Square should attempt to implement a Charitable donation collection. My idea on how this would work is: The merchant would decide what Non Profit organization they would like to support from a list of pre approved Non Profits that have set up a direct deposit account with square. Once this is set up on the merchants POS, a banner will pop up during transactions much like the tip option already does. Customers would then have the opportunity to decline, choose from a pre determined percentage or a specific amount to donate. Donations would go straight to the Non profit, never touching the merchants account or reflecting in their books. this would also avoid the merchant from paying additional fees for that portion of the transaction. At this point square would have some internal decisions to make but they could either pocket a portion of the transaction before it goes to the Non profit as they already do with merchants or they could waive fees and write it off as a charitable donation in their own books.
One thing this would hinge on is Square either accepting reputable Non Profits or thoroughly screening applicants before they are set up to receive donations. While this may be one of the tougher portions of this process I think it would be well worth the energy.
If square implemented this option they may be one of Americas largest Charitable Organizers a good bit of PR that could help the company sustain their growth going forward. There could be a variety of additional features that could be added like allowing merchants to match donations and so on.
I run an outdoor related company and I know my customers would love to donate to Ducks Unlimited, BC Wild Life Federation or one of the dozens of hard working Non Profit agencies that operate in my area.
Let me know what you folks think but if I was Square Management this would be a no brainer, they already have most of the infrastructure in place.
