Square4Charity - Update
If switching profiles to take donations for a charity proves to be too difficult, could Square benefit from allowing you to categorize transactions on the phone app? This addition would make it more easy to identify transactions when tracking how much was donations versus personal use. Now I know, by category, how much to sign a check over to the bake sale, etc.
In support to adding a category, it may give piece of mind to the donator that the money was taken for a charity, organization or what-not with a “on behalf of Charity:Water” written right on the receipt. Promoting the cause too could be obtained by offering the donator to push to twitter after they sign.
Square Groups - An idea about how this could be done:
In my last post, I talked about an opportunity for Square to expand their current offering allowing us to switch our profiles and take money for charity, a high school fundraiser, etc. Above is only an option (mock-up above) on how I think they could do it:
It would be an option under “Accounts” that allows you to add a group/charity to take payments on behalf of. This would be by an “Add a Group” field which would prompt you to either search for a group, or to type in a a group/charity’s PIN ID. Type in the PIN and this would pair the device the that particular account/org.
Once the pairing is complete you have the option to switch between profiles to allow you to be able to switch over to your Group/Charity account to start taking donations at a Meetup, or anywhere.
Charity on @Square (photo via Flickr)
I’ve seen more and more posts and pics of people using Square to fundraise for charity, which is fantastic. My wife recently hosted a Twestival event that help donate to places like Charity:Water. She had to handle all the money coming in, and then use her personal credit to pay to Twestival. This solution works, but there is definite room for improvement.
Helping further advance that opportunity for people to raise money would be for Square to offer optional profiles, allowing people who already have Squares to flip from taking money for themselves, or their business, to helping take donations. I have a square device and would have loved to have had the ability to add a Twestival, or Charity:Water profile to my Square app, and then any card swiped donations that I took would automatically be credited to the charities account directly.
