Recurring Donations

Understand your recurring donation plans and how to manage them within givetly.

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Overview of Recurring Plans

offers recurring donation plans where supporters contribute regularly. These plans, along with their settings, can be adjusted from your main Dashboard Settings under the Recurring Plans section.

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Basics

Upon creation of a recurring plan through the Checkout modal, or Virtual Terminal, two records are generated: a Donation record for the first contribution and a Recurring record for the entire plan. If the donor is new, a Supporter record is also created.

Every subsequent donation installment will generate another Donation record linked to the recurring plan. The Recurring record summarizes details such as amount, frequency, and payment method, alongside a log of related activities and emails.

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Creation Date

• Checkout Modal: The start date is when the first donation occurs, matching the creation date of the plan.
• Virtual Terminal: Supporters can set a future start date. The payment information is saved, and the charge initiates on this date.

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Installment Retries

Upon a failed installment charge, schedules retries based on plan frequency:

• Daily: No retries
• Weekly: 1, 2 days after failure
• Biweekly: 1, 3, 6 days after failure
• Every 4 weeks: 1, 3, 7, 13 days after failure
• Monthly: 1, 3, 7, 13 days after failure
• Bimonthly: 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 days after failure
• Quarterly/Semiannual/Annual: 1, 3, 7, 14, 31 days after failure

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Bank-Based Payment Methods

For payments like ACH Direct Debit, attempts a single charge per installment to prevent bank fees and doesn’t retry.

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Failed Plan Notification

Each failed charge triggers an automatic “Plan failed” email to supporters, allowing them to update their payment method in the Donor Portal.

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Unpaid Installments

By default, givetly’s machine learning sets a plan to Failed after a certain number of unsuccessful attempts, balancing plan recovery with avoiding extra fees. Custom settings allow you to choose the number of unpaid installments tolerated before marking a plan as failed.

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Supported Frequencies

supports these giving frequencies:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Biweekly
• Every 4 weeks
• Monthly
• Bimonthly
• Quarterly
• Semiannual
• Annual

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Managing Recurring Plans

Both supporters and users can manage recurring plans.

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Donor Portal

Supporters use this dashboard to manage their plans, see donation history, and update personal details. Learn more

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Dashboard

Organization Administrators, Campaign Administrators, and Support Specialists can manage recurring plans here.

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Editing a Plan’s Campaign and Designation

Users can edit the campaign and designation from the Recurring plan block. Changes apply to future installments unless you select “Update previous installments.”

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Receipt Email Options

Users can opt-out supporters from receiving receipt emails for installments via the Recurring plan block.

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Recurring Plan Statuses

There are seven statuses in givetly:

• Active: Charges are ongoing.
• Scheduled: Plan will start in the future, changing to Active upon first installment.
• Paused: Plan on hold for up to 12 months.
• Retrying: Previous installment failed; recharge attempts continue.
• Canceled: Plan stopped by supporter or user.
• Failed: No further charges made, based on retry settings.
• Completed: Plan ended due to predefined limits, like installments or date.

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Changing Payment Methods

Supporters can change their payment method in their Donor Portal without organization assistance. Learn more

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Automatic Card Updates

Stripe automatically updates card details for recurring plans at a cost of $0.25 per update. This feature ensures continuity for recurring donations without fees for cards used in one-time donations.

The information provided offers a comprehensive guide to managing recurring donation plans in givetly. For further assistance, please refer to the relevant sections linked throughout the document.