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Fundraising, Purchases and Donations FAQs

We complie questions we expect to receive in our inboxes here in this page. Still have burning questions? Just shoot us (or the HCB team) an email, addresses are mentioned below.

Is my donation or gift tax-deductible?

If you are from the US (or have tax residency in the US), your donations and gifts are tax-deductible to the maximum extent per IRS guidelines. We'll be use them to support our projects and team while keeping aligned with Hack Club's (our fiscal sponsor) mission.

If you are outside the US, tax-deductibility only applies within the US as our fiscal sponsor is based in the US. While we can't answer tax questions before you donate, we can still answer other questions via email at [email protected] or reach out the HCB team at [email protected].

Is my donation/purchase secure?

Yes, we use Stripe as our payments processor and we do not have access to raw card numbers (they are encrypted behind the scenes and only select Stripe employees can access them).

Do you usually issue a receipt or invoice?

Yes, we usually issue you an email receipt after we processed your donation. If you need a PDF version of it, we can issue one via Open Collective or use the provided template from our fiscal sponsor.

For donation invoices, we use the HCB platform to issue them but if you prefer not to use Stripe Invoicing, we have a form for that (or just email us).

Can we cover your fiscal sponsorship fee?

Much appericated if you add 7% to cover the fees on your donation amount. Even better if you also donate to Hack Club HQ as Platform Tip (for those familiar with using Open Collective to donate to open-source projects and communities there).

How do I request a refund? What is your refund policy?

Send us a email at [email protected] for donations and other kinds of finanical contributions or [email protected] for anything else and we'll look onto it. Make sure to have your donation/order/transaction ID handy in your request (if it is from HCB, just reply to the receipt email; for PayPal, use the merchant transaction ID).

We generally review and process refund requests with 72 hours on the receipt of the request for the following reasons (adopted from the Open Collective docs):

  • Mistaken or accidental donations (including unauthorized transactions if it is not you per card issuer policies on disputes)
  • Unmet expectations regarding products/services we provide
  • Double charges
  • Cancelled events and subscriptions (your subscription will be cancelled immediately once refunded)
  • Changes in circumstances or financial difficulties
  • Incorrect amount

Please note that we may not be able to refund (either in full or part) if:

  • that amount is used or being used towards our projects or for team payroll
  • held in reserves or transferred to one of the following:
    • Hack Club HQ or any affliated projects or events
    • an organization fiscally-sponsored by Hack Club through HCB or 501(c)(3) US non-profit (or similar outside the US)

Currently, we can only process refunds for debit/credit card transactions processed via Stripe or PayPal due to the risk of refund fraud. Direct debit transactions processed through Stripe are also eligible for refunds, but may take longer to review and process for bank account holders outside the US.

What are statement descriptors you use for bank statements?

We use the following statement descriptors for online donations through the HCB fiscal sponsorship platform:

  • HCKCLB - HCB's short-form statement descriptor for card authorizations
  • HCB* RECAP TIME SQUAD - Donations to Recap Time Squad on HCB
  • HCB* LOREBOOKS.WIKI - Donations to Community Lorebooks on HCB

Outside the HCB where we handle transactions ourselves via Stripe on places like Open Collective, Substack, Ghost and Liberapay (or on our own), we use the following statement descriptors:

  • RECAPTIME.DEV or RTDEV
  • LOREBOOKS.WIKI or RTDEV* LOREBOOKS.WIKI

Andrei Jiroh also use Stripe but its linked bank account points to our bank details within the HCB platform (instead of pointing to his Wise USD balances to also benefit Recap Time Squad and its projects), and uses the following statement descriptors:

If you donate via our GitHub Sponsors, Ko-fi, or Discord Server Store page, platform refund policies apply.