Common Issues
PayPal payment not reflecting
If a donation went through PayPal but doesn't appear in your campaign's totals, here's how to figure out where it landed.
SquareFundr never holds donor money. Payments go directly from the donor's PayPal to the campaign owner's PayPal account. So if a donation isn't showing up, the issue is one of these three things:
1. PayPal isn't connected to your campaign
If your campaign has no PayPal email connected, donors can't actually pay through PayPal — they may see a popup that immediately closes or errors out, and our system has no way to confirm the payment.
Check: open your campaign in Edit Campaign → scroll to PayPal Payment Setup. If it says "PayPal Not Connected", enter your PayPal email and click Connect PayPal Account. From now on, future donors will be able to pay.
For donations attempted before you connected PayPal: the donor's money was never charged. Their square reservation may show "completed" in your dashboard but no real money moved. Reach out to those donors so they can re-donate now that PayPal is connected.
2. The donation went to a different PayPal account
Double-check the email under PayPal Payment Setup matches the PayPal account you actually want to receive funds in. Sometimes a typo or an old email gets entered.
3. PayPal hasn't released funds yet
Brand-new PayPal accounts and high-volume sudden activity can trigger a 21-day hold on PayPal's side. Log in to your PayPal account → Activity → look for "On hold" donations. PayPal also sends release-instruction emails when this happens — search your inbox for "PayPal hold."
Still can't find it?
Submit a help request from the /help page with the donor's name and approximate donation date. We can look up the transaction record to confirm whether it was actually processed.