How To: Donation Account Setup

How to setup your donation accounts;

1. Pick your bank. Any chain or credit union can do a beneficiary account.

2. Ask for the bank manager or new account manager. Tellers are unlikely to know what you're talking about and say "uuuuuuh" a lot. (I cheated here. I am involved with business banking at several large chains and picked up the phone and called my favorite branch manager when no one in my closest branch could help me).

3. You can either set up your donation account under your personal tax id (social) or you can go online to the IRS and set up a Tax ID/EIN. If your account will be used for your benefit, use your social. If you are going to be custodian of an account to benefit someone else, you probably want to set up and Employer Identification Number. The name EIN is misleading, employer simply refers to anymore than a single person from a business sense.

4. You can either choose to set up a temporary trust for guardianship of the account, or you can sign a statement promising that there is no scam, its not a ponzi scheme, and you promise that you aren't a serious d-bag. Provide copies of your documents (DL, SS, where the donations are coming from). Make your funding deposit, and in 3-7 days per bank policy, your account will be active.
Do not put donation funds into your personal accounts if you can avoid it. It can be regarded as income by the IRS and you'd have quite a time unraveling your personal income streams from your donations revenue. Even though you can verify the donation funds, you'd still be responsible for proving it. Depending on the dollar amount of your donations, you might receive tax documentation. A 1099 with your social is much easier to prove when its attached to a completely separate account.

4. Transfer donation funds electronically. Don't use it as a checking account. When you need funds from your donations, the bank will make out a cashiers check for you. Don't intend to use this account for cash, small transactions, or anything other than direct payments out to the vendors providing adoption services (agency, home study, etc). Donations by check or cash can be made at any branch of the bank chain you chose.

Congratulations, now you've jumped another baby step hurdle in your adoption process. This information can be used for any donation account for any reason. Also, if you have donation funds left, you can roll it over into another account for another donation beneficiary. Any extra funds that we raise will be donated directly to another family who needs financial assistance with the adoption process.