REFUNDS POLICY
PURPOSE & SCOPE
The purpose of this document is to outline the Chapel & York US Foundation’s policy on returning donations, and the framework for deciding whether to return a donation to a donor.
As a general rule, Charities are not required to refund any donations. However, there may be exceptional circumstances.
POLICY
Decisions as to the keeping or returning of a donation are made by the Executive Director of the Chapel & York US Foundation, who will consult with the Board for an ultimate determination in instances where there are reputational or ethical concerns. Members will carefully consider, and be able to demonstrate, what is in the best interest of the Chapel & York US Foundation.
Depending on the terms of the donation, there may be restrictions on whether a donation can be returned, and the Members may need to consult with a specialist in certain cases.
The Chapel & York US Foundation is not expected to return funds raised for charitable purposes but may do so if appropriate.
WHEN WOULD WE CONSIDER RETURNING A DONATION?
When a donation has been made in error
We would return a donation if money had been taken in error. Examples include:
- If a donor has double clicked on the online payment page and the donation had been processed twice;
- If an additional zero was added in error to the donation, or the wrong amount was processed;
- If there is a technical error on our online payment forms that caused donations to be taken in error;
- If there is a mix up with the name of the charity the donor would like to support
If the terms of the donation cannot be met
There may be occasions where we cannot fulfil the donor’s terms of the donation. In this case we would discuss with the donor whether their funds could be re-directed to support another area of the Foundation’s work. If no agreement can be reached, then the funds would be returned to the donor.
For reputational/ethical reasons or if we cannot satisfy our due diligence
The Chapel & York US Foundation conducts due diligence on accordance with our Know Your Donor policy. We will have to return donations which are unable to meet our due diligence checks, are judged to be unethical or would otherwise put the Foundation’s reputation at risk.
Members may need to take specialist advice in complex cases and/or where other legislation may apply to the refunding of any donation, including but not limited to cases involving Financial Fraud and Money Laundering.
PROCESS
Any request for a refund should be made in writing to the Chapel & York US Foundation, which will begin an investigation. The investigation will examine the circumstances of the request including personal details of the donor, the intended purpose of the donation (if applicable), the method of donor payment and the reasons for the refund.
If a donor wishes to request a refund for a donation that they have made, they should contact the Chapel & York US Foundation team at foundationadmin@chapel-york.com. If a refund is deemed to be appropriate, such can only be made to the original method of payment.
Should the Chapel and York US Foundation determine that a donation should be refunded for any of the reasons listed above, we would inform the donor of our action and the reasons behind our decision.
The Chapel & York US Foundation is committed to providing donors the highest standards of legal compliance and will treat all requests for refunds with the utmost importance. We undertake to process any request as quickly as possible, but may need to ask the donor and/or external advisors for additional information in order facilitate any refund request.