B1G1 SYSTEM UPDATE – PAYMENT GATEWAY CHANGE
On 14th October 2019, 12am Singapore time (see this in your timezone), we’ll be performing a major update to the B1G1 system.
Specifically, we will be changing the payment gateway for your giving on the B1G1 system.
It’s an important change because it means your giving will now go into a US Dollar account via Stripe rather than having to be converted into Singapore Dollars first.
The change will take 2-3 days; during this time, the system may be intermittently unavailable, and we’re taking the giving part of B1G1 offline for the period.
WHY IS THIS REQUIRED?
B1G1 Giving, the giving arm of the B1G1 initiative, has recently established a 501(c)(3) charity status in the US. Therefore, the current entity in Singapore will be closed by the end of this year and the Board Members of B1G1 Giving will start their work under this new entity in the US. This new status helps B1G1 Giving attract more resources and talent, bolster its credibility as a non-profit organisation, and improve its reach to more causes around the world. And with this move, we need to migrate all the financial arrangements under the Singapore entity to the new US entity.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME?
DURING THE UPDATE, we encourage you and all B1G1 members to avoid accessing the B1G1 member system as you may experience loading issues. In the event that you urgently need to access the system, we will do our best to keep all features working except for the Giving Cart. This means that you could still create and send Gratitude Certificates, invitations to team members, or even browse the Project List and create Giving Stories during this time. You should also be able to access your IMPACT NOW app during the system update. If you happen to face any loading issues on your computer or on the App, please reach out to us at team@b1g1.com and we will do our very best to assist you.
AFTER THE UPDATE, the key change is that all your giving will be processed in US dollars going forward, and will be done via your debit/credit card via Stripe instead of your PayPal account. Besides that, there is no change to your online experience on the B1G1 platform, and all your past giving will still be visible in your B1G1 account. Any outstanding items in your giving cart will also remain where they are.
IF YOU ARE BASED IN THE US, this change also benefits you because all your contributions through B1G1 Giving, a 501(c)(3) entity, will now be tax-deductible. If you are based in other countries, there is no change to the tax-deductibility of your contributions – all contributions to projects handled by Worthy Causes registered with tax exempt status in your country will still give you tax deduction benefits.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY RECURRING MONTHLY GIVING?
By now, you would have received a separate email from us about your monthly giving and the instructions on how to migrate it to the new account and payment gateway. If you have a monthly giving subscription on B1G1 but have not received our email, please let us know as soon as possible.
HOW CAN I STAY UPDATED?
We will post live updates on this blogpost and on Twitter with the latest information at least once a day.
It is so great to be growing together and achieving milestones like these with all of you. We are thrilled that B1G1 Giving is now a registered charity in the US and look forward to bringing you more exciting updates about B1G1 Giving and their amazing work in the coming months too.
With much gratitude,
THE B1G1 TEAM
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LIVE UPDATE FEED
14 OCTOBER 2019, 0000HRS (GMT+8): The Giving Cart has been paused and we are consolidating the accounts for B1G1 Giving in Singapore.
15 OCTOBER 2019, 1352HRS (GMT+8): Our developers are making final tweaks to the codebase and starting the deployment of the new payment gateway. The site may experience intermittent loading issues during the deployment process.
15 OCTOBER 2019, 1621HRS (GMT+8): The first deployment of the new payment gateway has been completed. All features of the site are online, except for the Giving Cart, which is undergoing testing.
15 OCTOBER 2019, 1734HRS (GMT+8): Our developers are deploying patches to perfect the performance of the Giving Cart. We are on track to having the Giving Cart ‘live’ again by 16th October 0000hrs.
15 OCTOBER 2019, 2018HRS (GMT+8): The Giving Cart is progressively being made live across all B1G1 Business for Good users, ahead of the targeted timeline. If you encounter any issues, please let us know at team@b1g1.com and we’ll be happy to help!
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