Feature Request: Donation Option

[CSzRichmond]

We are a nonprofit theater that uses Square Register for our box office and concessions sales. We would love to give our customers the option to donate to our nonprofit through a question at the end of the transaction, very similar to how tipping works. It's better than asking all cashiers to ask every customer directly if they'd like to donate, and could give the customer the option to maybe round up to the nearest dollar or donate larger amounts very simply. I'm sure this would be an option that many other companies could use - even if you're not nonprofit, you could support a nonprofit with something like this.

A similar approach could be for us to set up donations as a sales item, and that this feature would be a feature that allows you to ask the customer if they'd like to also purchase X in addition to what they just bought, where X could be ANY item you'd like to try to place extra effort on selling.

Anyone else think these would be great options to have in the Square Register software?

[ashc]

Hi @clarehcsv! Welcome to the Community.

Thank you for taking the time to explain how your business runs so we have more of an understanding on how this would be a useful feature for you.

We'll let the Product team know that you're another seller looking for this. 

[PlatformTattoo]

It would be outstanding to see an option for donations in place of, or in addition to tips during checkout.  Square could also keep record of these for tax purposes.  Please consider this feature for future updates.  Thank you.

[straycatbrew]

Also, specifically, a “donate the change” or “tip the change” option. Add a suggested tip amount for purchases under, say, $5, the option to round up to the nearest dollar. And/or a donate the change option for any amount. 

[TBHospitalityNY]

An adjustable prompt for last minute add-on sales would be a great feature. Whether for a donation/tote bag/upgrade offer. Let us upload an image and offer a button layout for "yes" and "no",

This would especially be attractive for the Register's customer display. 

[IdealWellness]

Just posting here to bring it back to the foreground. Now more than ever we need this option in office. We are brick and mortar so only having the donation option online isn't what we need. Square could really step up by adding this feature quickly before the holiday season. Please add the option for a client to make a donation to whatever charity the business is advertising. Thanks for your consideration!

[hicksm13]

Yes agreed! This is especially needed during the pandemic and wildfire season/hurricanes.

[isabelle]

Hey @CSzRichmond and the rest of the thread! 💡

We're still working on the POS donation feature. I'll make sure to post in this thread if I hear any updates on it's development.

I'm updating this thread to tell you about an alternative that I think could work. You can collect donations using Square Online Checkout links. I was thinking as a workaround, you could create a QR code that links to a place where your customers/donors could use it to go to a website (the checkout link) where they could leave a donation. You could print the QR code out so it's right next to your POS. 

Thanks for your patience! 

[Updated by Moderator on October 15th, 2020]

[BAYarts]

Came here to look up this same thing - just another vote to add this feature ASAP.  Non-profits need all the help they can get this year.  Square - please make this easier for us!  Like many have said - it seems like the set-up is there with the tipping option - just allow us to customize with donation amounts!

[sopo]

Hi,

We are also interested in the same - basically in the same way as the "Tips" screen except it would have wording customized to say "Donate" instead of "Tip"

[rickss]

We are a nonprofit that has been using SQUARE for our retail sales for four years.  In our ITEM list we created an item called CASH DONATION, with a variable amount.  We use a tablet as our POS device, so the clerk can scroll through the screens and select various items for sale, as well as a donation.  All of the items are bundled together and charged to the credit card.  It works fine.  The customer gets a receipt that shows the donation to a 501(c)(3) as part of the item description, and we can see, in the detail report, the listing of each item purchased, including the donation.  These data then go into our accounting system which has separate categories for retail sales and for cash donations.

The only glitch for us is that when SQUARE processes a card transaction, it calculates the fee for the whole amount charged to the card.  If more than one item was purchased it does not, therefore, tell us what is the card fee for any individual part of the transaction, so when our accountants ask "give us the card fee for that $50 donation", we have to manually do the math to assign a certain percentage of the fee to that particular sale item.  This is not unusual.  PayPal does the same thing.