The Complete Guide To Square For Nonprofits

While the app is still owned and run by Square, Cash App is also very much an independent product. Cash App is a peer-to-peer QR code payment platform, meaning it’s designed to move money from one entity to another, making it a simple way to handle a small volume of payments without the bloat of a full POS system.

One of the big appeals of Cash App for nonprofits is the ability to make a “cashtag” — a unique identifying link that anyone can click on to send you money. The link will have the format: cash.app/$Your_Unique_Identity.

Cash App accounts are personal by default, but you can switch them over to Square Cash for business within the settings. Business transactions are charged 2.75% through Cash App.

You have quite a few options to accept donations online with Square. The easiest option is to create a free Square site with ready-made templates that make it easy to build a simple web storefront. You can create a space that explains your mission and lets your donors contribute to the cause, or make a fully functional eCommerce store that allows you to sell things, such as t-shirts and other merchandise, to support your organization and mission. If you have multiple focuses for your nonprofit, you can create more than one campaign on your site.

If you already have a site, you can choose from one of the plugin integrations for Square on your dashboard for easy setup. You can also easily implement accepting payments with Cash App if you have any of Square’s hardware.

If you’ve got some expertise when it comes to coding (or have a developer on staff), you can build a branded checkout flow with the Square Transactions API that allows you to accept digital wallets, too.

Creating A Square Donate Button Without A Website

If you don’t have your own site, you can still use Square Online Checkout. Using this set of tools, you can actually create Square-powered donation buttons that you can embed in emails, texts, or even on social media. This allows you to create fundraising campaigns that reach further and work across all of your marketing channels.

Hoping people have cash on hand, or the even more archaic option of a check, can limit you at an in-person charity event. Instead, Square fundraising tools include the option to use Square’s free POS and mobile card reader to accept donations via credit or debit card.

Square offers a number of convenient NFC-compatible terminals and Square-accepted credit card readers that make it easy to take payments in person, whether you’re at your base of operations, at an event, or even on the go. Square Cash App is also perhaps the easiest way to accept in-person payments, allowing donors to simply scan a QR code and make a payment directly.

Like most other software options for point of sale, Square comes with a virtual terminal right on your dashboard. The virtual terminal allows you to accept payments over the phone or manually key in credit card data. What’s important to understand here is that a virtual terminal is really the only way to process credit card data safely over the phone. That’s because when you receive credit card information, security has to be considered during transmission and storage.

Using Square’s virtual terminal for donations is easy. You simply enter the credit card data in the form, along with any other information you collect. Since the full credit card number isn’t visible once you key it in, you never have to worry about this information being vulnerable. You can even store donor information and see a full history of their contributions. Just be aware that this is the most costly way to accept donations through Square, so you’ll probably only want to use it when no other option is available.

As a charity, there is probably nothing that feels better than an ongoing commitment from your supporters. These folks help you keep up your daily operations and allow you to plan for future growth. Square makes setting up recurring donations super easy for your charity. Whether you’re on your mobile device or at your full Square dashboard on your PC, you can create what you need.

Ready to sell merch at your fundraising event or want to offer an online store to supplement your donations? Square works for nonprofits by providing a free store or the option to upgrade to a more advanced eCommerce site. Your inventory also syncs seamlessly with Square POS so that you can launch a one-time pop-up store or a full-fledged gift shop.

Square POS allows nonprofits to accept payments for charity auction items right then and there (or send an invoice for payment after the event). You can also set up alerts on your dashboard to stay on top of any dwindling merchandise you offer. That way, you can re-order supplies before stock drops to zero!

Planning an event for your charity can help you connect with both your current and future supporters. That’s why I’m glad to see that Square’s nonprofit tools include the option to sell tickets for any event you have in the works. You’ll do this through your online store. You can set up your tickets for electronic delivery or in-person pickup, or you can print for shipping. Square gives step-by-step information on how to sell event tickets through its help center.

Square also has a partnership with Eventbrite, so it’s that much easier to organize, manage your event, and sell your tickets.

Square offers simple income tracking. You can download sales history, view deposits, and see everything that’s happening over a set period.

You can track income by categories, such as merchandise sales, donations, or ticket sales. If you rely heavily on Square donation tools for your income, there are other tools to analyze donor patterns. You can also compare new givers with long-time supporters and average donation size.

Need something more? One thing to note is that Square integrates with QuickBooks, so you can sync sales data and get the sales or expense reports you need all in one place. QuickBooks has accounting features for nonprofits, which can make it a must-have piece of software.

Ready to do some more analysis of your Square donations data and use it to improve engagement? You can export a list of your donations or the details about your donors from your online store at any time.

As you collect donations through Square, you can populate the standard customer data profile and enter any custom notes about your supporters. Because an email address is one of the standard pieces of profile data, you can also build a robust email list for future marketing.

Square has a few customer engagement features that are completely free. The emails that you collect during transactions are yours to add to a separate email campaign service, of course. You can also create, import, and manage all of your customer profiles within your Customer Directory. You can then use that data to get more insights into your donors and plan future giving campaigns.

Nonprofits that handle a higher volume of transactions may want to consider Dharma Merchant Services. For $20/month, you’ll get a dedicated merchant account, which is more stable and less prone to account freezes than third-party processors like Square, Stripe, and PayPal. Qualified nonprofits can get a discounted processing rate of interchange + 0.10% + $0.08 for in-person transactions, and interchange + 0.10% + $0.11 for virtual transactions.

Stripe is an eCommerce-focused platform with a number of similarities to Square. Like Square, Stripe offers a one-stop-shop approach to payment services, but its focus is centered more on online transactions and security than hardware and productivity software. Nonprofits that take most of their donations online may find that Stripe offers a couple of advantages over Square, namely support for international transactions and a discounted processing fee for 501(c)(3) organizations. This works out to 2.2% + $0.30 for most transactions.

You’ve probably heard of PayPal. Like Stripe, PayPal is an eCommerce-focused platform, so it will be of interest primarily to businesses that take online donations. PayPal’s ecosystem is absolutely massive, featuring peer-to-peer transaction support and in-person transactions through PayPal Zettle. Registered 501(c)(3) organizations are charged 1.99% + $0.49 for online transactions.

The popular eCommerce platform Shopify also offers a good alternative to accepting payments as a nonprofit. You can accept donations through your social media platforms and receive discounted processing rates. Shopify is also a great platform for selling merchandise as it’s already a fully integrated eCommerce company. You will need to contact Shopify directly, however, to get their exact nonprofit rates.