DonatePR.com, Home is Puerto Rico raise ’22 Year-end Charity Challenge awards

Home is Puerto Rico and DonatePR.com announced they raised the amount of the prizes to be awarded in the DonatePR.com Year-end Charity Challenge on Dec. 31. The new amounts are $5,000 for first place; $3,000 for second place, and $2,000 for third place.

“The increase in the prize amount is a thank you bonus for the charities that have participated all this month in the Challenge,” said Richard Brinegar, founder of DonatePR.

Originally, the awards were $3,000, $1,200, and $800 for first, second and third place, respectively. More than $150,000 have been given to qualifying non-governmental organizations using DonatePR.com through the 2022 Year-end Charity Challenge that stared Dec. 1st.

Annie Mustafa, founder of Home is Puerto Rico, said “the Year-end Charity Challenge is a way to help qualifying non-governmental organizations get a last-minute boost to their donation efforts.”

She added that this is the second year Home Is Puerto Rico partners with DonatePR.com in the Charity Challenge. People can see who is leading the Charity Challenge in real time.

Home is Puerto Rico is an organization established to serve as a bridge between the local community and those who have chosen to make Puerto Rico their home or establish their business base.

Meanwhile, DonatePR.com was created to help those individual investors under Act 22 and Act 60 that need to comply with the yearly donation requirement to qualifying nonprofit organizations in the easiest way possible, organizers said.

Any qualifying nonprofit can participate in the platform free of charge.

“Using the DonatePR.com platform makes it easy for donors and qualifying nonprofits to meet in one place,” Brinegar said.

There is currently a variety of nonprofits at the platform, that range from diverse animal organizations, children, women, education, universities, science, culture, health recovery, disaster relief, agriculture, entrepreneurship, to music, arts and saving beaches.

“Since the creation of DonatePR.com four years ago, we have waived all platform fees for the nonprofits to participate and create a project,” Brinegar said.

DonatePR.com does not hold any money donated through the platform, so unlike other platforms that could hold the donation up to 90 days after it is given, the nonprofits receive it immediately. At the same time, donors automatically get a donation receipt when they use the platform, which must be submitted to the Puerto Rico Treasury Department.

By law, some individual investors under Act 22 need to make a $5,000 yearly donation to a qualifying nonprofit organization approved by Treasury and individual investors under Act 60 need to make a $10,000 yearly donation divided as follow: $5,000 to a qualifying nonprofit organization approved by Treasury and then $5,000 to a nonprofit organization approved by the Special Joint Committee on Legislative Funds (CECFL in Spanish), specifically organizations providing services to eradicate child poverty. Not all nonprofits approved by Treasury are on that short list.

Meanwhile, Brinegar expressed his concerned about the confusion regarding which entities qualify under Treasury or under the CECFL list, “that can potentially lead decree holders to errors and to not comply on time with the donation requirement.”

“To address this issue, DonatePR.com is working on new features to classify participating nonprofits in the platform, so donors can quickly distinguish them. The feature will be available next year,” he said.

There are more than 50 non-governmental organizations in the DonatePR.com website, but for those decree holders still needing to make their donation to the organizations on the short list, it includes:

• San Jorge Children Foundation
• Casa Pensamiento De Mujer Del Centro Inc
• Boys and Girls Club Inc.
• Tech My School Inc.
• Foundation For Puerto Rico Inc.
• Integro
• Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
• Niños de Nueva Esperanza, and,
• Mentes Puertorriqueñas en Acción.