There are a few reasons why your organization may have anticipated receiving a payout of donations or other funds that you've collected through your Bonterra platforms - but ultimately, did not receive those expected funds.
The most common reason that this happens is because your organization has had a "hold" placed on their account. We've created a helpful guide below that helps explain the various types of account holds, and what actions you can expect to take to have that hold lifted.
Types of Holds
There are two different "levels" of hold that an organization may experience - a disbursement hold, or a donation hold.
A "disbursement hold" is a hold that is placed at your organization's account level, meaning that all donations your organization has received since your last payout or disbursement are being held.
A "donation hold" is a hold that is placed at the donation level, meaning that specific donations or donations made from a specific source that were processed since your last payout or disbursement are being held.
There is also something called a "block," which is a step beyond the hold referenced above. A donation block not only stops Network for Good's Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) from disbursing a payout to your organization, it prevents Network for Good's DAF from being able to collect donation on behalf of your organization entirely.
Reasons for a Disbursement Hold
An organization can have a disbursement hold placed on their account for various reasons, such as:
the IRS has revoked the organization's status
the IRS has revoked the organization's sponsor's status
the organization's bank has initiated a hold
state regulations aren't being met by the organization
the organization is designated as "cannot or will not accept donations"
the organization hasn't met the appropriate eligibility
the organization has been dissolved
the organization is either "presumed defunct" or "unlikely to cash" the payout
How to Resolve a Disbursement Hold
Typically, organizations are placed on hold for the above reasons because they're considered "non-verifiable," meaning that our team has not been able to verify an organization's status with our standard compliance checks.
In these situations, our team will reach out directly to your organization with further guidance on how to resolve the issue, as well as a specified time frame in which you should attempt to address the hold.
If your organization isn't able to reach a "satisfactory resolution" by the end of that time frame, your organization may have that hold turn into a "block," which is described below.
Reasons for a Donation Hold
Alternatively, an organization might experience a donation hold for the following reasons:
a disputed donation
a "high-dollar" donation (typically $10,000 or above)
the organization is not complying with Network for Good's DAF policies
How to Resolve a Donation Hold
For a disputed donation or a high-dollar donation resulting in a donation hold, our team will reach out to the donor who made the donation (or initiated the dispute) to further investigate.
For a high-dollar donation, the donation hold would be released once the donor confirms the donation was legitimate - or, if the donor does not respond to our outreach, four months after the donation was made. For a disputed donation, the donation will remain on hold until our team is able to address the dispute with the donor and come to an appropriate resolution.
For an organization that isn't complying with Network for Good's DAF policies - such as using a donation page to host an auction or a raffle - our team will reach out directly with further instructions to have your organization return to good standing, and a hold (or block) will be placed if your organization isn't in compliance within 30 days.
Reasons for a Block
An organization can have a block on their account for a multitude of reasons, such as:
the IRS has revoked the organization's status
the IRS has revoked the organization's sponsor's status
the organization doesn't have a U.S. presence
state regulations aren't being met by the organization
the organization is designated as "cannot or will not accept donations"
the organization hasn't met the appropriate eligibility
the organization has been dissolved
the organization is either "presumed defunct" or "unlikely to cash" the payout
How to Resolve a Block
The ways to resolve a donation block depend on why the organization received the block in the first place. We recommend reaching out to our team directly to resolve this as soon as possible, as a block prevents Network for Good's DAF from being able to process donations at all (compared to a hold, in which donations are processed - but not disbursed.)
In some cases, if a block has been placed due to failure to resolve a hold, then an organization should continue to communicate with our team directly to determine how to resolve this block.