The Obama campaign has recently begun accepting donations via Square. Square provides convenience, as most donations take places at events. Normally, a contributor would have to donate with cash, check or by writing down a credit card number and a donation amount on a piece of paper. If this paper is lost, damaged or misread, the donation cannot be made. However, with Square, credit card donations can be made at an event without delay.
Considering that the Obama campaign raised $42 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, that’s a lot of potential money that could be flowing through Square’s platform. And the marketing exposure is also a bonus for the mobile payments startup to scale even further.
Square has been used for political campaigns over the past few years, although none as prominent as this one. The same 2.75 percent fee paid by merchants applies for political donations.
