ApproveThis manages your SquareDonations Integration approvals.

When Approval Management Meets Donation Tracking

Nonprofits, political campaigns, and community organizations face a common challenge: moving quickly on donations while maintaining financial accountability. SquareDonations simplifies collecting contributions, while ApproveThis adds guardrails to ensure every dollar gets proper oversight. Through Zapier, these platforms now work in tandem to create what we call accountable agility – the ability to act fast without sacrificing compliance.

Consider a hospital foundation receiving a $50,000 donor pledge. The development team needs to celebrate the win immediately, while the finance team requires documentation for gift acceptance policies. With this integration, the donation triggers an approval workflow that simultaneously notifies leadership and verifies compliance – no manual handoffs required.

Core Benefits for Mission-Driven Organizations

This integration solves three critical operational gaps:

1. Automated Compliance Checks: High-value donations often require board review or IRS documentation. Approval workflows automatically route gifts to relevant stakeholders based on amount, donor type, or campaign parameters.

2. Real-Time Financial Visibility: Development teams see pending approvals directly in SquareDonations' interface, while finance teams track obligations in ApproveThis’ dashboard – eliminating spreadsheet tracking.

3. External Collaboration: Board members or grantors can approve/deny requests via email without needing SquareDonations logins. ApproveThis handles authentication through secure links.

Real-World Use Cases Across Teams

Nonprofit Fundraising Teams

A university advancement office uses the integration to handle matching gift requests. When a donor submits a $10,000 contribution through SquareDonations:

• ApproveThis automatically checks if the employer matches at 1:1
• Routes to the corporate partnerships team if match requires approval
• Updates SquareDonations with match status once resolved

Result: 68% faster matching gift processing compared to manual email chains.

Political Campaign Finance Teams

Campaigns receiving donations over $200 must report employer details under FEC rules. The integration:

• Flags donations missing employer info
• Routes to compliance officers via ApproveThis
• Freezes funds in SquareDonations until resolved

Result: Eliminated last-minute FEC filing scrambles for 12 statewide campaigns.

Community Fund Coordinators

Disaster relief funds using SquareDonations can set approval thresholds:

- Automatic approval for donations under $5,000
- Escalate larger gifts to oversight committee
- Require two signatures for corporate donations

Result: Processed 3x more donations during crisis events with full audit trails.

Technical Setup Made Simple

Connecting SquareDonations to ApproveThis takes 15 minutes through Zapier:

1. Create a Zapier account (if needed)
2. Choose SquareDonations as the trigger app
3. Select "New Donation" as the trigger event
4. Connect ApproveThis as the action app
5. Map donation fields to approval request templates

Pro Tip: Use ApproveThis' Calculated Fields to auto-convert foreign currency donations into your base currency for threshold checks.

Start building your integration

Critical Features You'll Actually Use

While both tools have extensive capabilities, focus first on these power features:

Approval Thresholds That Adapt

Set dynamic rules in ApproveThis:

- Auto-approve donations under $1,000 from verified recurring donors
- Require CFO review for first-time gifts over $5,000
- Escalate corporate donations to legal regardless of amount

Donor-Specific Workflows

SquareDonations’ custom fields (employer info, campaign codes) can:

- Route university donations to department heads
- Flag political contributions from regulated industries
- Prioritize matching gift approvals

Two-Way Status Updates

When an approval is denied in ApproveThis:

- SquareDonations automatically tags the donation
- Triggers a refund workflow if needed
- Notifies the fundraiser via Slack

Why This Integration Becomes Indispensable

Most organizations discover three unexpected benefits:

1. Reduced Software Sprawl

Development teams stay in SquareDonations. Finance teams live in ApproveThis. Neither group needs to context switch – approvals happen natively in each tool.

2. Faster Audits

ApproveThis logs every decision with timestamps and comments, while SquareDonations maintains donation records. During annual audits, simply export parallel reports showing the complete story for every transaction.

3. Better Donor Experiences

When a $100k donor asks "Has my gift been processed?" during a gala, your executive director can check ApproveThis’ mobile dashboard and confirm in real-time – no frantic calls to the finance office.

Getting Started Without Overcomplicating

Start with one workflow:

For first-time users: Trigger approvals only for donations over $10,000
Intermediate: Add employer data checks for political contributions
Advanced: Auto-generate thank you letters upon final approval

Remember: ApproveThis offers free onboarding support for qualifying organizations.

When to Consider Alternative Solutions

This integration isn’t a universal fit. You might need custom development if:

- Requiring real-time payment reversals on denial
- Needing multi-language approval interfaces
- Processing over 500 donations/hour consistently

For 98% of SquareDonations users though, the Zapier integration provides ample power.

The Bottom Line for Decision Makers

Combining ApproveThis with SquareDonations through Zapier isn’t about adding another tool – it’s about removing bottlenecks. Fundraising teams gain speed, finance teams keep control, and executives get peace of mind. Best of all, external approvers (like board members) participate without needing new software logins.

Ready to eliminate approval delays? Book a custom demo showing how your specific workflows would operate, or start a free trial to test with your SquareDonations account today.