(Updated February 2022)

At Uplift, our independence to be able to campaign on what our community believes in, is vital – that is why we do not accept funding from the government or big business. As a member-led community most of Uplift’s income comes directly from donations from members. It is our members who are responsible for deciding how we spend our money and we are accountable to them.

Our aim is for 70% of our annual income to come from our community chipping in fivers and tenners regularly. In the last 12 months Uplift received 8,434 individual donations from members, and around 800 members chip in monthly, with an average donation amount of €8.50. The remainder of our funding comes from like-minded organisations for campaigns and work that is aligned with our community’s priorities and values.

Uplift does not accept individual donations greater than €99 at any one time, in accordance with rules set out by the Standards In Public Office. Uplift does not accept donations from overseas. Donations over €100 are not spent directly on campaigning. 

Please consider chipping in today here.

Donation processing

Financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through third party payment processors, namely, Stripe, Inc. (“Stripe”), GoCardless and PayPal. We recommend that you read the payment platforms’ privacy policy (available at https://stripe.com/en-ie/privacy) prior to affecting any transactions with us. We will provide your personal data to the payment platforms only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.

Your donations help fund cutting-edge technology to help people strengthen and amplify their voices; campaign tactics like ads and rallies; and to cover the modest salaries of our small team. We know the Uplift community has ambitious plans and we’ve worked hard to make our donations stretch to make this vision possible.

To run effective campaigns, members are asked to help fund campaigns and to donate to the ongoing work of Uplift. Donations are generally small and usually are in response to a call to support a specific action; i.e buying an advert, organising an event, funding materials for a campaign.

Members also support Uplift with one-off and regular donations that are used to support the day-to-day running costs of Uplift. Uplift is committed to keeping its running costs low. We believe that being nimble and cost efficient will help achieve the change we collectively want. 

Every campaign action or tactic has to be paid for by member donations. If you donated to fund a particular tactic you will be informed about how the money has been spent.

If you make a one-off donation to a specific campaign the money will be spent on that campaign. In cases where this is not possible (e.g because the campaign has already been won) the money will be spent on the same issue. Otherwise the money will be put into general funds to support Uplift’s work.

Included in the estimated cost of an action is overheads and staff time. This will vary depending on the amount of time allocated to the campaign ie 3 days, a week, longer. 

Donation payments and GDPR

Financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through one of three third-party payment processors. 

  1. Stripe: We recommend that you read Stripe’s privacy policy (available at https://stripe.com/en-ie/privacy) prior to effecting any transactions with us. We will provide your personal data to Stripe only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.
  2. You may also donate to us using PayPal. If you donate using PayPal, your personal information will be provided to PayPal so they can process your donation. Please see their privacy notice for more information about how they use and retain your personal information: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.
  3. If you set up a recurring monthly donation via direct debit, we will use a provider called GoCardless to process your regular direct debit payments. https://gocardless.com/privacy/
  4. Fundraise Up: We also accept once off and monthly donations via donation platform, Fundraise Up. We recommend that you read Fundraise Up’s privacy policy (available at https://fundraiseup.com/privacy/) prior to effecting any transactions with us. We will provide your personal data to Fundraise Up only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments through their platform for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.
    Please note that Fundraise Up facilitates payments via a number of different processors. We also recommend that you read each processor’s privacy policy before undertaking any transactions with us.
    – Stripe https://stripe.com/en-ie/privacy
    – Google Pay https://payments.google.com/payments/apis-secure/u/0/get_legal_document?ldo=0&ldt=privacynotice&ldl=en
    – Apple Pay https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-pay/
    – PayPal https://www.paypal.com/ie/legalhub/paypal/privacy-full

We will provide your personal information to payment processors only to the extent necessary to process payments. We do not store your financial details.

Uplifts annual Financial Statements

Uplift is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee (ie. non-profit). In line with our communities values of transparency and accountability we publish our full audited accounts on our website, along with other information about how we spend money.

Security of donations

Keeping donations and donors safe is a top priority. 128 bit SSL technology is used to secure your donation, just like a bank does. This means that all the details are encrypted meaning your payment and details are secure. 

Uplift does not have access to your credit or debit card details but our payment processors may maintain details for recurring payments. 

The payment gateways used to process donations for one-off and regular donations including credit and debit payments are Stripe, PayPal and GoCardless. All are the market leaders of online bank transactions. 

Donations can also be paid directly into the bank via cash, cheque and postal order, or taken securely over the phone by a staff member.

Refunds

If you made a donation in error and want it refunded all you need to do is contact the staff team and it  will be returned it to you within 30 days without charge. Please contact Alex, our Operations Manager at [email protected] if you have any questions or queries about our fundraising. 

Transparency and Accountability

Transparency and accountability about how your money is spent is very important. If you have any questions, or suggestions on how this can be improved please contact [email protected].