PayPal offices in Timonium, Maryland. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A multistate settlement with PayPal Charitable Giving Fund includes a $200,000 donation to the National Association of Attorneys General, and an assurance the nonprofit will provide adequate disclosures to help donors make informed decisions.

New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and the District of Columbia were among 22 signatories to enter the assurance of voluntary compliance, according to information released Tuesday. The agreement ended a national investigation—that Connecticut and Nebraska have co-led since 2017—into the nonprofit arm of California-based electronic money transfer company PayPal Inc.

To address the concerns of several attorneys general about PayPal's fundraising endeavors, including how it treated charitable contributions, the nonprofit agreed to reform its disclosures. It will clarify, for example, the time frame in which a selected charity may receive funds from PayPal Charitable Giving Fund. It also agreed to notify donors when it redirects their contributions to organizations other that the ones they selected.

PayPal Charitable Giving will also not use language implying that potential donors are directly making a donation to their chosen charity, according to the 22-page agreement. Several states launched an investigation into PayPal's fundraising activities in 2017.

No one from PayPal's corporate media relations department in San Jose, California, responded to a request for comment Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong applauded the resolution.

"When donors make contributions online, they deserve to know exactly where their money is going," Tong wrote in a statement. "PayPal's Charitable Giving Fund wasn't doing that, and that's why attorneys general across the country joined together to ensure donor wishes are respected and protected moving forward."

Tong said the settlement sends a message that "attorneys general nationwide are prepared to act together to ensure honest and transparent treatment of charitable contributions, to protect donors and the organizations they seek to support."

Connecticut's Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle Seagull agreed.

"Consumers have a right to know exactly where their money is going when they donate to charity," Seagull said in a statement. "We always encourage consumers to do their research before they donate so that they can make an informed decision, and if there may be changes to that decision, they should be disclosed."

Signatories include Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, the North Carolina secretary of state, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.