PayPal rolls out Grant Payments for charities

Grant Payments will enable charities to receive grants shortly after the funds have been approved by the grantmaker. Both grantmakers and charities will have access to all available grant details, including donor information when provided, via a PayPal dashboard. Eligible and participating charities have been vetted per PayPal's strong compliance standards.

PayPals officials stated that by partnering with National Philanthropic Trust and Vanguard Charitable, PayPal Grant Payments will enable more than 200,000 PayPal confirmed charities to quickly receive grants electronically, streamlining and simplifying what has historically been a much more manual and drawn-out process.

Donations grew during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2020, Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) donors granted at historic levels. Grants from DAFs to qualified charities totalled an estimated USD 34.67 billion, representing a 27.0% increase compared to 2019 and the highest DAF grant increase in a decade. In 2021 Vanguard Charitable sent out USD 1.78 billion, and the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) sent out USD 6.4 billion in grants to charities. These payments were made almost entirely by check.

This process can be costly and slow, and the pandemic exacerbated delays in charities receiving grant checks due to disruptions with the postal service and the inability of some non-profits with less access to offices to retrieve checks. Grantmakers and non-profits alike can utilize Grant Payments to save time and resources and focus on fulfilling their respective philanthropic missions.

In a statement, representatives from NPT stated they believe PayPal-based Grant Payments will simplify and accelerate how grantmakers can get funds to non-profits for mission-critical programmes. The partnership with PayPal and Vanguard Charitable on this sector-wide solution could be a game-changer for other funders as well and has been very gratifying.

National Philanthropic Trust will begin to roll out Grant Payments in August 2022, with Vanguard Charitable offering the solution in 2023. All eligible US charities with a confirmed charity status with PayPal can receive grants via PayPal from partner grantmakers. Charities can review the grant information and accept or decline the grant easily within their PayPal dashboard.