Best Practices for Using Square as a Non-Profit or Donation Based Organization

[katieand]

Non-profit organizations are critical to the overall growth and development of any community, and donations are what ensure these groups are able to fund their work. The operations of running a non-profit, and collecting donations, shouldn’t distract from the critical work at hand. To help out, we’ve put together a list of best practices used by many non-profit organizations to power their operations with Square.

 

Processing Fees

Though we’re able to offer tax-exemptions for hardware purchases and subscriptions to Square products, Square charges the same processing fees for all customers. Familiarize yourself with the fee structure to make sure your organization is taking payments effectively. For example, credit cards that are dipped are charged a lower fee than manually keyed in payments since they are a less risky form of taking payment.

Tip: Refer new sellers to Square, and receive credits on processing fees of up to $1000 in sales as our thank you!

 

Methods of Accepting Payment

You can accept payments in a number of different ways with Square: in-person using Square’s hardware and Point of Sale app, or virtually through Invoices, Virtual Terminal, or a Square Online Store. The fees noted above align with the different methods of payment, so you’ll want to make sure you choose a payment method that works for your organization.

(Recommended reading: Why are fees higher for manually-entered transactions?)

Here are a few options we tend to recommend for non-profit organizations:

• The Contactless Chip + Card Reader is highly recommended for in-person payments to protect against donor disputes, and to comply with the EMV liability shift.
• Magstripe readers are also available. The first one for your account is free and subsequent readers are $10 a piece.
• Donation items are available for Square's Online Store (Square charges a per transaction processing fee). You’ll set donation levels in your item library and that will show up on your online store. 
• You can also have donors make recurring payments with card on file and invoices.

 

Empower your Staff

Taking payments simultaneously and the easy sharing of credentials is a must for nonprofits with many volunteers.

• Use Team Management to share account credentials.
• Use multiple locations to track different type of events.

 

Track + Keep in Touch with Donors

Donors are the lifeblood of nonprofits. Here’s what you need to do to stay in touch with them.

• Send email receipts to donors for a record of contribution.
• Review how to add a customer to a sale to keep track of donors.
• Collect donor emails and activate email marketing to keep in touch with donors.

 

Leverage Data

Use reporting tools to track patterns in your donations and donors.

• Make custom reports to see a list of biggest donors, busiest time of year, and other useful insights.

 

Final Thoughts

• Speak with a tax consultant prior to taking payments to prepare on reporting taxes, if any, at the end of the year.
• Privacy is incredibly important to Square and we keep both your account and your donors’ information secure. Read more about security and privacy here.

[ajwfoundation]

As a new and small nonprofit, I'm so happy that Square has added new fuctionality to our space who want to collect donations from donors and also sell things like t-shirts, etc. The templetes look great, and I thank you!

One of the things I want the UI developmental teams to think about is what nonprofits need? Here's some ideas for your next run of updates.

1. "Currently, we are not accepting new orders." I would like to change this if I'm letting donors that we are not open to take donations yet. Maybe generally say "Currently, we are not open for business"
   
2. Options to change "Store" to "Donate", some nonprofits might not be selling anything, and it's misleading to just have store as an option. I want to have both, but at the moment it's just to ask for donations.
3. Should be able to change a few menus. "About", Contact" "Store"
4. "Contact"  link back to our main site. Not good to have your email out so scam bots can claim them.
5. Options for url Hyperlinks if you need it.

Hope this helps! I want to use this feature!

[George]

These are terrific suggestions! Passing them along to our team.

I'm sure several other nonprofits are interested in similar functionality. Thanks for writing in.

[katieand · Accepted solution]

You can also check out this Support Center article for more information about using Square as a non profit. 

[tjhammo]

Paypal offers discounted processing fees for non-profits. Square should too! Meanwhile, we've switched to Paypal for our on-location credit card transactions.

[Helen]

I'm sorry to hear that. If anything changes and if we're able to offer different fees for non-profit organizations we'll announce it. 

[Lulu9]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Non Profit

Can an account be set up for a Church which is a non profit?  If so, are there fees attached? 

[JustinC]

Good question @Lulu9 !

Yes you can, to answer your first question. Lot of churches use Square to accept donations or payments for church related functions. 

However, we don't offer special fees for nonprofits. Check out this thread I moved you to learn best practices for using Square as a Non-Profit 🙂

[STJAMESUMC]

I am trying to set up an account for our woman's organization. Since I have to add a person to the account, should it be someone directly associated with the bank account? I am more like an assistant and do not have any direct dealings with the bank. From what I am reading, the person on the account cannot be changed without starting a new account. Am I understanding that correctly? For example if our treasurer was no longer serving in that office, we would have to get a new account that was associated with the new treasurer?

[Joe]

Hi there, @STJAMESSMC - thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community! Happy to have you.

I've gone ahead and merged your post into an existing thread of Sellers who were also looking for information regarding opening accounts for non-profits and charitable organizations. Hopefully it can be a helpful resource here as you get started.

Concerning your accounts attached bank account, no need to specifically add a bank account registered to the account owner. You can use a personal, business, or any other bank account to attach to Square. Specific account registration is associated with one individual in regards to identity verification and tax reporting. This means that account ownership should lay with the head of your organization, or someone who is least likely to leave their position, in order to not have to create a new account in the event of departure.

You can learn more about bank FAQ's here. 

Please let me know if you have any clarifying questions! We are here to help.