I think you can create a separate shipping profile for your donation item with free shipping. Or define your donation item as “Digital or service” (not “physical product”). https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/details/product-details-page#product-details-shipping
Topic summary
Issue: A nonprofit store using Shopify flat-rate shipping based on order total wants donations (non-physical line items with a dollar value) excluded from shipping tier calculations.
Impact examples: $5 product + $25 donation bumps shipping from $7 to $10; $75 product + $25 donation reaches the $100 free-shipping threshold even though donations don’t ship.
Suggestions offered:
- Put donations in a separate shipping profile and/or mark them as “Digital or service.” OP notes this doesn’t help because shipping tiers are calculated from the overall order total.
- Switch to Weight-based conditions instead of Order Price. Rationale: donations would have zero weight. OP states their store doesn’t use weights at all (physical items also lack weights), and shipping is driven solely by order price.
Key clarification: Shopify’s “Order Price” condition uses the final order total regardless of profile or product type, so donations still count.
Status: No built-in way identified to exclude donations from order-price-based tiers; OP believes there’s no viable workaround in their setup. Discussion remains unresolved.