FAQ

Your registration fee covers all TEAM PAWS Chicago costs associated with your membership, such as singlet and other perks (see “Perks” page on the event page). Because the registration fee offsets our costs, it does not count towards your minimum fundraising requirement.

No. We understand that not everyone will wish or can take advantage of all our perks (especially those from out of town) but the registration fees help us cover our costs so that more funds raised can go towards saving homeless pets.

A few factors determine the amount of the minimum fundraising requirement. One is the race type you are in since race entry fees are included in the minimum fundraising requirement (for example, the entry fees for the Chicago Marathon are lower than those in Berlin or London). Another is some races set the minimum fundraising requirements for charities, which we are not allowed to go below (e.g. Chicago Marathon and London Marathon). It is for these reasons, that we can never lower the minimum fundraising requirement for any reason (including but not limited to medical, financial, travel, work, etc.).

By joining our team you are reserving one of our entries into the marathon, which we pay for and reserve immediately upon your registration.  By joining us, you are also withdrawing from the London marathon lottery (if you entered) since your spot is secured.  If you secure your own entry in any other way (e.x. you win an entry) the waiver you acknowledge that you are still obligated to meet the minimum fundraising requirement for the necessary amount. 

For those who already have their own entry into the London Marathon, they may join our Athlete's Choice program, of which the fundraising requirement is $650. 

For those who don't reach their minimum fundraising requirements by 8:30am (US Central) on the due dates (50% $4,250 on Friday, November 1, 2019 and 100% $8,500 on Wednesday, April 1, 2020), PAWS Chicago staff will charge the credit card on file for the remaining balance, starting at 8:30 a.m. ON the due date.  If we are unable to collect the remaining balance, we will pull your race entry with no refunds issued.

We will be able to honor these as long as you fulfill all of the following:
1. Email teampaws@pawschicago.org by 5pm (central time) NO LATER than the day before your deadline notifying us of the situation.

2. In the email, you must include the following documentation from your company:
A. Verification that your company will be making the gift (e.g. receipt, email, etc.)
B. Amount that the gift will be
C. Date the gift will be sent to PAWS Chicago

3. Matching gifts must be received by PAWS Chicago by December 31, 2020 (gifts not received by then, PAWS Chicago will charge the remaining balance with the credit card on file on December 31, 2020). If we do not receive these items by the deadline, we will be unable to honor them. We are unable to accept applications for matching gifts, we must receive confirmation that the gift has been approved and is being processed.

As you may have seen, Facebook has “Donate” features where you can create an online fundraiser via Facebook to go to your charity of choice.  These pop up to encourage people to create fundraisers for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  The way this works is you create the fundraiser, the funds first go to Facebook, and when the fundraiser ends, after the close of that month, Facebook then gathers the information and sends one large check to that organization.

When Facebook sends us checks each month, they do not list who held the Facebook Fundraisers and because of this lack of confirmation (from Facebook) we are unable to credit these funds to individual fundraising pages like TEAM PAWS Chicago.

In addition, we do not receive the list of donors (or how much they gave).  Because these funds went to Facebook first and not directly to PAWS Chicago, and due to the missing donor information, we cannot issue ANY receipts to donors who donate to a Facebook Fundraiser.

Furthermore, because we cannot verify these gifts as forthcoming as we can with Corporate Matching (due to lack of access with Facebook) we cannot honor these gifts as “pledged” gifts as we can with Corporate Matches. 

Therefore, we do not accept Facebook Fundraiser Funds towards TEAM PAWS Chicago fundraising and strongly urge members to use their fundraising pages instead.

No we will not issue partial or entire refunds.  As a member of TEAM PAWS Chicago, you are making the commitment to raise the minimum due BY the deadline listed.  For this reason, we encourage you to let your supporters know this deadline to ensure that your obligation is met.  

Members may continue fundraising until October 31, 2020 in order to earn our fundraising prizes.

No. All TEAM PAWS Chicago members are responsible for their own travel and accommodations to and from their event.

TEAM PAWS Chicago does not help with any of the travel arrangements.  Instead, these are the responsibility of the member. 

The only exception is for those running on our Bank of America Chicago Marathon team, we do have a block of rooms that weekend for a discounted rate with at our host hotel of our Race Day Party. We do not have a room block for any other race.

Many of our TEAM PAWS Chicago members will coordinate with each other for travel, Airbnb, VRBO, or hotel arrangements (for example, those running in NYC or London). Ultimately, it is the individual TEAM PAWS Chicago member’s responsibility to make their own travel arrangements.

All donations should be mailed to:
PAWS Chicago
1933 N. Marcey Street
Chicago, IL 60614
USA

Please make all checks payable to: PAWS Chicago.
Please make sure that in the memo it says TEAM PAWS Chicago and who the donations should be credited to.

Click on the home page and begin typing the first or last name. Your options will display as you type.

Any donation made online should post immediately. If an online donation does not post within 5 minutes, please contact us.

All monetary donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Yes. For overseas donations made online with a credit card, the amount entered in the online donation form will be in U.S. dollars.

Any donor who mailed their donation will receive an acknowledgment letter directly from PAWS Chicago.

Yes, anyone who donates online, regardless of the amount, will receive a receipt via email.

A Tax ID number identifies PAWS Chicago as a 501(c)(3) non-profit Organization. The PAWS Chicago Tax ID number is EIN 36-4219778

When you make a donation online, you can designate what you want to appear as your recognition name on the participant's Honor Roll. This may be your name, or it could be something such as "From the whole Wolf family" or "in memory of Aunt Cathy."

When PAWS receives cash and check donations we need to first deposit these donations with our bank.  Once the donation clears, we can then post it onto your fundraising page.  This process can take up to one week (7 business days) depending on donation volume.

If a donation check has been written out to you personally, you may endorse the back of the check and mail it in with a completed donation form to PAWS Chicago at 1933 N. Marcey Street, C/O Team PAWS Chicago, Chicago, IL 60614, USA

It is not a good idea to send a cash donation in the mail. You may drop off the cash at PAWS Chicago's Blazer Building at 1933 N. Marcey Street, Chicago, IL 60614 Monday-Friday between the hours of 9-5 along with your information.  Alternatively, you can have a cashiers check made and mail that as you would a regular check (see how to mail checks in Donate FAQ's above). 

Any donation made online should post immediately. If your donation does not post within 5 minutes, please contact PAWS Chicago.

You can't enter a check online. What you can do is enter a check as a pledge. This can be done in the fundraising section of your headquarters page. The status of the check will be pending until the check is received by PAWS Chicago.

A Tax ID number identifies PAWS Chicago as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Many donors will request this number to validate their donation as tax-deductible. The PAWS Chicago Tax ID number is EIN 36-4219778.

As your donors make a contribution, they have the option of whether or not they want to appear in the Honor Roll.  Donors can select their name to be anonymous, their donation amount to be anonymous, or both to be anonymous.  The recipient will be notified of the donor name and amount via e-mail.

Log in with your email and password to visit your headquarters page. Select "My Fundraising Report" on the left side. You will then find a list of all of your donors as well as a list of all donors to your team .

To easily send thank-you emails to donors, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your fundraiser dashboard by clicking the "My HQ" link in the top right
2. Click "My Fundraising Report" in the left sidebar
3. Locate the donor/donation you'd like to thank, and click "Send Email" (If the donor didn't submit their email address, this option is unavailable.)
4. Type the message in the pop-up window, and click "Send Email"

You are receiving these emails because we would like to keep you updated on your fundraising efforts. If you wish to stop receiving these updates, please login to your headquarters and edit your account preferences.

A personal URL is a shortened link to your team or personal page that you can send to friends and family in emails. A personal URL will look like this https://my.pawschicago.org/TEAMPAWSLondon2020/ben.