In Nov. 2025, Seattle Pacific University changed its long held stance on cash-only payment, allowing clubs to use Square Pay in fundraising events. In the past, students ready and willing to support clubs in their fundraising endeavors would be turned away if they did not have cash on hand. The implementation of Square Pay expands payment options for students, accepting debit cards, mobile wallets and services like Cash App to cover transactions.
Gail McMillan, a fourth year psychology major and president of Seattle Pacific University’s LGBTQ+ club Haven, explained that the cash-only payment policy had made club fundraising difficult in the past.
“People already come to us like, ‘ehh I’m not super interested, but maybe.’ And then when we tell them we only accept cash, we don’t accept card, we don’t have Venmo, we don’t have PayPal, we don’t have anything else [and] that interest is gone,” McMillan said.
Associated Students of Seattle Pacific Officer of Finance Benjamin Buehs, a third year economics major, explained that the decision to implement Square Pay has been discussed for a long time now, but was only recently approved.
“Before, we didn’t really have [a] clear policy, we had always just used cash in the past. It was always discussed, trying different things, but I don’t think anybody really jumped the gun on it until recently. Nobody really carries cash anymore and it would be significantly easier to have that as an option,” Buehs said.
Natalie Britton, a junior majoring in apparel merchandising and business administration, acts as president of MODE, a student-led fashion group at SPU. The members of MODE were the first to utilize this technology in a fundraiser. Britton noted that Square Pay was both easy to use and simple to set up.
“So far, the square payments have been actually really easy to use. You see, I have my little fundraising form here, and we just put the QR code on the page. All they have to do is just scan the code and it launches them right to the payment portal. So yeah, it’s been going pretty well,” Britton said.
