FAQ
FAQ
Symb Partner FAQ
Symb is a free application available on both the Google Play Store™ and Apple Store™, creating for our users a modern, user-friendly system to support sponsored charitable organizations. Getting started, users create a Symb account, connect their bank account through the third-party application Plaid, and choose their preferred method of donation. The methods available to accumulate funds include either rounding-up transactions or taking a percentage of a transaction. After a transaction is completed that matches the user's settings the correct funds will be transferred to the user’s Symb account. Users can specify to the penny exactly which charges they want to round-up and they can input their preferred percent and maximum charge for percentage-based transactions. We pride ourselves on being financially-friendly and welcoming to all regardless of their financial status as every cent will help make a difference. When users accumulate a balance of at least $5, they are able to donate their specified amount to the organization of their choice. You may find more information regarding how we operate here https://symb.app/about-us/.
Yes, your financial data is extremely safe with Symb both as a partner and as a user. We take our security very seriously and will continue to heavily invest in security and server upgrades as we grow. We use AWS (Amazon Web Services), a renowned server and security platform to store financial data from partners and users. Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Disney, and over 70% of banks across the United States use AWS. AWS can be found here https://aws.amazon.com/products/security/?nc2=h_ql_prod_se. Symb uses Plaid, a highly respected banking API to integrate banking data and receive access to the user’s banking transaction information. Plaid works with companies such as Robinhood, Venmo, Chime, and many more successful companies. Plaid can be found here at https://plaid.com/. Symb does not collect or sell any user data and is fully Apple and Google compliant.
Yes, Symb partnerships are at-will agreements. At any time, either party may terminate the agreement with or without cause.
Partnering with Symb gives charities the chance to see an increase in charitable donations, acts as an additional form of marketing and outreach with a younger demographic, and provides access to our user base. Partnering with Symb, charities are given the opportunity to provide donors with a unique and financially-friendly method to give. Many people have the desire to support charitable organizations. However, a one-time donation of a large amount is unrealistic to those who cannot afford to give large sums. This is where we fill the gap. Instead of trying to save a large sum to donate, users of the Symb app are able to accumulate funds over time to support your organization. Each partner is given their own unique page within the Symb app that is accessible to all Symb users. The page will be created with the information the organization during the partnership process, which can be found here: https://symb.app/charity-sign-up/. Users may find your organization through the business’s category, by keyword, or through geographical distance to the user. In the future as Symb grows, Symb will start using the data collected to recommend your organization to users who have an interest in aiding missions similar to yours. We have unique marketing strategies planned to create a new, large pool of charitable donors for our partners to receive aid from. We expect to grow quickly and be the origin of a new wave of charitable technology as society transitions to a web-based donation system.
No, Symb does not directly charge our partners for our partnership. We receive payments to fund our company by taking 8% of every donation made through the Symb app. As we tell our users, we plan to decrease this percentage as we grow.
Although we do not ask for any direct financial payments from our partners, we do require our partners to help market Symb. When an organization becomes a partner with Symb, we require partners to create a post on their social media platform(s) to announce their partnership with Symb, and tag Symb’s social media on each platform. On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok Symb can be found at @SymbApp. We also ask our partners to include a link to Symb’s website on their website as we will include a link to our partners website. As Symb continues to grow, the donations towards your cause and outreach of your mission will similarly grow.
We are currently developing the back-end of the app to give our partners more access to features. Soon, each partner will be able to create their own Symb account to send updates (notifications) to users who have donated to your cause. These updates can be used to provide our users with progress your organization has made, including recent events or anything else you want to share with your supporters. Updates may be distributed using articles, by informative pictures, or by video. We will keep our partners updated and informed with all of our developments.
Symb will take a flat operational charge fee of 8% from every donation made through the Symb app in order to fund company operations. Due to Symb being a new company, the APIs, or programs used to fulfill the services of the app (Stripe, Plaid, AWS) charge a higher fee. As Symb grows and develops, the fee on each donation will decrease when user milestones are reached. In the future we look to transition to a 0% operational charge fee and cover operational expenses through tips from Symb users (as seen with the popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe). Stripe takes 2.75% +30c from each donation, Symb as a company will take 8%. Here is how a $5 donation would be broken down: $5 donation triggered → -.1375c (Stripe 2.75%) → $4.86 - 30c (Stripe Flat Fee)→ $4.56 - .3648 (Symb Operational Charge) → $4.19 to the user’s selected cause for every $5 donated. After certain user milestones are reached we will have the ability to reduce the amount taken from each donation.
The operational charge of 8% Symb takes from each donation will go towards upkeep, future developments, and marketing.
Symb has set a goal of $400,000+ of donations moved through our website for our first fee reduction. As we grow to $1,000,000+ of donations given through the app the operations fee will continue to drop, and will continue following every additional milestone reached. This is possible as we can negotiate our fees through third parties. From our best estimates, we expect $400,000+ to be moved through the app when the Symb user base reaches approximately 2,750+ users; $1,000,000+ will likely be reached around 6700-7000 users. We aim to reach these numbers quickly as long as Symb’s partners aid in marketing along, working in conjunction with our own aggressive marketing strategy.
Our primary target population includes Generations X and Y as they engage more actively in charitable donations due to financial stability. We have strategies in place to become popular with Generation Z as this is a generation which supports technological advancements, transparency, and fighting imbalance across the world.
Symb is short for symbiosis, with a symbiotic relationship being a relationship where both parties benefit. Symb is a symbiotic relationship between users and partners as partnered organizations receive the donations and marketing needed to fulfill their cause while our users get the tax-write offs, transparency, and financial flexibility they deserve.
Symb User FAQ
Symb is an application free to download and available on both the Google Play Store™ and Apple Store™. Symb was created to offer our users a modern, user-friendly mode to support our sponsored charitable organizations.
Getting started, users will create a Symb account, connect their bank account through the third-party application Plaid, and choose their preferred method of donation. The two main methods to fund user’s donations are through rounding transactions to the nearest dollar or by automatically adding a percentage of a transaction. After a transaction is completed that matches the user's chosen settings, the funds will automatically be transferred from their bank to the user’s Symb account. Users can specify to the penny the charges they wish to round-up, or alternatively can select a preferred percent and maximum charge for percentage-based transactions. We pride ourselves on being available and practical to the average person and welcome all users, regardless of financial status as every cent makes a difference. After users accumulate a balance of at least $5, they are able to donate to an organization of their choosing. You may find more information regarding our operations here: https://symb.app/about-us/.
Absolutely! Your financial data is extremely safe with Symb. Given the sensitive information used in connection to our app, we take security very seriously and will continue to invest heavily into security and server upgrades as we grow. Currently Symb uses Amazon Web Services for security. This is the same security and server platform as companies such as Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, Disney, and 70% of banks across the United States. For a list of the top 15 companies using the same security and server platform as Symb, click here: https://tinyurl.com/5eef4kcp. Symb also utilizes the services of Plaid, a highly respected online banking company, to obtain access to your bank information. Plaid regularly offers these services with companies such as Robinhood, Venmo, Chime, and many other successful companies, earning them the reputation they hold today. Additional information on Plaid can be found here: https://plaid.com/. Symb does not collect or sell any user data and is fully in line with Apple and Google’s standard of compliance.
This is correct! Symb is a modern and personalized version of the screen you are familiar with. Unlike the donation screen currently available at stores, Symb provides users with the ability to specify how you donate, select which charitable cause receives those funds, see updates regarding the impact of your donations, and log all your donations allowing users the ability to record their charitable expenditures easily and accurately.
After a user completes a transaction, transfers take approximately one business day to be transferred to the user’s Symb account.
We would love to have every charitable organization listed on the Symb app; however, we have to partner with the charities before we can make donations available to them. We are continuously reaching out to United States based charitable organizations and plan to partner with as many as possible. If you have a specific cause you would like us to reach out to and see added to the Symb app, please send us a message and we will make every effort to partner with them! Users are also encouraged to reach out to organizations that are not currently partners and let them know about Symb and our mission. If there are areas you would like to see added, please let us know and we will attempt to facilitate a partnership; we appreciate your patience as we grow.
To send a message, users can visit the Symb home page at https://symb.app/, scroll to the bottom of the screen, and send us a message. Alternatively, users can email us at Info@symb.app. All messages will appear in the same place so one option is not better than the other, whatever you prefer!
Symb is short for symbiosis, a symbiotic relationship is a relationship where both parties benefit. In practice, Symb creates a symbiotic relationship between users and charitable partners, giving users the ability to send donations to organizations they are passionate about while simultaneously giving charities the marketing needed to reach their financial goals and further their cause. Symb also allows our users to accurately calculate their charitable expenditures, greater transparency in their donations, and the financial flexibility they deserve while donating. As a fun fact, the Symb logo is a symbiotic relationship too! Our logo was intentionally chosen for the animal’s relationship to one another, an elephant with birds on its back. In nature birds eat the parasites on the elephant’s back which gives the birds food while also helping the elephant stay happy and healthy.
In order to be successful, Symb requires users to gain a balance of at least $5 in their Symb account before donating to their selected organization. This number was calculated to minimize the amount Symb and Stripe must take from user’s donations.
Symb will take a flat operational fee of 8% from every donation made through the Symb app to maintain our operational costs. Due to Symb’s recent entry into the marketplace, our third-party providers charge Symb a higher fee. The service we use to move money from your Symb account to the charity of your choice takes a flat fee of 2.75% and 30 cents from each donation, and Symb as a company will take an additional fee of 8%.
So how much of your donation goes to the selected charity when you submit a $5 donation? We are here to break it down for you so you can see exactly what is going on. At the time of this FAQ’s publishment, for every $5 a user donates, $4.19 of that donation will go to their selected charity. In the future we look to reduce our fee to 0% and cover operational expenses through tips from Symb users (as seen with the popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe) Further, we are hoping that after certain user milestones are met, we will be in the position to negotiate and reduce the amount taken from each donation, and we plan to get there quickly! We will continue to operate transparently and update our users regarding our progress in our fight to reduce fees.
The operational charge of 8% Symb takes from each donation will go towards app upkeep, future developments, and marketing (so we can reach the aforementioned 0% fee as quickly as possible!).
Our primary target population includes Generations X and Y as they engage more actively in charitable donations due to financial stability. We have strategies in place to become popular with Generation Z as this is a generation which supports technological advancements, transparency, and fighting imbalance across the world.
Symb is short for symbiosis, with a symbiotic relationship being a relationship where both parties benefit. Symb is a symbiotic relationship between users and partners as partnered organizations receive the donations and marketing needed to fulfill their cause while our users get the tax-write offs, transparency, and financial flexibility they deserve.
