Dharma Blog

Practice of Mindfulness

Posted in Dharma's Culture, Social Responsibility.

Practice of Mindfulness Recently, I attended a conference called Mindfulness and Well-being at Work sponsored by The Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, California. This extraordinary organization is doing research into the nature of compassion, the science of happiness, the practice of gratitude, the fostering of kindness, and so much more. Here in the San […]

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EMV: Converting Sooner than Later

Posted in Customer Support, Industry News and tagged with , .

EMV: Converting Sooner than Later Maybe this blog should be named EMV – What’s Still New as we continue to advise and educate merchants about the Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) initiative that continues to get a lot of press these days. This initiative only applies to card-present merchants accepting credit cards using a point-of-sale terminal or […]

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See The World Through Grateful Eyes

Posted in Dharma's Culture.

See The World Through Grateful Eyes All my life I have looked at the world as if the glass was half empty, which is not to say that I am a pessimist, but that for some reason I have programmed myself to be more affected by what’s missing in my life rather than what has […]

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Merchant of the Month – Sungevity

Posted in Merchant of the Month, Social Responsibility.

Merchant of the Month – Sungevity This month we are recognizing a merchant that has been with Dharma since early 2007 and whose business has grown exponentially. Sungevity is an Oakland, Ca.-based provider of solar energy systems that has revolutionized how solar systems are evaluated, marketed, and financed. They developed the technology to assess the feasibility and […]

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AMEX Violated the Law

Posted in Customer Support, Industry News.

AMEX Violated the Law Earlier this summer, a federal court ruled that American Express violated the law by prohibiting merchants from influencing a cardholder’s payment choice. As a result, merchants may now favor any card brand, with some restrictions, such as: not making untrue statements about the cost of accepting Amex; not disclosing the relative […]

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EMV Lack of Preparedness

Posted in Customer Support, Industry News and tagged with , .

EMV Lack of Preparedness EMV is … the … bane … of … our … existence these days! For those brick-and-mortar merchants that are affected by the migration of the card industry from mag swipe technology to chip-embedded cards, Dharma is flabbergasted by the lack of preparedness of our industry to make a smooth transition. […]

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Terminal Issues With Hypercom

Posted in Customer Support.

Terminal Issues With Hypercom This is related to our recent EMV blog, and affects any merchant that is currently using a Hypercom (also known as Equinox) terminal at the point of sale. Dharma has been informed by each of our back-end processors to notify such merchants not to re-boot or re-start the terminal as doing so […]

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Yes, Philanthropy Matters

Posted in Dharma's Culture, Nonprofit, Social Responsibility.

Yes, Philanthropy Matters I am picking up on a recent posting and theme, Business as a Force for Good, challenging business to be the change we seek and to shift from small world thinking to a whole world mindset. Since then I moderated a panel for the San Francisco Conscious Capitalism chapter on the topic of Philanthropy in […]

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EMV: How will it affect Nonprofits?

Posted in Industry News, Nonprofit and tagged with , , .

EMV – What is it? EMV stands for Euro – MasterCard – Visa. EMV is a set of standards designed by the credit card associations to help increase security and reduce fraud in the world of credit card transactions. EMV was initially adopted in Europe, over a decade ago (hence the name). It’s become the […]

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Merchant of the Month – Back To The Roots

Posted in Merchant of the Month.

Merchant of the Month – Back To The Roots Back in 2012, we began processing for a merchant that we met at the San Francisco Green Festival. At the time, Oakland-based Back to the Roots founders Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora had discovered a use for discarded coffee grounds by seeding oyster mushrooms in innovative packaging […]

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