FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PayPal for Education Use PayPal to give students, parents, and donors more ways to pay – and simplify payment processing. • Save time and money – streamline payments and donations • Provide a larger choice of payment options • Help safeguard personal financial information paypal.com/education 1. Why should my education organization use PayPal? There are many reasons: With PayPal, your organization can provide students, parents, and donors with a faster, more secure way to pay online for tuition, fees, school merchandise, and services. They can choose to pay by PayPal balance, bank transfers, e-checks, debit cards, and major credit cards. They never share their financial information with your organization. PayPal also reduces the time your organization must spend collecting, depositing, and reconciling check, credit and debit card, and cash payments. In addition, PayPal handles Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and helps safeguard the sensitive financial information of students, donors, and parents. 2. How does my education organization begin accepting PayPal? It’s fast and simple. First, sign up for a PayPal Business account. Select Nonprofit Organization as the business type, Educational as the category. You will need to provide your organization’s bank account information and then link your organization’s PayPal account to the bank account. This allows you to transfer funds from your PayPal account to your bank account. 3. Which PayPal solution is right for my organization? Most organizations start with PayPal Payments Standard or Express Checkout. These solutions let payers complete their transactions on the PayPal website. Although the payment process starts and ends on your organization’s website, your organization does not receive any individual financial information, including credit card numbers. Therefore, your organization is not responsible for securing sensitive data or meeting PCI compliance standards during the payment process. Organizations that want transactions completed on their websites can choose PayPal Payments Pro. 4. Why would my education organization use PayPal rather than a different payment processor for credit cards? PayPal provides lower costs and no hidden or set-up costs. 5. Can my education organization accept payments from people who don’t have a PayPal account? Yes. Students, parents and alumni without PayPal accounts can still pay or donate by credit card or debit card on the PayPal site. 6. How much does it cost to use PayPal? Pricing varies by PayPal product. PayPal Payments Standard and Express Checkout offer low processing fees, starting at 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, applied only when you accept a donation or payment. Pay no set-up fees or recurring monthly fees when you use PayPal Payments Standard or Express Checkout. Monthly fees do apply when you use PayPal Payments Pro. Read about all applicable fees at www.paypal.com/fees. 7. Does PayPal provide special pricing for schools or other education organizations? PayPal offers discounted transaction fees for IRS registered 501(c)(3) entities. Fees are only applied when your organization accepts a payment or donation, and it’s never charged a set-up or monthly fee. Examples of discounted fees for education nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status include the following: • $100,000 or less in monthly volume: 2.2% + $.30 per domestic transaction* • More than $100,000 in monthly volume: please call 866-365-6645* * Discounted rates do not apply to American Express transactions made using PayPal Payments Pro and Virtual Terminal. If your organization does not have 501(c)(3) status, it will pay our standard low transaction rates. Discounted rates do not apply to transactions made using PayPal Payments Pro or Virtual Terminal. Visit www.paypal.com/fees for details. PayPal FOR EDUCATION 8. What kind of documentation does my organization need to provide to confirm its nonprofit status? To confirm your nonprofit’s status, log in to your PayPal account one day after initial sign-up and submit the following items through the Resolution Center: • Evidence of tax-exempt status • Bank statement or voided check in your organization’s name • PayPal email account • Contact information • Description of your organization and type of payments it wants to accept (such as donations and merchandise payments) Once you’ve created a PayPal account, you can easily add a Donate button to your organization’s website. You can begin accepting donations right away, but if you are requesting discounted pricing, you won’t be able to withdraw or transfer funds until your nonprofit status has been verified. 9. How will my organization receive payments made with PayPal? What can we do with the money deposited in its PayPal account? Payments appear in your organization’s PayPal account. On the Transaction Details page, you can view the payer’s contact information, transaction amount, and transaction date. Funds can be transferred to your organization’s bank account at no cost. 10. What type of reporting is available for payments? PayPal offers online reports in a variety of formats that allow your organization to analyze its revenue sources, automate time-consuming bookkeeping tasks, and accurately settle and reconcile transactions. Your organization can also view a real-time transaction log on its PayPal account. The log displays transaction date, payer name, mailing address, email address, and transaction amount (gross and net). 11. Can PayPal help my education organization improve fundraising? Donors appreciate the convenience of online donations and the ability to choose the payment method they prefer. Letting people pay online in advance for fundraising activities and events can boost participation. 12. Does PayPal have a complete student account solution? Yes. PayPal partners PaySchools, Sycamore, and EdClick provide student account solutions. 13. Does PayPal have a complete student organization solution? Several of our partners, including OrgSync and CampusGroups offer student organization solutions. Alternatively, you can add a PayPal payment button to your student organization’s website to collect fees from members. 14. Can officers of our student organization have different levels of access to the organization’s PayPal account? Yes. Using a feature called Multi-User Access, the primary account holder can assign permissions to others, allowing them to access designated areas of your organization’s PayPal account. 15. What is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance? To be PCI compliant, organizations must follow set standards for securing payment information throughout a transaction, as mandated by the PCI Council. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a complex set of requirements designed to ensure that all organizations that process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. 16. Do PCI standards apply to my education organization? Yes, your organization is responsible for ensuring that PCI standards are met for all electronic payments, regardless of dollar amount or number of transactions. However, if your organization uses PayPal Website Payments Standard or PayPal Express Checkout to process payments, the PCI burden is offloaded to PayPal because all financial transactions take place on PayPal’s secure servers. For PayPal transactions, your organization won’t have access to or responsibility for sensitive transactional data. 17. Can my organization customize its donations page? Yes, there are certain aspects of the PayPal payment page that your organization can configure, including adding its logo and colors to the page. 18. How can my education organization get technical support? Visit www.paypal.com/mts. Get More Information 866-365-6645 · paypal.com/education © 2012 PayPal, Inc. All rights reserved. PayPal and the PayPal logo are registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.