How to Accept Lightning Network Payments?

Hello all,

I'm making a follow up post to gain some more clarity on how the Bitcoin Lightning network functions and how to accept payments.

For background, I am starting a non-profit organization at my university. We want to accept Bitcoin Lightning network payments at our events (e.g. bake sales, game nights, etc). I have several questions as I am just starting to learn about the Lightning network in more depth:

• Do we need to set up a full node to accept Lightning network payments?
  • If that is the case, do people already need to be connected to our node to send us payments?
  • What is the cheapest way to set up a full node? A previous response said I should look at buying a Raspberry Pi?
• What are some options for free, open-source software to manage Lightning network payments?
  • How do we create a convenient QR code for customers to scan at our events?

Thank you so much for your help!