Frequently Asked Questions: Electronic Grant Payments

Chariot is a nonprofit payment platform that allows foundations and donor-advised fundholders to send grants electronically. It provides a secure, centralized place to receive grant funds.

We are adopting Chariot to make grant payments faster, more secure, and easier for nonprofits to manage. Chariot keeps payment information and grant details together in one place and is already used by thousands of nonprofit organizations and donors.

No. If you choose not to enroll, you can still receive grant payments by check. However, enrolling in Chariot provides a faster, more secure way to receive grant funds and information.

No. There is no cost to create a Chariot account, receive grant payments, or transfer funds to your organization's bank account.

No. Receiving grants through Chariot is free. While Chariot offers optional paid services for other fundraising and gift processing needs, those services are not required to receive grants from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

A control person at your organization must complete the initial onboarding process. This is often a listed officer on your Form 990 or someone with authority over the organization's financial accounts.

Yes. Chariot’s system for receiving grants is significantly more secure than traditional methods such as checks or even ACH. Its “in-network” transfers are instantaneous and do not expose account or routing numbers. Tens of thousands of donors, nonprofits, and DAFs rely on Chariot’s technology to facilitate seamless giving and payment experiences while keeping their most sensitive information protected. Learn more here.

As part of standard compliance and security procedures, Chariot verifies the identity of the account owner, their connection to the organization and the nonprofit's good standing before approving the account.

The initial onboarding process typically takes about five minutes to complete. Chariot's compliance team then reviews the account, which generally takes about three business days.

You will need basic information about your organization and the account owner. After enrollment is approved, the account owner will also need to link the organization's bank account. You can view a full onboarding guide here.

Yes. Once the account is established, the account owner can invite additional team members, such as finance, development, and operations staff.

Chariot sends an email notification whenever a grant is issued to your organization. Users can customize their notification of preferences in their account settings.

Grant funds and grant details are delivered to your Chariot account. You can then transfer the funds to your linked bank account whenever you choose.

Once you initiate a transfer from Chariot, funds generally settle in your linked bank account within two to three business days.

Yes. Funds remain available in your Chariot account until you choose to transfer them to your linked bank account.

For security reasons, only the account owner can link or change an external financial account where funds are transferred from your Chariot Account. As a further precaution, an alert email will be sent to any users on the account if there’s a change made to the linked external financial account.

After the Owner sets up the Chariot Account, they can invite additional users. Anyone invited as an Admin can do everything in the account except change the linked external financial account. This includes adding teammates with different roles to the account and transferring funds out of the Chariot Account.

Yes. Nonprofits may create and verify their Chariot account at any time, which can help ensure a smooth experience once payments begin through the platform.

One benefit of Chariot is that many grantmakers and donors use the same platform, with some examples including Daffy, Groundswell, and Charityvest. A single Chariot account can help you manage payments and information from participating funders.

For questions related to payment processing, account access, or transfers, contact Chariot Support at support@givechariot.com. For questions about a specific grant, donor, or grant details, please contact the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation at grantsadmin@spmcf.org.

Chariot's support team can help with enrollment, account verification, and technical issues. You can contact Chariot Support at support@givechariot.com. The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation can also help answer questions about the transition and receiving grants

For security reasons, only the account owner can link or change your external financial account where funds are transferred out of your Chariot Account. As a further precaution, an alert email will be sent to any users on the account if there is a change made to your linked external financial account.

After the owner sets up the Chariot Account, they can invite additional users. Anyone invited as an admin will be able do everything in the account except change the linked external financial account. This includes adding other teammates with different roles to the account and transferring funds out of the Chariot Account.

If your account owner hasn't left yet, they can initiate the ownership transfer themselves to whichever admin on the account should assume ownership. Instructions on how to initiate an ownership transfer can be found here.

If the account owner has already left, another team member can email support@givehcariot.com and include the prospective owner's first name, last name, and email address. Chariot will send the new prospective owner a link for the verification process.

Admin users on the account will still have full account functionality during the transfer process. The only action restricted to owners is changing your linked external financial account where you transfer funds out of your Chariot account.

Any information the donor chooses to share publicly will be visible in the Chariot Account Dashboard for an electronic payment and on the accompanying grant letter for checks.