Donations: Managing Recurring Donations

Recurring Donations

1. Recurring donations are automatically renewing/charging donations. These can only be created for donations being paid via credit card. For more information on setting up a recurring donation, see the Add Gift tutorial.
2. Recurring donation *schedules* CANNOT BE EDITED other than to change the date the charge will go through. You cannot change the frequency or number of installments of a recurring donation (to do so, you need to stop/cancel the recurring donation and enter a new one). You can, however, change the amount of each payment and you can change the date that installments are charged on (in addition to viewing past payments, viewing payment failures, viewing the amount left to be paid, and manually recording receipt of payment for missed/failed charges).

   

3. Please Note: voiding/cancelling the FIRST transaction of a recurring donation will CLOSE the recurring donation (as the recurring donation needs the details of the first charge to propel subsequent charges) (though the status will still show as active) and you will need to change the status to inactive and then set up a new recurring donation.
4. Please Also Note: Recurring Donations use their own/separate credit card profile/stored credit card number - they do NOT use the default card on file (the one found by viewing a contact record and then clicking Manage Card(s) next to their financial details. The ONLY way to update a credit card on file is to click Change Card from the drop down next to the recurring donation on View Contact: Recurring Donation Widget OR on the drop down next to the recurring donation on the Recurring Gifts Index Screen.

   

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5. Users can manage recurring donations from the Recurring Donations index page by clicking on Fundraising on the Main Menu to open the fundraising sub-menu and then clicking Recurring Gift Profiles at the top of the menu OR from View Contact (find the recurring donation widget in the lower half of the screen. If you are not seeing it, then you may need to turn it on in the Layout Configuration area) OR from the Gifts Index screen (Main Menu: Fundraising: Gifts).
   

   

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6. If on the Recurring Gift Profiles index page, there are two tabs: Active and Inactive (completed and cancelled recurring donations). The default view is active recurring donations arranged in chronological order by date the recurring donation was created.

   

7. Ongoing (no end date) profiles will show the word Ongoing in the remaining installments field.

   

8. For active recurring donations, you can View All Payments (made as part of that recurring donation), Change Card to update the credit card being charged for that recurring donation, Edit (the payment amount or date the card is charged), or Deactivate the recurring donation to close it and move it to the inactive tab.

   

   • Please Note: When viewing the recurring donation on View Contact, you can only View the past payments and update the credit card on file from the drop down menu next to the donation and deactivate (by clicking the green check box on the donation). When viewing a recurring donation on the Gifts Index screen, each payment toward a recurring donation is listed separately, and as such, you can only Edit and Cancel/Void (including refund) that particular payment for a recurring donation.

     View Contact

     

     

     Gifts Index Screen

     

9. On the Recurring Gifts Index screen, to search for a particular donor or recurring donation, click on the Filter button and then enter a donor name and/or a date of next payment in the filter fields. You can also opt to search for active or failed profiles.

   

    

   

10. To see Inactive recurring donations, click on the Inactive tab. You can View All Payments (made as part of that recurring donation). No edits or changes can be made to an inactive recurring donation.

    

    

11. To search for a particular donor or recurring donation on the Inactive donations tab, click on the Filter button and then enter a donor name and/or a date of next payment in the filter fields. You can also opt to search for active or failed profiles.

    

12. Whenever a scheduled payment for a recurring donation fails (because the credit card on file is unable to be charged for whatever reason), then the words Payment Failure will appear on the record.

    

13. Clicking the red View button will bring up a pop up box that shows the reason for the payment failure.

    

14. For payment failures, the system will attempt to charge the credit card on file 3 times (3 days in a row) in case the payment failure was due to a temporary issue. You will see the number of attempts remaining on the payment failure details box.

    

15. The user has the option to manually process the payment using another form of payment or to send an invoice to the donor by selecting from the drop down menu to the right of the donation.

    

16. After three failed attempts to charge the card, the recurring donation will automatically be inactivated and moved to the Inactive tab. No further attempts to charge the card on file will be made and no edits can be made to the recurring donation after this. Should you obtain an updated credit card for the donor, you would need to create a new recurring donation in order to collect the rest of the payments owed.
17. You can manually inactivate an active recurring donation by navigating to View Contact, scrolling down to the Recurring Donation widget, and clicking the green check mark OR navigating to the Recurring Donations index screen and selecting Deactivate from the drop down to the right of the recurring donation. This will close a recurring donation, making it inactive. No further payments can be received for an inactive donation nor can an inactive donation be edited or re-activated.

    

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18. To Edit a recurring donation (the amount or date the credit card is charged), navigate to the Recurring Gifts index screen and select Edit from the drop down to the right of the recurring donation (Please Note: You cannot change the # of payments or frequency of payments for recurring donations - to do this, you need to stop/inactivate the recurring donation and set up a new one).
    

    

    

19. A pop up box will appear. Change the amount to be charged going forward (if applicable) and/or change the date the change will be effective and then click Save and Close.