Hack Club (https://hackclub.com) is a nonprofit network of thousands of teenage coders around the world.<p>We’re currently running an electronics grant program (https://hackclub.com/winter/) to support teenagers in building hardware projects. Hundreds of grants are being distributed to teenage coders all across the world. It’s open source at https://github.com/hackclub/winter.<p>PayPal just shut our account down with no explanation, and denied our appeal. They told us that any funds in PayPal will be held for up to 180 days. They also said they will no longer process donations to us, with no explanation. Many of the hardware grants we’re doing, including nearly all grants outside the US, require PayPal to process.<p>If anyone here might be able to help in any way, we would be so appreciative. We are actively going through their customer support channels, but not getting much in the way of next steps. My email is zach@hackclub.com.
You’re a genuine non-profit so you’re eligible for special PayPal rates amongst other things. Do you have an account manager or is this a PayPal account you set up self-service with no prior PayPal human interaction?<p>Unfortunately, while posting on HN can resolve Stripe issues, it doesn’t help with PayPal. You need to find a human advocate within PayPal (especially difficult if you’re not already connected with any humans there now that you’ve been suspended).<p>Start planning for this to not be resolved, because it rarely is. Financial account shutdowns are very rarely reversed. Start making alternate arrangements, preferably with a company that can allocate a human to you who understands and supports your use-case(s) — financial service relationships should always have humans involved if they’re integral to your business. I’d recommend contacting Wise (formerly TransferWise) to see if they can meet your future needs.
I cant find a Form 990 for your organization since 2019 on the IRS website. Can you provide a link?<p>If you are going to use your status as a non-profit to virtue signal, I have to scrutinize your form 990 first.<p><a href="https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/812908499_201912_990_2021022417751020.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/812908499_201912_990_...</a>
Something similar happened to this person but he actually won. May help you too<p><a href="https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i-won" rel="nofollow">https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i...</a>
I'm no fan of regulation, but I really would like to see some here. These companies shouldn't be able to shut down payments like this, not with out clear reasons and a proper appeals process. This is restraint of trade.
It is very unfortunate that Stripe, PayPal are doing this without warning.<p>I'm hoping there is a viable alternative to both Paypal and Stripe as this keeps happening to small businesses.<p>Why do businesses need to put up with this?
For what it's worth, there's a chance that the word "hack" in some invoice triggered some really dumb system for trying to detect bad actors or items that violate their TOS. I had a small hobby business years ago that had the word "gay" in a PayPal receipt (it was not pornography or anything indecent) and their dumb filters saw that word and blocked it without recourse.<p>I bet if you used some words similar to this in PayPal receipts regardless of context, you'd probably also risk your account being automatically blocked: drugs, terrorism, porn, sex, alcohol, money laundering, slavery, guns, nazi, murder
My private PayPal account was also recently frozen (for no reason, I only use it occasionally to split a bill with a friend or as payment for online stores).<p>You can try calling them: +1-888-221-1161<p>They’ll be very nice, but lie to you about “looking into it”.<p>I’ve been told 3 times they’ll call me back in 2 business days and they never do.
This guy might be the man you need to speak with about this.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbudwig" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbudwig</a>
PayPal ist doing whatever they want, whenever they want. If your business model relies on Paypal in any way, shape or form, consider your account closed any minute. Been there.
I work extensively with non-profits outside the US and I've never come across grants requiring PayPal - in fact, I've never come across grant funding that even uses PayPal for exactly this kind of reason. No grant funder I've ever worked with would touch it with a bargepole, so something sounds fishy about this. And if it sounds fishy to a rando on the internet, you can bet it sounds fishy to a compliance bod at PayPal.
Why do people still require PayPal in this day and age? Even if it's needed, why are your funds on there? I use Revolut, but make sure to keep more than enough as USDC to secure myself against arbitrary freezes.