thread Re: Donations…why two different “kinds”? in Payments Troubleshooting

Donations…why two different “kinds”?

DCWSALES — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 18:26:12 GMT

I’m helping a non-profit church with a fundraising event. They want to use their Square account to achieve two different goals, which I am also helping with. One of which is a variable Donation item that offers a QR code. I’m not “new” to Square (have had this account for 9 years…when things were MUCH more simplistic), but I use Shopify for my business (I can edit the code) so I’m learning things that are “new” to me that Square offers…or…doesn’t offer.

Can somebody please explain why a Donation is setup differently depending on if it is an Item or if it is a Payment Link?

A Donation Item can be added to a POS library (👍🏻) and offer the 2.6%/$.15 fee schedule (👍🏻), BUT it CANNOT offer just a blank spot to enter any donation amount WITHOUT first offering a pre-set donation amount. (👎🏻) (EVEN THOUGH, it clearly states on the Create Item page the word “or”…meaning one OR the other. It doesn’t say “both”.) PLUS, it refuses to sync with Service Charges. (👎🏻) Those have to be manually added (👎🏻)…all of which is very confusing!

A Donation Payment Link DOES OFFER a blank spot for any donation amount to be entered. (👍🏻) It also auto-adds Service Charges (👍🏻), BUT it CANNOT be added to a POS library (👎🏻) AND, the fees are CRAZY! 3.3%/$.30!!! (👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻)

WHY?!?!

Why would the EXACT same item be so convoluted and coded completely opposite of one another?

Why can’t a Donation be setup as:

~ have no pre-set amounts…just an empty (Variable) amount for customers to fill in

~ be in the NORMAL item library

~ be added to a POS library

~ be added to a website

~ have Service Charges auto added

~ be at a REASONABLE fee since it is the customer who is providing the amount and not us telling them what to give

The coding is DEFINITELY possible because it already exists…just, not together.

Regarding the QR code…I can use an outside service for this, so it really doesn’t need to be a part of any response.

TIA!

Re: Donations…why two different “kinds”?

Minion — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 09:47:47 GMT

HI @DCWSALES

I can't really answer the part on why Square does certain things and not the other things. There are a few things that I ask the same as you to why is it this way when everything is right there for it to be setup that way but that way is not possible....hope i didn't lose you there.

As far as the donation item, I don't use those personally but just going off from what you are saying, you can add a blank amount to the item library for a donation as long as you have a pre set amount first correct? I think that seems pretty standard. (example $10, $20, $50, Custom Amount.)

A payment link has a higher % fee due to the higher risk of a card not present.

Re: Donations…why two different “kinds”?

DCWSALES — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:48:49 GMT

Thank you for your reply, but, yep...everything I already stated that does not work for what the church is needing.

Re: Donations…why two different “kinds”?

TheRealChipA — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 14:05:05 GMT

@DCWSALES Like @Minion, I can not speak to the "why's" of Square's design decisions. And trust me when I say that after over a decade with them, I know that it will be a surprise if they share those. This is one of those "you can't get there from here because it is what it is" situations. My best guess (and it is ONLY a guess, mind you) is that these two donation features had different development processes -- most likely one of those was to quickly set up donation capabilities in response to the pandemic, and that it was probably done quickly by a different team. Anyway....

I can offer the one and only suggestion that I have, though, which is that there is no doubt that this is something you are going to need to submit a feature request for. That will get the ball rolling, at least, for hopefully an eventual change. If you do this, please remember that you need to limit it to one and only one request, or it won't be considered. I would recommend you go with the simplest request, which would be for Square to allow a custom donation amount for catalog donation items that does not require and presets at all. Also, if you decide to submit this, please come back here and provide the link. I would definitely upvote/support it and I'm betting others would, as well.