What is Stripe and why do I need it?
Stripe is a market leader in 3rd party credit card processing that provides your organization and donors with a safe and secure transaction/commerce platform directly integrated into your Read for My School fundraiser. Also, since it's your Stripe account, your organization has a direct relationship to manage your profits the way you want. No need to wait until the fundraiser has closed to collect your profits. Now you can tell Stripe exactly when you would like your funds to be wired directly to your organization's bank account. How cool is that!!
Connecting to Stripe
Once you create your fundraiser account on Read for My School, you can connect to Stripe right from your administrator home page. Click the CONNECT STRIPE button either on the top menu or directly on your donation report tool (see screenshot below).
From your administrative dashboard, you will be connected directly to Stripe to either create your Stripe account or connect your existing Stripe account to your Read for My School fundraiser. Just insert your preferred email address on the Stripe/RFMS home page to start the process.
What is required by Stripe to create my account?
To verify your business, Stripe requires the following for review:
Business ownership verification: Stripe will confirm the identification information (example = registered business name; business EIN Tax ID) you provide when you set up your Stripe account.
Bank account ownership verification: Stripe will confirm that the information on your account application matches the account owner of the bank account added to Stripe.
The physical location of the business: Stripe will confirm the physical address of your business.
Are you having issues getting your Stripe account approved?
IMPORTANT: Please make sure both your business name and tax EIN ID match. Stripe will not approve your account until these records match what is recorded with the IRS. If you don't know your registered business name with the IRS or your EIN tax ID, please use the IRS search tool to search for your recorded business records. The IRS search tool will be able to provide you with the right records to submit to Stripe. Stripe requires this information to be correct in order to approve your account status and accept online donations for your fundraiser.
For additional information, please visit our pricing page under our FAQs section or speak with our support team.
What does my admin dashboard look like when I've connected to Stripe?
Once you've successfully connected your account on Stripe, you will be taken back to your Read for My School administrative dashboard to see that your new Stripe account is ready to accept online pledge donations. As the administrator, you can directly donate to your fundraiser as well as manage your fundraising profits directly through your relationship with Stripe - which includes per transaction account management as well as profit distribution (wiring of profits) from your Stripe account to your preferred organization bank account.
To learn more about managing your online pledge donations as well as reporting through the Read for My School app, please click here.
For additional assistance, please contact our in-app support team.