What edits can donors make to their own recurring gifts?
Donors can make any of the following changes to their own recurring giving subscriptions:
- Add a new payment method (credit/debit card or bank account)
- Update an existing payment method, including card expiration date and billing ZIP code
- If your school leverages GiveCampus’s Strategic partnership with Stripe, donors can also update the installment transaction schedule. Donors can modify the transaction date of their next future installment to a date that falls within 30 days of the current date. Donors can also choose to apply that change to all future payments (e.g. donors can update their gift installments to transaction the 1st of every month instead of on the 18th)
If a recurring gift fails, the donor will receive a notification that includes a link to a page where they can update their recurring gift. School administrators can also send a donor a link to modify their recurring gift by visiting the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > ‘Recurring Subscriptions’ > finding the gift in question > clicking 'Actions' > clicking ‘Send donor link to modify’.
Bonus: If a donor with an existing recurring gift that failed adds a new payment option to their GiveCampus Wallet, they’ll be given the option to apply the new payment method to their failing recurring gift, too.
A donor also has the ability to send themselves copies of their subscription or installment receipts for their records. Direct your donors to their recurring gift dashboard > Payment Schedule. They'll have two buttons available to them to send either their subscription receipt, installment receipts, or both! The receipt will be sent to the email address on file under the donors 'Recurring Gift Details'.
- Payment method, including card expiration date and billing ZIP code; school admins can also add a new credit/debit card or bank account as the payment method
- Installment amount (only available to schools leveraging Stripe).
- The total lifetime value of a recurring gift (only available to schools leveraging Stripe).
- The installment transaction schedule: school administrators can modify the transaction date of the next future installment to a date that falls within 365 days of the current date. This change can also be applied to all future installments; for example, administrators can update gift installments to transact on the 1st of every month instead of on the 18th (only available to schools leveraging Stripe).
- Cancel all future installments of the recurring subscription
"Skipping" or "Delaying" Recurring Gifts
To “delay" a recurring gift, visit the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > scroll to ‘Recurring Subscriptions’ > find the subscription you’d like to edit in the table > click the ‘Modify’ button. School administrators can skip future installments of a donor’s recurring gift by changing the next run date of a subscription to a date within 365 days of the current date, but that falls after the scheduled date of one or more future scheduled installments. The recurring gift will be extended by the appropriate amount of time so that the full lifetime value of the gift can be met. For example, if a donor’s next installment for a monthly gift is set to run on September 2nd, and the school administrator changes the next run date to November 2nd, then the installments on 9/2 and 10/2 will not transact and the recurring gift will be effectively paused for two months. The original end date of the recurring gift will then be extended by two months so that the full value of the recurring gift can be met. Note: The donor will receive a notification when the next installment transaction date is modified. School admins are only able to "delay" recurring gifts payments if your school is leveraging Stripe.
What happens if a donor’s payment method for a recurring subscription fails?
For schools using Stripe: If the donor’s payment method fails, both school administrators who have opted in to recurring gift notifications (selectable on the ‘Administrators’ tab of your Administrator Dashboard) and the donor will receive a notification which includes a link to a page where they can quickly and easily update their payment information. Please note: if you have the “Recurring Subscription Failed” custom email template set up, the donor will automatically receive your custom email instead of the default GiveCampus notification email.
If you’d like to update the donor’s recurring subscription on their behalf (e.g. if the donor’s payment method failed due to an outdated billing ZIP code and you already have their new ZIP code handy), visit the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > scroll to ‘Recurring Subscriptions > find the subscription you’d like to edit in the table > click the ‘Modify’ button.
It’s important to note that installments of recurring gifts run only once a day, at 3PM ET. If the payment method for a failed recurring gift is updated after 3PM ET, the next installment will attempt to transact the following day.
Note: Failed installment transactions will automatically continue to attempt to run for five days, and donors and school administrators will continue to receive notification of this failure until the payment method is updated. After the first failed transaction attempt, the overall recurring gift subscription will be in a ‘recurring_failed’ state. All failed transaction attempts will appear in reporting in a ‘failed’ state. Once the payment information is updated, the recurring gift subscription will change back to a ‘recurring’ state and the donor will receive an automatic email confirmation that their subscription has been reactivated. Please note: if you have the “Recurring Subscription Reactivated ” custom email template set up, the donor will automatically receive your custom email instead of the default GiveCampus notification email.
For schools using WePay: If the donor’s payment method fails, the donor and school administrator will receive an automated email notification with a link to update their payment method.
Cancelling Recurring Gifts
For schools using Stripe: To cancel a recurring gift, navigate to the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > scroll to ‘Recurring Subscriptions’ > click 'Action' and select 'Cancel.' This will cancel all future installments of the gift. If you’d also like to refund any installments that have already been processed, visit campaign settings or the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > click the ‘Refund’ button for the appropriate installment(s).
For schools using WePay: To cancel a recurring gift, navigate to the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > scroll to ‘Recurring Subscriptions’ > click into the Donation ID. From this recurring subscription page, click on the link to modify the donor’s recurring gift, and you will be able to cancel from the page you are redirected to.
What if a donor accidentally makes a recurring gift but meant to make a one-time gift?
If a donor makes a recurring gift by accident and actually intended to make a one-time gift, you can head to the Online Giving Dashboard > ‘Manage Gifts’ > ‘Recurring Subscriptions’ > cancel the overall recurring gift following the steps above.
Cancelling a recurring gift does not refund any previously transacted installments. If the first installment amount does not reflect the donor’s intended, one-time contribution, you’ll need to refund their installment and direct the donor back to the campaign page or giving form so they can make a new contribution.
If the first installment amount does reflect the donor’s intended, one-time contribution, please send the donation ID of the first installment to support@givecampus.com. Our engineers will need to take an additional step to switch the contribution type from ‘installment’ to ‘donation’. Until this change is made, the information about the donor and their gift (name, affiliation, class year) will not appear on the campaign page.