Highlights of Specific Office of Foreign Assets Control Country Restrictions
Persons on Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) or Other Denied Party Lists
No funds for the Campaign will be released or knowingly accepted in the benefit of any entity or person on the SDN List, or any person subject to blocking by the U.S. Government. For further breakdown of OFAC restrictions by country, please refer below.
Beyond sending money to or doing business with Cuba, OFAC also restricts travel there. While President Obama did reduce some travel restrictions in December of 2014, the sanctions against Cuba are still in place.
This means that unless your trip falls within the parameters of allowable travel under one of OFAC’s general or specific licenses, you will not be able to raise funds on Indiegogo to finance your trip. You can check out a great FAQ that summarizes the changes and the continued regulations here.
Again, even if you are from another country, you will need to follow the same travel restrictions as U.S. citizens if you are using Indiegogo to finance your trip to Cuba.
If you are launching a campaign that involves Cuba, we recommend looking at the full list of Cuba sanctions here.
The restrictions involving Iran are fairly straightforward. OFAC restricts sending money to or doing business with Iran. This means that if you are located in Iran, we cannot accept any contributions or campaigns from you. In addition, we are prohibited from sending money to a bank account located in Iran or if we have reason to believe that the funds will be sent to or used in Iran.
Travel to Iran is not restricted and transactions normally incidental to travel while in Iran are also permitted.
If you are launching a campaign that involves Iran, we recommend looking at the full list of Iran sanctions here.
In addition to sending money to North Korea, OFAC prohibits any importation of North Korean goods and the exportation of goods to North Korea. This means that your campaign cannot involve the employment of North Korean businesses or services and that you cannot ship your perks to North Korea.
If you are launching a campaign that involves North Korea, we recommend looking at the full list of North Korean sanctions here.
To be clear, when we reference the country “Sudan” we are not referring to “South Sudan” which is an independent country. OFAC currently has no sanctions against South Sudan so if your campaign involves South Sudan, good news: you don’t have to worry about any OFAC restrictions!
Similar to North Korea, OFAC prohibits the importation of Sudanese goods or services as well as the exportation or reexportation of goods, technology, or services to Sudan. In addition, all transactions relating to the petroleum or petrochemical industries in Sudan are also prohibited.
Due to the dire conditions of the Sudanese people, OFAC has created a list of approved transactions that are exempt from the above restrictions. These include:
- Legal services
- Non-commercial, personal remittances
- Exportation of food
- Transhipment of goods, technology, or services through Sudan to or from South Sudan
- Certain academic and professional exchanges with Sudan
This means that campaigns to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Sudan is totally fine! We ask that in these cases though, you use a non-Sudanese bank account to send the funds to otherwise the bank will still likely block the transfer.
If you are launching a campaign that involves Sudan, we recommend looking at the full list of Sudan sanctions here.
OFAC also restricts the importation of Syrian goods and services as well as the exportation of goods and services to Syria. They also restrict new investment in Syria.
Just like with the other sanctions, OFAC has general licenses that allow for certain transactions. These include:
- Non-commercial, personal remittances
- Exportation of services in support of humanitarian aid and other non-profit activities
If you are launching a campaign that involves Syria, we recommend looking at the full list of Syria sanctions here.
OFAC restricts transactions involving the Government of Venezuela or an entity owned by the Government of Venezuela.
If you are launching a campaign that involves Venezuela, we recommend looking at the full list of Venezuela sanctions here.
Ukraine, including the Crimea Region of Ukraine
OFAC restricts importing, exporting, sale or supply of any goods from the U.S. to the Crimea region of Ukraine.
If you are launching a campaign that involves Ukraine, including region of Crimea, we recommend looking at the full list of sanctions here.