Donate

We offer many options for donating to Brain Support Network (BSN): Credit Card, Check, Facebook Fundraisers, Vehicle Donation, Publicly Traded Securities, Donor-advised Fund (DAF), Ecommerce Affiliate Programs, Beneficiary Designations, In-Kind Donations, and several others. Your gift will fund Brain Support Network’s educational efforts, including this website, and allow us to organize brain donations for families across the US.  Brain Support Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; our Employer Identification Number (EIN) is 46-0771864.  Your donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

The pie chart at right summarizes how we spent your donations last year. See our financial reports for information about past years.

 

Charity Navigator, America’s premier independent charity evaluator, has given us an ‘Encompass Rating’ of 100 out of 100. This rating measures the stability, efficiency and sustainability of our organization. They also evaluated our accountability and transparency policies to ensure the good governance and integrity of the organization. View the full report here.

 

 


Donate by Credit Card

BSN accepts US dollar and foreign currency donations via most credit cards using PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to send us a credit card donation via PayPal. For questions or to communicate more information about your donation, please send email to [email protected].

Use the form below to specify a gift in memory of or in honor of someone. If you make a gift in memory of someone, we encourage you to allow us to notify the family. We will only notify the family with your explicit permission. Please provide the family’s name and contact information (e.g. postal or email address) if you can — though we often know that information. We will notify the family that you have remembered their loved one, but not report the amount of your donation.

Once you enter the amount of your donation below, and ideally select if your donation is in memory of or in honor of someone, click the yellow “Donate” button.  The information you’ve entered will be transmitted to PayPal’s secure web site where you can enter your credit card details.
  1. On the first PayPal screen select ‘Pay with Debit or Credit Card’ (assuming that you don’t have an existing PayPal account with funds).
  2. Leave “Ship to my billing address” checked even though nothing will be shipped. PayPal refers to BSN as a “Merchant”.
  3. PayPal shares your email address (but not your credit card info) with us and we will send you by email a receipt for income tax purposes. If your gift is in memory of someone, and you have provided the family’s name and contact information, we will notify the family that you have remembered their loved one, but not report the amount of your donation.

 

 


Donate by Checkdownload and print this form

BSN accepts US dollar and foreign currency donations via check. Please mail your check, made payable to Brain Support Network, to PO Box 7264, Menlo Park, California 94026, USA. We will send you an acknowledgement of your donation. We accept checks in any currency.

If you would like to make your gift in memory of or in honor of someone, please so indicate on the check or in an enclosed note. If you want someone to be notified of your memorial donation or honorary donation, please download and print this form and send us the completed form along with your check. We will notify this person or family of your generosity in someone’s name, but we won’t mention the donation amount.

 


Facebook Fundraisers

Facebook now offers a service, “Fundraisers,” that makes it easy for people to show their respect and affection for a loved one. Families use the Facebook service to organize memorial donations (i.e. donations in lieu of flowers) to Brain Support Network.

It’s easy to create a fundraiser on the Facebook site at facebook.com/fundraisers. Click on “Raise Money”, select “Nonprofit”, and search for “Brain Support Network” in the list of nonprofits.  We encourage you to choose a title for your fundraiser that includes the name of the person that you are memorializing, if any.  For more details and a step-by-step guide, click here.

 


Donate Your Vehicle

Brain Support Network (BSN) has engaged CARS (Charitable Adult Rides & Services) to manage donations of vehicles to the benefit of BSN. We gratefully accept almost all donations of cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, trailers and RVs. Once the paperwork is prepared, your vehicle is transported to an auction house.

You will receive a tax receipt for the selling price. We receive about 75% of the selling price. Click here for more details.

 


Publicly Traded Securities

Brain Support Network gratefully accepts donations of stocks and bonds that are traded regularly on national (US) or local exchanges or in the over-the-counter market.  Read an overview of the easy process for making such donations.  For questions, please send email to donations@brainsupportnetwork.org.  Note that US Federal Government bonds cannot be transferred during lifetime, but such bonds can be included as a bequest to BSN.

 


Donor-advised Fund (DAF)

A donor-advised fund (DAF) allows donors to set aside tax-deferred income.  Generally, funds are deductible in the year they are set aside.  Funds can be later donated to charitable institutions that qualify as IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations–like Brain Support Network.

If you already have a DAF, you can simply donate funds in your DAF to Brain Support Network.  Our Employer Identification Number (EIN) is 46-0771864.  Our postal address is PO Box 7264, Menlo Park, California 94026, USA.  You can contact us by phone at +1 650-814-0848.

 


Employer Gift Matching

Many companies will offer to match or even raise an employee’s charitable donation. See if your employer, your spouse’s employer, or the employer you retired from is willing to match your donation to Brain Support Network. This is a simple way to increase the impact of a donation considerably. Refer to our page on donation matching for a list of verified employer matching programs including links to initiate the process.

For questions, please send email to donations@brainsupportnetwork.org.

 


Ecommerce Affiliate Programs

Brain Support Network is registered with several online retailers and programs which provide a donation based on a percentage of each qualified purchase made. Please consider listing Brain Support Network as your selected charity through the program listed below. Donations of every size make a lasting difference, we appreciate your consideration.

iGive

  1. Register/Sign-in to iGive (follow this link)
  2. Search for a cause using ‘Brain Support Network’ as the text
  3. Select ‘Brain Support Network’ and start supporting us with each purchase made. Make sure to sign-in to iGive and use the ‘Shop|Search’ feature to find which online shops qualify.

 


Beneficiary Designations of Bequests, Life Insurance, and Retirement Plans

BSN welcomes beneficiary designations of bequests, life insurance, retirement plans and other revocable gifts, if the designations are un-restricted.

For questions, please send email to donations@brainsupportnetwork.org

 


Other Types

Some other types of donations that may be accepted by BSN include contributions of stock in privately held companies, tangible personal property (such as artwork, jewelry, watercraft, and aircraft), intangible personal property (such as life insurance, copyrights, and royalties), real estate, and beneficiaries of charitable annuities or trusts. 

To inquire, please email donations@brainsupportnetwork.org so that our legal counsel and Board of Directors may consider your gift.

 


In-Kind Donations

BSN welcomes many types of in-kind donations, including books and DVDs about caregiving, exercise, meditation, and specific neurological disorders that are part of the BSN community. These become part of our local support group’s lending library. Occasionally, we can accept large equipment (such as a wheelchair van, a hospital bed, a tilt-in-space wheelchair, a powerchair, etc.) provided that the equipment is donated by a local BSN support group member and the donated equipment is picked up at the donor’s home by a family (often a local support group member).