Donations

Our non-profit status

Our formal name is "Bloominglabs Incorporated" and we are incorporated as a non-profit within the State of Indiana. Furthermore, Bloominglabs Incorporated is fiscally sponsored by School Factory, Inc., a 501(c)3 charitable organization.

How we process monetary donations

Since we are fiscally sponsored by the School Factory, all monetary donations are required to go through them. Our PayPal button on our front page goes directly to the School Factory, and all cash and check donations must be mailed to the School Factory. The School Factory takes 10% and then sends us back the rest. (Please note that membership dues are NOT tax deductible and should not be sent to the School Factory, we receive those directly.) Cash donations under $250 do not need to go through School Factory (and receipts for donations less than $250 are not required by the IRS), however they can be submitted if a receipt is still requested by the donor.

Donations by check:

• Checks must be made out to "School Factory, Inc."
• We should check first, but cash should be in the form of a money order
• Donors (or you) should add Bloominglabs to the memo line, so they know who the donation is for.
• Get these checks to Meghan Koven, Operations Director for processing (done on a weekly basis).

Mail to: School Factory, Inc.
706 South 5th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53204

• All donations are subject to a 10% School Factory administration fee
• School Factory will then cut a check to us for the total donation amount minus the 10% fee.
• Fill out the Space Federation Donation Form for all cash/check donations

Donations by PayPal:

• Our PayPal button code identifies the funding as being for our space within the system
• We may additionally encourage donors to identify the purpose of the donation somewhere in the system
  • Ex: Does the donor expect their donation to be used for a specific event or purpose? If so, they need to note that somewhere in the system.
• PayPal takes 2-3% off the top of all donations it processes online
• The School Factory takes its 10% fee after that
• On a monthly basis, School Factory processes all PayPal donations:
  • Funds are transferred from PayPal to the School Factory bank account (takes 3-5 business days.)
  • Once the funds have hit the bank account, they will then cut a check to us for the NET donation amount minus the 10% fee.
  • If any of our donors would like to receive a formal receipt (beyond the verbiage that PayPal provides), fill out the Space Federation Donation Form

More information about this process: https://atrium.schoolfactory.org/spacefed/node/28962

TL;DR: just fill out the Donation Form for cash and check donations (and if the donor wants more than just the paypal receipt for electronic donations):

How we process hardware donations

We can take in-kind hardware donations without any paperwork. If the donor would like a receipt then we need to identify an appropriate value for the item and fill out the School Factory Donation Form. It is also important to note here that we need to be selective now, that is to say that we should not accept any more busted inkjet printers and the like. However working tools and useful donations are accepted. Paper donation forms are also kept on a clip-board near the main entry way.

• Determine a reasonable and appropriate value for the item
• Suggestions: Check Amazon.com or Ebay.com for similar items
• Account for the age of the item when determining its value
• Complete the Space Federation Donation Form
• You will need to describe the donated item(s) as well as their appropriate value
• School Factory will issue a formal receipt to the donor

Keeping Track

For all donations of hardware (in-kind) please add the item and the donators info on this page: Donated Items.