Refund policy

Within 24 hours of donating, you can request a refund directly from the receipt email or your account. Operators may turn this self-service path on or off based on Stripe Connect dispute and balance rules; if it is off, the same form routes the request to the trust team for fast-track handling.

After 24 hours, refunds are reviewed by the trust team. We typically process within one business day. If a campaign's verification later fails, we email donors an offer to refund (see the auto-pause section below).

• The donation has already been disbursed to the organizer and the organizer disputes the refund. We escalate to the trust team, but final outcome depends on Stripe's chargeback / dispute process.
• Older refund requests may require manual review and may not be eligible for the self-service refund path.
• Repeated abuse of the refund flow. We may rate-limit refunds per donor.

The refund goes back to the original payment method, typically within 3 to 5 business days. We send a confirmation email. The organizer's raised total is decremented; if there is an active payout schedule, Stripe deducts from the next payout.

When you donated, Stripe charged a small processing fee (~2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). If a refund happens later, Stripe returns the donation amount to you in full but does notreturn its own processing fee.

That means:

• Donors receive the refunded amount back to the original payment method.That includes the donation, the optional tip to FundMeU, and any “cover the fees” surcharge if you opted in. Nothing comes out of your pocket.
• Organizers absorb the Stripe fee on refunded donations.Stripe reverses the donated funds from the organizer's connected account, but the ~2.9% + $0.30 it took on the original charge stays with Stripe. So a refunded $25 donation typically costs the organizer about $1.03; a $100 refund costs about $3.20. We don't bill organizers separately - this is just Stripe's standard behavior on refunds in the US.
• FundMeU returns its share. Any tip a donor included is refunded back from the platform.

We surface this on every organizer refund email so the deduction is never a surprise. If a campaign sees an unusual volume of refunds, the trust team will reach out before balances become a problem.

When a campaign hits the 14-day verification deadline without completing, it auto-pauses and new donations stop. Existing donors are emailed an offer to refund and can confirm with one click - we don't issue these refunds without the donor's consent.

You can also file a chargeback with your card issuer. We strongly prefer you contact us first: chargebacks are slower, cost the organizer more, and the trust team can resolve most cases quickly.