• Should My Church Become a Connecting Church?

Who Can Give into a CarePortal Fund?

Giving money into a Fund is different from directly "funding" the specific items on an open request as part of a response to the request. While anyone can give money into a CarePortal Fund, which is not directed toward any specific open request yet, Church Responders for a church that has enabled a CarePortal Fund (and has a Card) but is not a Connecting Church cannot fund specific items for a request.

• When a CarePortal Fund is enabled, any CarePortal user (Response Team Members, Other Churches, Community Members, Business Leaders... even complete strangers from five states away) can give into a church's CarePortal Fund through that church's public page (button shown below). 
  
  
  If someone who does not have a CarePortal username and password clicks this button to give, the platform will guide them through a simple process of adding at least their name, email address, and local zip code to give them login access and the ability to give to any church's CarePortal Fund as well as to respond to any specific, open CarePortal request.
  
  
• Church Leaders have the additional ability to give to their church's CarePortal Fund through their Transactions and Settings pages within their CarePortal dashboard.
  

In either case, the donation process is very simple for signed-in users. Type the amount to give, add/select a contribution source, and click "Submit Funding". An email receipt will be sent automatically, and all donations are tax-deductible.

An additional way to add money to your CarePortal Fund is via a check. This can be ideal when adding larger amounts of money because it eliminates processing fees. Be sure to designate the church you want the money to be added to, writing it exactly as it is listed in CarePortal. You can make the check out to CarePortal and include 'Donation to (enter church's name here)'s CarePortal Fund' in the memo line of the check so that our finance team knows which church's CarePortal Fund to add that money to! Send the check here:

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