Recording Donation Drop-Offs

When a donor brings goods to the store, you can record the donation in one tap and let the donor add their own details from their phone. They get a tax receipt; you get the donor in your system rather than another anonymous load.

This is for walk-up donations at the store. For donations you collect from a donor's home, see Donation Pickups.

How it works

There are two halves, and they are split on purpose:

1. You confirm the goods arrived. One tap, a few words, done — so you can get back to the donor behind them.
2. The donor adds their own details, on their own phone, by scanning a QR code. They can do it at the store or later that evening.

The donor typing their own email is the point: it is correct, and it is the part that takes the longest if you do it for them.

Recording a drop-off

1. Open Point of Sale → Donation Drop-Off (it is the first entry in the Point of Sale menu, and also a card on the Point of Sale hub).
2. If your affiliate has more than one store, pick the store location once — it is remembered on that device, so you only choose it again if you move to a different store.
3. Pick a category — ReStore goods, Supplies, Equipment, or Other.
4. Describe what came in. General is fine: "3 boxes of housewares and a sofa" is exactly right. You do not need to itemise.
5. Tap Record drop-off.

A QR code appears. Turn the screen toward the donor and ask them to scan it.

You can work from a paired kiosk tablet at the donation door, or from your own phone or tablet while signed in — whichever is to hand. Both do the same thing.

If the donor doesn't want a receipt

Tap Donor doesn't want a receipt. The donation is still recorded for inventory and reporting; it is simply logged as anonymous, and no receipt is sent.

Use this rather than walking away from the screen — it closes the record out cleanly instead of leaving it waiting for someone who is never coming back.

If the donor can't scan the QR

Some donors have no smartphone, a camera that won't focus, or no patience for it. You have three options, and none of them loses the donor:

• Type it for them. Tap Enter their details for them and enter their name and email yourself. Read the address back before saving — it is where the receipt goes, and a typo means they never get it. The receipt number appears on screen so you can read it out, and the email sends exactly as if they had scanned.
• Let them do it later. Tap Next donor and carry on. The link stays valid for 30 days, and you can copy it and email it to them.
• Do nothing. If nobody ever claims it, the donation is recorded as anonymous after 30 days.

Prefer the QR when the donor can use it — not because the result differs, it is identical, but because an address the donor types themselves is the one least likely to be wrong.

What the donor sees

The donor's page shows what was donated and when, and asks only for their name, email, and optionally a phone number. Once they submit, they immediately see their receipt number and a written acknowledgment they can keep.

A copy is also emailed to the address they entered, so they have the acknowledgment in writing without having to save the page.

If they have donated to you before and use the same email address, they are matched to their existing record rather than creating a duplicate.

Customizing the acknowledgment email

Under Administration → System Emails, the In-person drop-off acknowledgment entry lets you rewrite the subject and the greeting the donor reads. The acknowledgment itself — the receipt number, your EIN, what was received, and the required IRS statements — is added below your message automatically and cannot be edited or removed, so a customized email is still a valid acknowledgment.

The donation door poster

For donors who arrive outside staffed hours, or who would rather not wait, print a QR poster and put it where they drop off. Open Point of Sale → Donation Drop-Off, tap Show poster QR, then Print poster.

A donor who scans it describes what they left and gives their name and email. That does not record a donation and does not send a receipt. It appears at the top of your Donation Drop-Off screen under Waiting to be checked in.

When you next work the door, go through that list against what is actually there:

• It's here — the donation is recorded and the receipt is emailed.
• Not here — the submission is discarded. Nothing is recorded and nothing is sent.

Only confirm what you can actually see. The receipt is your organization stating that it received the goods, so confirming a submission you cannot match to anything means vouching for something you did not get. Anything nobody confirms is discarded automatically after 14 days.

Why there's nowhere to enter a value

Neither you nor the donor is asked what the goods are worth, and the receipt states no figure. That is deliberate, and it is the IRS rule rather than an Omnivo limitation: your organization describes what it received, and the donor determines what it was worth (IRS Publication 561). The receipt also states that no goods or services were given in exchange, which is the other half of what the donor needs for their return.

If a donor asks you to write a value on the receipt, the honest answer is that you are not allowed to — they or their tax preparer decide it.

Your own accounting is a separate question. Recording what the goods were worth to the organization — for financial statements, Form 990, or ReStore inventory — is normal and correct. Do it later on the donation record under Fundraising → In-Kind Donations, not at the door. Setting a value there does not change the receipt the donor already has: the acknowledgment stays value-free, as it must.

Who can record drop-offs

Anyone with the Record Donation Drop-Offs permission. It is granted to store staff, store managers, and admins by default, so whichever associate is free can work the donation door. Affiliate admins can adjust this under Administration → Roles.

Where drop-offs show up afterwards

Recorded drop-offs become in-kind donation records. Find them under Fundraising → In-Kind Donations, where they behave like any other in-kind donation — including disposition tracking and accounting.