FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS
Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. You can find out more about the utility and the people behind it
here.
WHAT IS SLATECARD?
Slatecard is a utility to support and enhance Republican activism.
"Slatecard" is Slatecard.com PAC. Slatecard.com PAC is an independent, federally registered political action committee (PAC) which acts as a "conduit" to raise money online to help Republican candidates for federal office in compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Contributions on this site are not tax deductible. Contributions are reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by both Slatecard.com PAC and the recipient candidate's committee. Slatecard.com PAC is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
IS THE SLATECARD UTILITY AVAILABLE FOR ALL REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR A FEDERAL OFFICE? EVEN THOSE IN A PRIMARY?
Yes. Republican candidates for President, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives should all be included in our
candidate directory.
EVEN CANDIDATES IN A PRIMARY RACE?
Yes.
I’M A CANDIDATE/CAMPAIGN FOR FEDERAL OFFICE. CAN I USE SLATECARD TO TRANSACT ALL ONLINE DONATIONS?
Absolutely and strongly encouraged. Rather than set-up your own donation page on your website, we’ll work with you to integrate our solution in to your website and give you access to helpful issue-based donation information which could prove valuable to your entire campaign operation. We’ll send you your contributions every week which you can simply deposit in to your bank account. Email us at team@slatecard.com to get started.
IS THE SLATECARD UTILITY AVAILABLE FOR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR A STATE OR LOCAL OFFICE?
Not yet. However, with your
generous support, we hope to expand the utility to even more Republican candidates and expand our reach beyond Federal candidates.
HOW DO I BUILD A SLATECARD?
The first step is to
register for our site and create your Slatecard. The process only takes a few minutes. Once complete, you can add and remove candidates as you please through our robust
directory of Republican candidates.
THE SLATECARD DIRECTORY IS MISSING A FEDERAL CANDIDATE. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Contact us at updates@slatecard.com with the candidates name, website and any other relevant social networking or external links to include.
WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE MONEY TRANSACTED ON THIS SITE?
Contributions on this site are transacted safely and securely by Authorize.net over a secure server. Slatecard does not retain any credit card information except the
type of credit card you use to help us better monitor and evaluate our transaction fees. Processed transactions are sent to the Slatecard bank account and printed checks are mailed to its earmarked recipient with all required data as required by FECA. As required by law, within 10 calendar days of making your contribution on Slatecard, the donation is sent to its recipient with an explanation of FEC reporting guidelines.
HOW MUCH OF AN EARMARKED DONATION WILL BE SENT TO A CANDIDATE?
Slatecard applies a 4.5% flat transaction fee to every contribution on the site. Therefore, 95.5% of a donation will go to its earmarked recipient. After we have some user data to show how people are using our site, these fees may change and will be noted in this space and on the Slatecard blog.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE 4.5% TRANSACTION FEE
At Slatecard, transparency and honesty are important principles which guide every decision we make. We try to be as forthcoming with the process as reasonably possible because we want you to feel confident in the utility.
Therefore, a large majority of the 4.5% transaction fee (based on a sliding scale depending on which
type of credit card a user uses) goes directly to Authorize.net and the merchant account provider to pay for the service. In order to help ensure that the largest percentage of funds go to its intended recipient, the remainder of the fee for each transaction will be used to help offset lower dollar contributions through the site as you can see in the chart below.
Using Authorize.net and one of its merchant providers to securely transact credit card donations, we are accessing some of the lowest rates available that we've found. We reserve the right to switch providers if we’re able to identify a better provider.
Along with set-up fees and monthly maintenance fees, here are the fees we pay for each transaction:
* $0.35, regardless of donation size, is taken out by Authorize.net and its merchant provider (Authorize = $0.10 / Merchant = $0.25) for every transaction.
Along with the flat transaction fee listed above, a fee percentage is applied to every transaction. The credit card rates vary based on which type of credit card the user uses:
* Visa/Mastercard = 2.19-2.99% of total donation depending on type (e.g., qualified, non-qualified, checking, etc.) of card used.
* Discover = 2.39% of total donation.
* American Express = 3.85% of total donation.
NOTE: We do not currently accept American Express (AMEX). We have applied with AMEX and expect to begin accepting them in the very near future. We’ll keep you posted.
Here are a few examples of how this process works:
HOW WILL SLATECARD PAY ITS OTHER EXPENSES?
Slatecard depends on generous contributions from the community to help pay expenses associated with running (and hopefully expanding) the robust operation. At the bottom of each contribution form, we include a voluntary form where users can leave us a "tip" in the form of a monetary contribution to Slatecard.com PAC.
WHAT IS THE TICKER?
It's OK to be a voyeur and see what's happening on our site with the candidates and causes you care about. The Ticker is an innovative stream of all activity on the site customized for every candidate's profile and Slatecard. The assignment of issue badges, profile updates, and the creation of new profiles will be visible in its respective Ticker. Some activity on the site may not appear in respective Ticker’s.
WHAT ARE BADGES?
Before Slatecard, when an online contributor donated to a candidate online using a commercial vendor or a site like ActBlue, the process ended for a user with submission of the credit card data. But by contributing to candidates through Slatecard, users are able to qualify candidates by assigning that candidate an issue badge. The badge does not have any monetary value but rather represents the issue the contributor feels the recipient candidate represents well.
Therefore, Slatecard users will effectively create a qualified Wiki of candidates that the community will later be able to use to find those candidates, regardless of geography, that support the issues that they care about.
Ultimately, we expect this innovation to increase overall support for candidates by leveraging the collective knowledge of the community. Therefore, we're not only supporting activism, we're enhancing it.
I DO NOT SEE THE BADGE I’D LIKE TO USE. AM I OUT OF LUCK?
While we’ve done our best to help provide a good starting point of issue badges, we understand that we probably missed a few. If you’d like to offer a suggestion,
contact us and it might just be there the next time you go to support a candidate. Please note that requests will be weighted based on its merits and whether you’re an active user of the utility. After all, the Slatecard community counts.
WHAT ARE BUTTONS?
When an individual supports Slatecard.com PAC with a monetary contribution, that contributor is asked to assign a button and short message which will appear in the main Ticker and later, elsewhere on the site (wink, wink). Buttons are a fun way to send the Slatecard team a pat-on-the-back for the service and get a little recognition for your support. We'll be adding and removing buttons along the way, so make sure you come back often.
CAN MY CONTRIBUTIONS REMAIN ANONYMOUS?
Yes and no. We are required by law to report certain donor information to both the recipient candidate or committee and the FEC. However, contributors’ badge and button assignments can be delivered anonymously which will be apparent throughout the process.
WHAT IS THE CONNECT SECTION ON A CANDIDATE PROFILE?
One aspect of our vision for the Slatecard utility is to be a comprehensive directory for Republican candidates. Therefore, on all candidate profiles, we’re committed to adding the campaign’s official homepage and links to the candidate’s official profile in sites which modern activists will utilize to support and better connect with the candidate on the modern campaign trail.
When we add this new information to their profile in our directory, it will broadcast in relevant Ticker's throughout the site. So for example, if we add a myspace link to a profile, it will appear on The Ticker of the candidate and on any Slatecard that is supporting that candidate extending a candidate’s reach through its Slatecard network.
HOW CAN I HELP?
Two ways to help. The first is to
make a generous contribution, whatever you can afford, to Slatecard to help us expand. The second is to join our small list of Slatecard Captains who help beta test new technologies we plan to add to the site and help us keep the directory current. Email Joe at team@slatecard.com if you want to be a Slatecard Captain.