My PayPal account was recently suspended due to a questionable transaction in which someone included the comment “for Syrian refugees”. Following is the response that I wrote and which resulted in my account being restored. Happy ending to a stressful experience.
1. A brief, yet comprehensive explanation of your business model.
My business model is probably not of real significance to the transaction in question as I will explain. My business, Itineris Coaching and Consulting, is a part-time endeavor that allows me to offer my professional services while traveling as a global nomad. These professional services include leadership development coaching, organizational and community development consulting, the hosting of conversations and training and capacity building in participatory leadership. My primary intention is to provide my services wherever they can be helpful without concern about a business model or income. My business model is to live inexpensively, to do good and not to trust that my physical needs will be met in the process.
This model is a practice of generosity and gratitude, offering my services without any expectation of compensation and freely accepting whatever gifts are offered. I call this living in a gift economy. On my website I have described this “business model” in more detail (http://www.itineriscoaching.com/about-itineris/economy/).
However, I also do many other things in my travels and most recently have been in Austria and Serbia working with the refugee crisis. A part of my work (largely unconnected with any “business model”) is to witness situations and to reflect upon these though writing that I share in personal correspondence, on FaceBook and on my blog. While involved in Presevo Serbia, I witnessed incredible human courage and suffering and recognized that governmental organizations were not meeting the need. Without volunteer efforts and contributions, children would be dying. Food, water, warm clothes and transportation is needed to save lives of the refugees in the Balkans.
On my birthday, October 8, I included the following paragraph in a FaceBook posting: “Finally, a little plea. All of the grassroots volunteer groups here in Presevo have run out of money. Many came with their pockets full of money raised in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and elsewhere. But the funds have gone fast, purchasing food and raincoats and garbage bags and emergency bus tickets and, and, and. All of us are frequently and willingly using our personal funds to respond to emergent needs. But more money is needed. I hate to suggest that money is (ever) the answer and I hate to ask for money. But the reality is that the flood of refugees does not appear to be slowing and the rain continues to fall. We expect a very difficult night ahead of us an more days of the same. If any of you would like to honor my birthday celebration in a tangible way, I invite you to donate money and I promise that it will be used to help a person in need.”
To expedite the transfer of funds, I invited anyone who wanted to make a donation to use the donation button on my website (http://www.itineriscoaching.com/contact-me/) which is connected to my PayPal account. The funds that I have received have been and will continue to be used to support efforts for the refugees in the Balkans. None of it will be used personally by me and, consequently, none of it is really business income even though I am using my PayPal account to facilitate fund transfers.
2. A full list of the products and services you offer for payments
received into your PayPal account.
Normally, my PayPal account is used to collect payments associated with my professional coaching, training and consulting services. As I explained above in my “business model” though, this is not as straight forward and transactional as being compensated for services delivered. In many cases, I deliver services without receiving any funds and, in other cases, people provide me with funds as a gift to support the work that I do for free.
In the past month, my PayPal account has been used to collect donations to support the refugees in the Balkans, specifically in Presevo, Serbia. These funds have been use to feed and cloth refugees, to purchase transportation for destitute families and to help provide accommodations for volunteers working with the refugees. Again, the funds were not provided to pay for any specific products or services. They were gifts from people who wanted me to have funds available to respond to needs as they arose. All of the funds have been or will be expended on the needs of refugees and none of it is compensation to me personally or to my business.
3. A complete list of the activities that you engage in during the
normal course of your business.
My normal business activities consist of working with individuals and groups to help them collaborate more effectively. I do this through individual conversations in person and via Skype, by assisting in the design of participatory processes, by hosting training programs, by facilitating team building experiences and by writing and reflecting upon my experiences and learnings.
Over the past month and a half, my activities have not been normal as I have been totally immersed in working with refugees, often 15 to 18 hours per day. I did this work as a volunteer without any financial compensation. My responsibilities included distributing food, water and clothing, providing information on the registration process at the Presevo “One Stop Processing Center”, liaising with police and aid workers from UNHCR, Save the Children and other NGOs, identifying “Extremely Vulnerable Refugees” (those refugees who were unable to survive in the regular queue) and working with UNHCR and police to expedite their processing, systems development with other volunteers and organizations and facilitating communication among all of the players.
4. Purpose of payment 0BD345662E0284644 received on October 08, 2015
in the amount of $1,000.00 USD, including a complete and detailed
explanation of how the funds will be used to support Syrian Refugees.
This was a gift from my sister for the purpose of providing food, clothing and transportation to refugee families in Serbia. I have been using all of the funds I received to purchase shoes and winter clothing, water and food for refugee families. I have also purchased bus and train tickets from Presevo to Sid for destitute families. Currently, I am researching cost-effective rainwear that I can purchase to distribute to refugees. Some of the funds were also used to equip a volunteer house in Presevo for international volunteers working with the refugees. So far, all funds have been expended in Serbia and the remaining funds will all be spent in the Balkan region.
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So glad that this turned out well for you, and more importantly for the families that you’re helping find a new start. How are things after the nastiness in Paris? I hope that there are still people like yourself trying to ease the struggles of all these migrants– one would have to guess that they wouldn’t have traveled so far if there were truly no reason for them to leave home.