Q's about PAYMENTS

It says my expense has been paid but there is no money in my account.

In line with our new system of processing payments, we mark the expense as paid and then make the bank transfer a few hours later. We ask our groups to allow between 8 and 12 hours for funds to reach their bank. If it has been longer than this and you still haven't received your payment, please get in touch so we can look into it.

I set up a recurring payment, but it's not come out in the second month. Is something wrong?

To prevent the contributor from being charged twice in a short time frame, if they contribute after the 15th of a given month, the next charge will not be the 1st of next month but the month after.

For instance, if someone has set up a recurring contribution on June 29th, the platform won't charge them again until August 1st, and then the 1st of the following months.

How do I cancel my direct debit monthly payments?

You can do this through your bank or on OC. You can login to OC and select on your settings 'manage their contributions' and adjust the amount or cancel them altogether through their account settings. This is done through the Manage Contributions section and you can find more information about it here.

How do people put money in?

Payment can be made directly to your Open Collective account by credit or debit card or by bank transfer. Anyone can contribute by making a one time donation, or a recurring donation, or participating in a fundraising campaign for a specific purpose.

How do people get money out?

Any time anyone in your collective needs money they ‘submit an expense’. Each Collective will need to have agreed an expense policy detailing what is an appropriate expenditure and what is not. The person who needs money can submit a receipt or pdf of an invoice alongside their details. When the expense is submitted, it needs to be approved by an administrator of the collective (collectives define their own administrators). Once approved, it will show up on the collective’s public (sensitive personal details withheld) dashboard along with the other outgoings.

What if people can’t use technology to donate?

We recognise that there may be vulnerable members of the community that need support and are unable to use technology to make contributions in return for the help they receive. There is an option to raise a contribution (on the platform) for someone else and after raising this contribution you would receive the bank details and a unique reference number to pay in the amount you raised. You could tell this to the person who could then make the bank transfer using the unique reference number, without having to interact with the actual platform.

If you have any more creative solutions then please let us know and we will share amongst all of our collective groups. It may be that volunteers may want to take cash or a cheque directly for any expense in these situations, but please note that authorities have suggested not handling cash in the current climate.

How do you decide who approves the outgoing expenses?

Each collective has one, or more administrators who can approve expenses. It is entirely up to the collective to choose or nominate their admins to approve expenses. These do not need to be approved by The Social Change Nest, but we do require that you have a minimum of two to be hosted by us.

There are different ways to manage this; some collectives have a rule that the admin must alternate every couple of months, or that the admins must be made up of a mix of genders at any time. It is up to your collective to make decisions around the expense policy and who approves expenses inside your collective. All expenses (except personal information contained on receipts) are public for transparency purposes.

I have been delegated to approve expenses, but I’m no longer able or do not want to do this anymore, what do I do?

There is a community chat feature on the Open Collective webpage where you can indicate to your collective that you are no longer able or do not want to approve expenses anymore and ask who else would like to take on the role.

How many people can we have as “admins” that are able to approve expenses?

The number of people who can approve expenses is up to each collective.

Some collectives are more informal, with only one admin approving expenses. Others have a formal decision-making process, some have very specific rules over what expenses can be paid for, and what needs a higher level of approval beyond one admin. It is important to have a discussion as a collective and with your collaborators to agree guidelines for approving expenses including how many people are “admins” at one time.

The Social Change Nest requires you to have a minimum of two appointed admins at any given time.

I’ve submitted expenses, but they haven’t been approved, what do I do?

You should get in touch with the collective’s admins to discuss further.

I spent money on supporting neighbours or getting my mutual aid group started before our collective collected donations, can I get reimbursed for it?

This would depend on the expense policy each collective has set up and if it includes money spent before the collective has received donations.

How do we ensure the validity of submitted expenses?

To claim an expense, members must submit a photo of a receipt or invoice. Extra evidence could also be required - for example, proof of address. It is up to the collective to decide what evidence is needed.

All expenses and invoices are public, so everyone can see how much money was spent and on what (excluding private contact details only visible to that user, Collective Admin, and Fiscal Host) for transparency and for members to hold each other to account.

What will you do if there is money left over on the page?

What happens to any money left over is in the hands of the collective and their agreed policy. It is important to agree guidelines amongst your collective for what to do in this instance and to make this clear to everyone in the collective.

If the collective has had no activity for a significant amount of time, The Social Change Nest will contact the collective administrators to decide where that money should go. If we do not hear back from the administrators within 12 weeks, SCA will cease being the Fiscal Host for the collective and the remaining collective funds (residue funds) will be redistributed equally amongst all our collectives.

How can we be sure our money is safe?

There is a public record of money coming into the Collective’s Open Collective Account and money going out in expense payments. The platform does not allow a collective to spend more than they have received in donations so there is no chance that another collective could spend your money.

What happens if we don’t yet have enough budget to pay for all the submitted expenses?

The expense will remain unpaid until the collective has sufficient funds to cover it. It is not possible for a collective to pay expenses they do not yet have the funds for so we would advise checking with your collective before spending money on something.

Are there any payment charges?

Each credit and debit card payment via Stripe includes stripe fees (1.4% + 20 pence) this goes towards the credit and debit card processor, Stripe.

There is no surcharge on contributions made by bank transfer (BACS) as the money would go directly to the bank and is not processed by a third party.

I don’t want to be charged the credit or debit card fees, can I pay by bank transfer?

Yes. There is an option to pay by bank transfer. When you select this option, you will receive further instructions to complete the bank transfer.

Can contributions be used to pay for an individual's living expenses (food, rent etc.)?

This would depend on the expense policy each collective has set up. Each collective must have their own expense policy. This makes sure that there are clear rules on what money can be spent on and that all members of the collective are treated the same way.

Where do we get money from?

Money can come from individual donors, institutional funders, members from your collective, or anyone who would like to give to the collective’s cause and activities.

Do we have our own bank account or is it shared with other collectives?

By using The Social Change Nest as a Fiscal Host, this means that your contributions will be stored in The Social Change Nest’s bank accounts. Contributions are not shared with other collectives meaning that what you raise is what you can spend.