Fundraisers vs. donations: which one is right for your restaurant?

HungerRush supports two ways for your restaurant to contribute to a charitable cause: fundraisers and donations. Both are easy to set up, but they work differently — and knowing which to use will save you time and keep your reporting accurate.

⚠️ Important: donations are included in your Net Sales by default

This is intentional system behavior. When a customer donates at checkout, that amount is recorded as a line item on the order and counted in your Total Sales — the system does not remove it automatically. You must manually deduct donation amounts to calculate your true Net Sales. The steps to do this are covered in the Donations section below. Skipping the Report Category and Report Group setup means you won't be able to isolate these amounts after the fact.

At a glance

Fundraiser — Best for planned campaigns
Pledge a percentage of sales over a set period to a specific organization, like a local school or sports team. Staff add a fundraiser item to qualifying orders, and you track totals with the Fundraiser Sales Report.

Donation — Best for ongoing giving
Let customers contribute to a charity at checkout on the customer-facing display (CFD). Customers can round up their total to the nearest dollar or enter a custom donation amount — no staff action needed.

Detailed comparison

Reporting and Net Sales — what you need to know

For both features, amounts are included in your total sales by default. To get to true Net Sales, you need to:

1. Set up a dedicated Report Category and Report Group during initial configuration (instructions below). Without this, you cannot identify or separate giving amounts in your reports.
2. Pull your sales report and filter by the Donations or Fundraiser Report Group to get the subtotal.
3. Subtract that amount from your Total Sales. The result is your true Net Sales.

This step is your responsibility — the system will not do it automatically.

Which should I use?

Choose Fundraiser if you...

• Have a formal relationship with an organization (school, charity, community group)
• Want to give based on a specific date range or event
• Need a clear audit trail of participating orders to calculate your final pledge
• Are running the program at your physical POS terminal

Choose Donation if you...

• Want an ongoing, low-effort giving option that runs in the background
• Use a customer-facing display at checkout
• Want to support both round-up and custom donation amounts
• Want donation amounts automatically excluded from surcharge calculations
• Support multiple charities and want customers to choose at the point of purchase

Setting up donations — quick steps

Before enabling donations, complete these steps to ensure you can track and deduct them from Net Sales.

Step 1 – Create a Report Category

In HUB:

1. Go to Manage → System → Select Your Store → Report Categories
2. Select New Report Category
3. Enter Donations (spelling matters — this name is used by the system for surcharge exclusion)
4. Select Save, then proceed to Step 2 below

In V3 Local:

1. Go to Config → System
2. Go to Report Categories → Select Add New
3. Enter Donations (spelling matters — this name is used by the system for surcharge exclusion)
4. Select OK, then proceed to Step 2 below

Step 2 – Create a Report Group

In HUB:

1. Go to Manage → System → Select Your Store → Report Group
2. Select New Report Group, then enter Donations as the Report Group Name and select the 'Donations' category you created in Step 1
3. Select the Save button, then proceed to Step 3 below

In V3 Local:

1. Go to Config → System → Report Groups
2. Select Add New, then enter Donations as the Report Group Name and Select OK
3. Select the new 'Donations' report group, and use the Report Category dropdown to select the category from Step 1
4. Select OK, then Save and Exit, and proceed to Step 3 below

Step 3 – Create a Donation menu item

In HUB:

1. Go to the Item Summary section of your menu editor, and select the option to add a new Menu Item
   • Note: Depending on your store franchise, you may see a different layout to the Menu Editor, shown below. The steps are otherwise identical for adding the donation item.
2. Create a new open-price menu item for the donation, and assign it to the Donations Report Group from Step 2
   
   • Note: As with the above step, this window may look slightly different for some stores:
3. Select Save, then publish your menu changes to your POS menu through your normal process
4. Be sure to relaunch the POS on each station to see the new donation item, then proceed to Step 4 when you are ready to see your running donation totals

In V3 Local:

1. Go to the Order Entry Screen → Edit → Edit Menu
2. Right-Click the group you want to add your donation item to, then select 'Edit Group'
3. Go to the Items tab, then create a new open-price menu item for the donation and assign it to the Donations Report Group from Step 2
4. Select Finish, then Save and Exit Edit Mode, and verify that your new item appears in the desired group
5. Be sure to relaunch the POS on the other stations so that they will update with the new item, then proceed to Step 4 when you are ready to see your running donation totals

Step 4 – Deducting donations from Net Sales (ongoing)

1. Run your standard sales report for the period
2. Filter by the Donations Report Group to get the total donation amount for that period
3. Subtract that amount from your Total Sales to arrive at true Net Sales

Questions about setting up fundraisers or donations? Contact HungerRush Support — we're happy to help.