Despite promises that 100 percent of donations go to the selected charities, the gifts are delivered
only if the groups register accounts on both PayPal and the Giving Fund site, the lawsuit says.
A federal class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday said
that Ms. Kass and thousands of other donors have been misled by PayPal Giving Fund, and that their gifts never reached the intended charities.
PayPal Redirects Charitable Contributions Without Consent, Lawsuit Says -
By MATTHEW HAAGMARCH 1, 2017
When Terry Kass received an email from PayPal in late December encouraging her to donate to charities
through its Giving Fund platform, she searched its website for ones she could help.
“We are fully prepared to defend ourselves in this matter.”
Ms. Kass said she decided to contribute to groups through the Giving Fund site because in a Dec. 30 email it said it would waive the usual transactional fees
and give an additional 1 percent to the selected charities for gifts made by year’s end.
The company has a policy of redirecting contributions to other organizations if the intended charity does not register an account with the site, Ms. Kass said, adding
that neither donors nor intended charities are informed of any switch.
She learned that 10 of the 13 groups — all of which had profile pages on the PayPal site
that included biographical information and mission statements — were also unaware of donations through the site, she said.
