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Trust and safety

Trust and safety on MrsTubs

What we do about fraud, what an organizer agrees to, what we check and where that checking stops, and how to tell us about a fundraiser you believe is fake.

What we check, and where it stops

MrsTubs checks a 501(c)(3) claim before it stands. When an organization certifies that it is a registered 501(c)(3), a MrsTubs administrator reviews that certification against its EIN, IRS tax-exempt records, and the IRS automatic-revocation list, and records the evidence and the reasoning before ruling. Until that review clears, the organization is informal here, and its receipts tell donors the gift is not tax-deductible.

MrsTubs checks what it was given, on the day it was checked. We do not monitor an organization afterwards. A determination can be revoked the week after a review clears, and nothing on this site will notice on its own.

MrsTubs checks nothing about an organization that never claimed 501(c)(3) status. An informal group is not a group that failed a review. It is a group that never asked for one, gifts to it are not tax-deductible, and its receipts say so at the top.

We do not review a fundraiser's story, photos or goal before it is published, and we do not monitor it afterwards. Nothing MrsTubs checks is a judgment about whether a cause is real, well run, or worth your money.

So a verified organization means one administrator checked one claim on one date. It is not an endorsement and it is not a promise about what happens next. If a gift matters to you, look at the organization yourself before you give.

What we actually do

Short list, and every item on it is a mechanism rather than an intention.

  • Stripe checks who gets paid

    Gifts go from a donor's card into the organization's own Stripe account. Stripe verifies the identity and the bank details of whoever is being paid before money moves. MrsTubs never holds the money and never sees a bank or tax number.

  • An organizer's tax statement is recorded, with a name and a date

    When someone states that an organization is a 501(c)(3), we store the exact wording they agreed to, which account agreed to it, and when. If the statement turns out to be false, there is a record of who made it.

  • A person rules on a 501(c)(3) claim before it stands

    An organization is marked verified only after a MrsTubs administrator reviews the certification against evidence we name and record: the source of that evidence, the EIN, and a check of the IRS automatic-revocation list. The administrator writes down the reasoning, and an organizer cannot make that ruling about her own organization.

  • Receipts never claim a deduction we cannot support

    A receipt says a gift is tax-deductible only where the organization's recorded status supports it. Everywhere else it tells the donor, in writing, that the gift is not deductible. That is the default, not the exception.

  • A ruling never rewrites a receipt a donor already has

    A status can change, and when it does, every gift already taken is frozen at the status it was taken under, in the same transaction as the change. So a ruling decides what the next donor is told and can never quietly rewrite what the last one was told.

  • Every card dispute is recorded and raises an alert

    If a donor disputes a gift with their card issuer, we record it and alert a person here. The organizer is the merchant of record and answers the dispute themselves; MrsTubs does not decide it.

What an organizer agrees to

An organization can only be created as a 501(c)(3) by someone affirmatively agreeing to this, word for word:

I certify that this organization is, on the date of each gift, an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS; that the EIN entered is accurate and belongs to that organization; and that I am authorized to make this statement on the organization's behalf.

Agreeing to it records a statement, and the statement is an application rather than a switch. It does not turn on tax-deductible receipts by itself. A MrsTubs administrator reviews it, and until that review clears the organization's receipts tell donors the gift is not tax-deductible.

How to report a fundraiser

Every fundraiser page has a "Report it" link near the bottom. It opens a short form — what made you doubt it, and anything you can point at. You do not need an account, you do not need to have donated, and you do not need to give us your name.

What to include

What made you doubt it, and anything you can point at: a copied photo, a name that belongs to someone else, a story you have seen somewhere else first. You do not need an account, and you do not need to give us your own name. The form on the fundraiser page already knows which fundraiser you mean; if you write to us instead, include its address.

What happens after you report

A person reads it. We will not promise you a decision window we do not have, and we will not tell you what we did about someone else's account. If you gave money and you believe it was taken fraudulently, disputing the charge with your own card issuer is the faster route to your money, and it is open to you whether or not you tell us.