Does Square suport Charity and Community Groups transactions?

[andygee]

Does anyone have experience of or know Square's policy in relation to Charity and Community Groups fundraising transactions please?

[Emma_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @andygee, welcome to the Seller Community!  Charities and non-profit organisations can sign up and accept donations with Square. The funds are transferred into the linked bank account in the next working day. You can accept donations online and in person using any Square hardware.

When signing up, please make sure you choose General Partnership if your charity is not registered with Companies House. If your organisation is also registered with Companies House and you have CRN (Company Registration Number), please choose Company.

[Sam_400º]

I’ve supported a few charities & local community groups to move over some of their fundraising to Square during the pandemic & it’s gone really well for all of them! 

if you set up an online donation link I’d make sure you add the logo to it so people have the confidence they’re sending the money to the right people 👍

[Hearts_Balls]

Hi Emma

I’m trustee with a Charity who support injured sports people.  

I’ve set up my Squareup account, and made a £1 manual card payment / donation yesterday to test the app (via I-phone) - it worked well and I can see the credit in our bank account. We’ll mainly use squareup for donations to the charity at sporting events.  We don’t sell products per se.

Can you recommend the best card reader to Bluetooth to my phone please?

regards

Willie 

[Breffni]

Hi Willie, thanks for your post and welcome to the Seller Community 🙂 

Just stepping in for Emma here. I'm glad to hear that your first test transaction went through successfully. In this case I'd recommend the Square Reader for you. It connects to your mobile phone or tablet by Bluetooth and lets you accept chip and PIN cards, contactless cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

You mentioned having an iPhone, nearly all iPhones are compatible with the Square Reader but I'll leave our device compatibilty page here just for you to double check the model and also some tips for connecting the Reader to your phone when it arrives out to you. 

And please let any of us here on the Community know if you need any help going forward. @Hearts_Balls 

[LindaCap]

Hi Emma

do Square charge the same %fee for charities? 
I need to look to get a system for the charity I support asap so just checking. 

[k_atie]

Hi @LindaCap, thanks for joining the Community! Just stepping in for Emma to respond to your query.

Square’s fees are the same regardless of the type of business on a per-transaction basis: 

• 1.75% for inserted, tapped, and swiped transactions.
• 2.5% for Point of Sale App manually keyed-in transactions, Virtual Terminal, and Square Invoices.
• 1.9% for European cards and 2.9% for non-European cards for our online payments. This includes Square eCommerce APIs, Online Store, Checkout Links, and Digital Gift Cards.

We don’t have charity rates at this time, but if you invite a friend using a referral link, you both benefit from reimbursed card processing fees. For each person who activates their account through your referral link, you’ll both receive reimbursements on processing fees up to £1,000 in sales over the next 180 days (6 months). You can do this from your Square Dashboard: 

1) Log in to your online Square Dashboard > Account & Settings.
2) To access your referral link, select Account > Get Free Processing.
3) To add a referral link to your receipts, navigate to Account & Settings > select Account > Get Free Processing. Toggle on the Add your referral link to Square Receipts option.

Additionally, if you are interested in using Square for your charity, you can browse our hardware in our Square Shop. 

I hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you! 

[andygee]

Thanks both!

That's really helpful. Most of our fundraising is through sales at a pop-up cafe, calendars and a few other things. We don't usually ask for donations persay so I'm wondering if we're likely to be thought of as 'retail'? I know some other payment systems turn their noses up at this sort of operation so wondering what Square's view is?

[Sam_400º]

What you’ve described would still be covered by what Emma has said - square tends to support a broad range as possible & I personally know a couple of non profits (one a reg charity, the other not) that work in this way with square too. 

[andygee]

Can I please pick your brains? We'd like to display a QR Code at an unmanned  'remote' station in our local park to enable people to support our fundraising with purchase of bags of duck food. What is the simplest way to do this? Happy Christmas everyone!

Many thanks

Andy

[Breffni]

Hi @andygee, just stepping in for @Emma_  here.

It sounds like Square Online Checkout might be a good option for you here. Checkout links can be used for: 

• Collecting a payment

• Selling an item 

• Accepting a donation

• Selling classes or tickets 

After you have created your link, you can download and print a custom QR code which will direct your customers to the Online Checkout link, from there they can pass through to a self-serve payment or donation option. This can be left unmanned at the park. 

I hope this helps and Happy Christmas to you too 🙂  

[andygee]

Many thanks Allegra. Most helpful!