Teaming - 1€/month micro donations

Prerequisites to raise funds in Teaming

Any individual, NGO or company can raise funds in Teaming for any cause or non-profit organisation with a social purpose. We advise you to check the countries in which Teaming is supported before taking any action.

To assess whether a cause can raise funds through Teaming, we take into account:

• - The nature of the cause.

• - The Teaming Manager’s management of the Group and the funds.

The following will not be taken into account nor will they be a motive for blocking a Group:

• - The ideology, race, belief, nationality, or any other particular trait of the Teaming Manager as a person. We will only consider their management of the Group. With the exception of proven cases of crime (effective convictions of fraud, terrorism or similar).

• - The ideology, race, belief, nationality, or any other particular trait of the Teamers who participate in the Group at an individual level.

Requirements for the Nature of the Cause

The nature of a Group can vary (social assistance, medical research, culture, defence of animals…) but the only indispensable requirement is that it must be non-profit.

As mentioned earlier in this article, any person or organisation can raise funds on Teaming, provided they do it in favour of a social and non-profit cause. For instance, funds can be raised within a company, if employees join efforts to support an NGO as part of the Social Responsibility Programme. However, they cannot raise funds in favour of the company as such (to launch a new product or any similar goal).

To sum up, the beneficiary cause must have a social character and not seek any economic benefit. This means that the funds collected have to be destined to a totally altruistic aid, with the exception of the basic costs of structure of some organisations, which, according to the legislation in place, cannot exceed 30%.

We will not be able to accept Groups:

• - That are lucrative but generate a social good (some cases of social entrepreneurship for example).

• - That finance illegal, criminal or illicit activities or that explicitly support such activities.

• - To finance personal projects that do not involve basic needs or that are not welfare. To clarify with an example: a wedding, a private car, an end-of-year trip, etc.

• - In favour of businesses, in any of its phases, whether in planning, incubation, development or exploitation.

• - In favour of political parties, political movements or any entity whose purpose is political. We would not allow entities that have to do partly with politics, even if the rest of their activities is apolitical.

• - In favour of organisations whose main activity or part of their activities is the defence or implementation of a specific ideology.

• - In no case can they contradict the International Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

• - Ideas that have not yet materialised. With one exception: we can accept NGOs in the process of being established, with the condition that funds cannot be transferred until the entity is officially created and has an account in the name of the entity.

• - That finance the probono services of a company, unless they are part of their foundation’s programme. For example, a company that spends part of its time helping NGOs. This part could not be financed through Teaming, unless they have a foundation and a defined project programme for these cases.

• - That support projects that are not for profit, but do not have a social component (relief).

Requirements for the Teaming Manager’s management of the funds

Being accessible and facilitating every single Teaming procedure is one of the first requirements as a Teaming Manager. In addition, the Teaming Manager must meet the following requirements:

• - The Teaming Manager’s management of funds must comply with the rules specified in the International Declaration of Ethical Principles in Fundraising published by the Spanish Fundraising Association and the Code of Conduct for the Development of Fundraising in Spain. Failure to comply with some of the points indicated in these documents may result in the Group being blocked or transferred to another Teaming Manager.

• - For all intents and purposes, we consider the Teaming Manager to be a fundraiser dedicated to the cause or organisation for which they raise funds. For this reason, if a Group is created in favour of an NGO, the Group will ultimately belong to this cause and the destination of the funds cannot be changed. One exception applies: if from the beginning it has been indicated that the collection is each time for one entity. In the case of this exception, any change in the destination of the funds must be informed to the Teamers and be made public in a permanent and traceable way.

• - The Teaming Manager must be able to prove the veracity of his or her non-profit activity and inform Teaming at any time about its progress. This sometimes means that additional documentation must be provided at the request of the Teaming Foundation.

• - The Teaming Manager must have an active email contact on the platform. In the event of any change, it is essential that this is also reflected in the Teaming profile, so that we can get in touch under any circumstances.

• - The Teaming Manager should explain publicly in the Group the essential information about the fundraising: destination, nature, organisation, etc. They can use any of the spaces provided by Teaming (including the forum comments) for this purpose.

• - The Teaming Manager commits to managing their Group on the platform in accordance with its rules and to advertise their Teaming Group correctly, without using mass mailings to Teamers of other Groups either through internal mail or through the forum of another Group. There is only one exception: if they are Teaming Manager of several Groups, it is their decision to do so or not within their own Groups.

• - Solidarity can only be understood in a context of positive relationships, empathy, affability and education. That is why, beyond what is described in the previous points, the Teaming Manager is committed to abiding by the manners required by this context of trust. Any inappropriate treatment or lack of respect towards any Teamer, other Teaming Manager or member of the Teaming team could result in the transfer or closure of the Teaming Group.

Other requirements for the management of the funds

Teaming makes some checks before transferring the funds to the cause’s account. We do this for the peace of mind of Teamers, Teaming Managers and causes, but also because it is our responsibility. These are the requirements and the necesary documents to send the funds that the Teaming Managers should have in mind before creating their Teaming Group:

• - When requesting the funds raised, Teaming will ask for additional information in order to validate that the funds are being used for the cause for which the Teaming Group was created. In other words, if the Group is created to help a specific NGO, Teaming will validate that the funds are destined to this entity. It is essential that the Teaming Manager provides the documentation that Teaming requires for this purpose.

• - In the case of a Group created to support a registered non-profit organisation, Teaming can only validate a transfer to a dedicated account under the name of such organisation. We will not accept transfers of funds collected in Teaming to private accounts.

• - We can only transfer the funds to private accounts if the beneficiary is a private individual. For example, if you are raising funds for a child who needs treatment each month. In these cases, we will require additional documentation before validating the transfer of funds.

• - In the case of projects that require a certain level of organisation (sanctuaries or shelters, food banks, purchase of school materials, etc.), the funds must be managed through a non-profit organisation and not through a private account.

• - In the case of Groups that help a different organisation or cause periodically, the funds should be allocated to the chosen cause directly. The account of the Teaming Manager or another person may not be used as an intermediary.

• - In all cases, Teaming will request a valid identity document from the Teaming Manager and a document of ownership of the beneficiary’s account. Additionally, we can also request other documents such as invoices, annual accounts or other documentation.

• - Beneficiary accounts must be European accounts (SEPA format). This requirement is important because at the moment we cannot accept Groups that need to transfer funds to other parts of the world. It is essential to have a European NGO that can manage the funds.

Other generic reasons for which a Group cannot be accept, can be blocked, deleted or intervened

• - If we cannot verify the truthfulness of a Group. Teaming uses social engineering to know if a Group is genuine. In case it is not possible to verify the Group in such a manner, we would request additional documentation to the Teaming Manager of the Group. If the Teaming Manager cannot provide the required documentation, the Group will be blocked.

• - If the Group is reported. In case anybody reports the Group and can show solid arguments against it, the Teaming Manager must prove its innocence. Before blocking the Group, it is paused and remains so during the whole duration of the investigation.

• - If the Group is promoted unlawfully. For instance, using mass emailing to Teamers belonging to other Groups, be it via the internal message service or the forum of another Group. We consider it a serious offence for a Teaming Manager to join a Group to explain its cause in the forum or internal mail box only to then quit this Group. Such a behaviour is only acceptable in one case: if you are Teaming Manager of several Groups, it is up to you to promote one Group in the other Groups under your responsibility. For first offenders, Teaming will contact the Teaming Manager to alert them. If they reoffend, Teaming will block the Group right away.

• - If the requests for information sent by Teaming are left unanswered. Under certain circumstances, Teaming can need input from Teaming Managers to understand their Groups better or due to any other legal motive or Teaming standard. Whichever of the three latter cases are an exemple of when we need further information. The Teaming Manager must answer such requests. Failure to communicate with the Teaming Manager, refusal to provide necesary data or lack of respect towards any member of the Teaming team could result in the closure of the Teaming Group.

• - Under certain cirtumstances, Teaming may loose trust in a Group or its cause. The platform is a project of the Teaming Foundation that is offered at no cost and openly to anybody who cumplies with our requisites. Our resources are however limited and we must ensure the funds raised via the platform reach a valuable cause. That is why, under a series of duly justified circumstances, Teaming may decide to stop offering the platform to a Group in particular. Usually, said circumstances have to do with transparency, good manners or easiness of access to a causes’ details or its Teaming Manager.

• - If the Teaming Manager tries to change the end beneficiary of the funds. Groups can be opened to support one particular charity or to support a series of charities. In the first case, the end beneficiary of the funds cannot be changed and any attempt to do so or to break this rule will force us to intervene the Group and possibly close it (or transfer it to a new Teaming Manager).

Other considerations

• What if our NGO is still in the process of being set up? You can start to raise funds in Teaming, but when you request the first transfer, the entity must be constituted and must have a bank account in the name of the association. If finally the process is not finished and the project is deleted, the funds will go to a similar entity that the Teaming Manager and the Teamers can select.

• What happens if our NGO does not have an account in the name of the NGO? The funds can wait in Teaming until the NGO has an account with the entity. Until that time they cannot be transferred. If you do not plan to have an account in the name of the entity, unfortunately we will not be able to host the project in Teaming.