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WePay is an online service that enables users to collect donations, send bills, sell tickets and much more. It gives users the ability to accept payments made via a donor’s bank account, or credit card as well. Users of WePay are given tools to easily manage their group’s financial accounts, to ensure that the bills are paid on time, while at the same time users can share their organization’s financial history with other group members to maintain transparency. The two Facebook apps, Sell Tickets and Collect Money, allow users to sell tickets for Facebook events or collect money from Facebook groups.

WePay was founded in 2008 by Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman in order to address three main issues that they felt that groups have to deal with. Firstly, that collecting money from others is a struggle. Secondly, once collected, that money must be stored in either a personal account, or a separate bank account must be established. Finally, maintaining transparency can be an issue as well. Therefore, WePay was developed to tackle these issues and ensure that organizations can easily collect and manage incoming money, while maintaining sound financial records.

What makes WePay unique is its ease of use and its aim to serve as a solution to the financial problems that organizations often face starting out. Users can easily establish an online financial presence for their group or organization, and provide that information to members easily for purposes of transparency, and to enable group members to communicate with each other in one central location.

WePay’s homepage maintains a simple if slightly cluttered layout, and an inoffensive color scheme of mostly white with colored links and menu boxes. Easily accessible are anecdotes on how organizations are currently using WePay, as well as several examples. Several external links are available to sites which have featured WePay at some point or another, unfortunately it is not readily apparent what these links are for without clicking on them, so a more wary user may consider them advertisements and avoid clicking entirely.

On the homepage of WePay, a new user is prompted to choose why they wish to use WePay, and then after clicking the red “Get Started” button, is taken to the account creation page. Users must enter their group name and email address, after which they can optionally enter the email addresses of other members of their group who they wish to have access for transparency’s sake. After which, they click “Next Step” where they are required to enter First and last name, social security number for US PATRIOT Act compliance, and choose a password, after which they can then begin using the features of WePay in their entirety.

WePay is a free to use service; however, groups will incur a small fee per incoming transaction. Groups can decide the fee for their transactions, enabling them to choose the option which best suits them. Fees for sending bills, selling tickets, and deposits are 50 cents when made with a bank account or alternatively, 3.5% if made via a bank account or credit card. All donations incur a 3.5% fee regardless of their source. In addition to the above, groups that wish to receive a WePay Prepaid Visa Card incurs small domestic and international ATM fees, as well as a shipping and handling fee of approximately $5-10.

WePay offers solutions for all organizations and individuals wishing to accept payments while maintaining sound records and transparency amongst its members, but it is especially suited to fundraising efforts, as it enables users to easily accept donations as well as sell tickets to events.

• Web based interface for ease of use
• Prepaid Visa card available for easily utilizing donated funds
• The ability to invite members into the group, enabling them to communicate with each other as well as monitor the spending of funds
• Guest list management for events that a group sells tickets to
• The ability to send reminders when collecting money from friends and family
• Facebook apps that help users collect money

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