Pledge-as-Spent

A donor’s pledge stays a PayPal hold: money moves only for receipt lines that pass the checks, and the rest is never charged.

Your €20 for water can only buy water.

For small relief drives and mutual-aid groups that already take PayPal, and for the donors who want to see what their money bought.

Judging Pledge-as-Spent? See the whole thing in 90 seconds.

  1. See a finished drive: the Ledger, where every pledge was spent on receipt lines or never charged. Its “Ask PayPal yourself” reads every hold, capture and payout back from PayPal.
  2. Read a donor’s statement: what one donor’s hold bought, line by line.
  3. Judge it in 90 seconds in the README: the PayPal ids behind each claim.
  4. Try to cheat the receipt: five forged receipts against the same checks, and what their forged lines would cost donors.
  5. What if we vanish? A pledge is a PayPal hold with an end date PayPal sets. A donor’s statement shows that date, and “Ask PayPal yourself” checks it with PayPal: after it nothing more can be charged. A live pledge also has Withdraw; this finished one shows the day PayPal voided the hold.

Fictional drive · PayPal Sandbox · no real money moves

Places 4 new sandbox holds: three donors and the company match.

The Florida drive (fictional shelter, fictional storm): hurricane relief in US dollars, through the same checks.

  1. Send a receipt. Press “Use the sample receipt”. AI reads every line, approves what the shelter needs and refuses the rest.
  2. Follow the money. Each approved line is split across donor holds and the company match. “Capture now” takes only those shares at PayPal.
  3. Close the drive. “Close drive” has PayPal release what is left of every hold: it is never charged. Open a donor’s name to read what that pledge bought.
  4. See where the money went. The Ledger puts every pledge on one page: spent, never charged, and the receipt lines behind each yen.