Stranded Funds Automation

Most donations made through CSRconnect are successfully disbursed on first attempt (98%). However, some situations can occur outside of our control, such as when a charity does not cash a check or loses their donation eligibility status based on their IRS standing.

When this occurs, the transaction becomes stranded. The Stranded Funds Automation (SFA) process redirects a stranded fund to a charity that can receive the funds.

This feature is translated and supports the transaction's currency. Stranded Funds Automation is not segmentable.

Some stranded funds are not SFA-eligible and will require manual resolution, such as transactions made through GrantsConnect. The Manual Quarterly Remediation process addresses these stranded funds.

Hold reasons

Hold reasons are the events that cause a donation to become a stranded fund. The following hold reasons are currently handled by the SFA process:

  • Stale checks not deposited after 120 days (US only)

  • Undelivered checks returned by USPS (US only)

  • Charity is on the donor’s resident state revocation list (See CA AB 488.)

  • Charity has lost its eligibility for giving

  • Charity is no longer active on YourCause platform

  • Charity vetting in progress

The donation is redirected only once the donation becomes a stranded fund:

  • For true hold reasons (when we are not able to process a transaction to a charity), the funds become stranded before we make a disbursement attempt.

  • For stale checks, the funds become stranded once the check has been voided. There are multiple attempts made to contact charities when a check is at risk of becoming stale, including email notifications sent at the 45- and 90-day period after the original issue date. We can reissue checks based upon request from those contacts. Donors are proactively notified 30 days before the 120-day deadline.

Stranded Fund Automation process

Employers can select alternate organizations for each enabled processor.

For most employees, their stranded funds are automatically redirected to their employer’s selected alternate organization for the relevant processor.

To configure your alternate organizations, see SFA settings. The processor will serve as the default alternate organization if no alternate has been selected.

When transactions from a recurring payroll pledge become stranded funds, the recurring payroll pledge is canceled.

Note: For users who selected California as their state of residence, the SFA process notifies donors that their donation has become stranded and allows them to select a redirect option to resolve the issue in compliance with state regulations.

Email notifications

For a full list of all email notifications for this feature, see the Stranded Funds Automation section of the CSRconnect Email Library.

You can exclude specific donors from receiving certain Stranded Funds Automation email notifications. See Email exemptions.

Reporting

You can review the status of Stranded Fund Automation transactions from Standard Reports, Give using the Transactions on Hold Report. Some SFA fields are also included in the All Giving Report.