Recurring plans

Every recurring plan goes through the same lifecycle: it starts, charges on a schedule, retries when a payment fails, and ends when it completes or is canceled. A plan's status shows which point it has reached.

You see a plan's status in the Recurring list and at the top of the plan’s page.

An installment is a single charge in a recurring plan. Each time a plan comes due, Fundraise Up charges the saved payment method once and records that charge as its own donation. The plan groups all of its installments into one giving history, while each installment keeps the detail of a single payment: its date, amount, and whether it went through.

The installment amount and the frequency set how much each charge is and how often it repeats. A plan keeps charging on that schedule until it is canceled or, for a plan with a fixed end, until it finishes.

When a plan's charge day does not exist in a given month — for example, the 31st in April — Fundraise Up charges it on the last day of that month instead. A plan that first charged on March 31 charges on April 30.

A plan's first installment is charged when the plan starts. Most plans start the day the supporter creates them, so the first charge happens right away.

Some plans are set to start later. Your team can give a plan a future start date in Virtual Terminal, and a pledge can be set to begin on a future date. Until the start date arrives, Fundraise Up holds the saved payment details and charges nothing — the plan stays Scheduled.

Fundraise Up offers 9 giving frequencies. You control which ones supporters can choose, first across your account and then on each campaign.

Across your account, you turn on the frequencies your organization can use at all. Go to Settings > Recurring plans, and under Supported frequencies, enable any of the frequencies Fundraise Up offers:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Biweekly
• Every 4 weeks
• Monthly
• Bimonthly
• Quarterly
• Semiannually
• Annually

Account-level supported frequencies in Settings > Recurring plan

Clear a checkbox to remove a frequency, then click Save changes. Monthly is always on and cannot be turned off. Removing a frequency does not change plans that already use it.

On each campaign, you then choose up to two of those frequencies to actually offer, and set which one is preselected at checkout. Open the campaign, go to Settings > Frequencies, pick the frequencies under Donation frequency, choose the Default frequency, and click Save changes. With two frequencies set, a supporter can switch between them at checkout.

A campaign's Settings > Frequencies, where you pick up to two donation frequencies and set the one preselected at checkout

Unlike regular campaigns, pledge campaigns can offer up to 4 frequencies.

When an installment does not go through, Fundraise Up does not give up right away. It moves the plan to Retrying and retries the charge before the next installment is due. If the failed-payment email is turned on, the supporter also gets a message with a link to update their payment method in the Donor Portal.

If every retry for an installment fails, that installment is marked Failed, but the plan stays active and tries again at the next installment. The plan itself is marked Failed only after a set number of unpaid installments, which you control. Go to Settings > Recurring plans and choose an option under Set recurring plan to failed:

• Based on machine learning — the default. Fundraise Up weighs the chance of recovering the plan against the cost of repeated failed charges, and marks the plan failed when more attempts are unlikely to work.
• After 1 to 6 unpaid installments — the plan is marked failed once it reaches the number of unpaid installments you set.
• Never — the plan is never marked failed.

Click Save changes. Once a plan is marked failed, Fundraise Up stops charging it.

A saved card can keep working even after the supporter's bank replaces it. Stripe works with the card networks to update saved card details automatically whenever a supporter receives a new card — after the old one expires, or is reported lost or stolen. Fundraise Up applies these updates to recurring plans, so a supporter's giving continues and you rarely have to collect new card details.

Stripe charges $0.25 for each card update, so Fundraise Up runs them only where they matter — on recurring plans, where the card has to keep working for future installments. A one-time donation is charged once, so its card never needs updating.

The update does not reach every card — some banks and card types are not part of these services. When it does not, the next installment fails like any other payment, and the plan moves into the retry process. The supporter can add a new card in the Donor Portal, and you can reach out to ask them to.

A pledge is a recurring plan with a finish line. Instead of giving open-endedly, a supporter commits to a fixed total over a set period — for example, $1,200 across a year — and the plan charges on its normal schedule until it reaches that total or its end date, then moves to Completed.

A pledge is created at checkout, behaves like any other recurring plan in between, and appears in the same Recurring list, so you track and manage it the same way.

To see only pledges in the Recurring list, click More filters, open Additional options, and select Pledge-based donations.

For how supporters make a pledge and how you set up pledge campaigns, see Pledges.

The Recurring section of your Dashboard lists all your plans in one place. Each row shows the plan status, the installment amount and how often it recurs, the payment method, the number of installments charged so far, the date the plan was created, the total collected to date, and the supporter.

The Recurring list

An ≈ before an amount means the supporter gives in a currency other than your account base currency. The amount shown is converted to your base currency, so it is approximate.

The ↻ column shows how many installments the plan has charged so far.

A heart symbol (♡) at the end of a row marks a tribute plan — one set up in honor or memory of someone.

A speech bubble symbol marks a plan with a comment from the supporter.

A briefcase symbol marks a plan with an employer match in progress. For how this works, see Employer matching.

A postal mail symbol marks a tribute whose dedication message the supporter chose to send by postal mail. Fundraise Up does not mail these — your organization sends the physical card or letter, using the recipient address the supporter provided. For how tribute delivery works, see Tributes.

When your account uses subaccounts, an Account column shows which subaccount each plan belongs to.

To narrow the list, apply filters from the row above the table:

Click More filters for the rest:

A saved view keeps a set of filters so you do not reapply them each time you open the Recurring section. For example, the plans in Retrying status you review each week, or the canceled plans from one campaign.

To save a view, apply the filters you want to keep, then click Save view and give it a name. The saved view appears as a tab at the top of the page.

Saved views are personal and are not visible to other team members. To share a view with a teammate, copy the URL from your browser address bar and send it to them — the URL carries the active filters, so they open the same filtered list. The view is not added to their tabs unless they save it themselves.

Open any plan from the list to see its full page.

At the top, the plan shows its installment amount and a unique ID in the format RXXXXXXX — the letter R followed by seven characters. Use it to search for the plan, match it in an export, or quote it in a support request.

A recurring plan's page

The buttons at the top of the record act on the plan:

• Edit payment details — update the card on the plan, edit amount, frequency, next date, limits, and fee cover.
• Skip installments — pause charging for a set period.
• Offer plan upgrade — invite the supporter to give more.
• Cancel recurring — stop the plan. A canceled plan shows Reactivate instead.

For what each one does, see Manage a recurring plan below.

The Recurring plan section is the summary of the plan:

• Recurring plan ID and Status.
• Supporter, Campaign, and Designation.
• Installment amount — what is charged each time. Offer an increase beside it starts an upgrade for the supporter.
• Fee covered — whether the supporter covers fees. When they do not, Offer covering invites them to start.
• Total donated to date — the amount successfully collected so far.
• Frequency.
• Creation date, Last installment date, and Next installment date.
• Payment method and the Credit card on file, with its brand, last four digits, and expiry date.
• Receipt emails — whether the supporter is opted in.

Click Edit on the section to change its details. See Manage a recurring plan below.

The Source section records how the plan was created. Source names the origin, such as a Checkout Modal or Tap to Donate; the Source filter above lists them all. URL is the page where it was created, and Element is the specific Element the supporter used, such as a donation button.

The Personal information section shows the supporter name and email address, and a phone number and mailing address when the supporter provided them. Click Edit to update these details.

The Tribute section shows whether the plan honors or remembers someone. When it does, it gives the Type, the Tribute's name, and the Sharing method for notifying the recipient. For a notification sent by postal mail, your organization sends the physical card using the recipient address shown here.

The Comment section shows any message the supporter left with the plan, or No comment when they left none.

The Installments section lists each charge the plan has made, with its date, amount, and campaign. A check marks a successful charge, and each row links to the donation behind it. A plan with many installments shows the most recent first.

The Custom fields section shows any campaign-specific fields collected with the plan. Click Edit to update these values.

The UTM parameters section records the campaign tracking values carried with the plan — Source, Medium, Campaign, Term, and Content.

The Emails section lists every email Fundraise Up sent about the plan, with the send date, subject, and whether it was opened. Resend an email to the supporter from here.

The Receipts section lists each receipt issued for the plan — receipt number, amount, donation date, and issue date — and each one downloads as a PDF.

The Activity section is the plan's audit log. It records each event — creation, every charge attempt and its result, edits, pauses, and cancellation — along with who made the change and through which channel. Open an entry for the full detail.

When you connect integrations, the record shows a section for each one — for example, Salesforce NPSP, Bloomerang, or Zapier — with its sync status, the sync date, and a control to sync the plan. A connected system that has not received the plan yet says so, and a failed sync shows the error it returned.

For how to connect and manage integrations, see Integrations.

Both you and your supporters can change a recurring plan. Your team works from the plan page in the Dashboard. Supporters make a limited set of changes themselves in the Donor Portal.

Click Edit on the Recurring plan section to change the campaign, designation, or custom fields tied to the plan.

By default, the change applies only to future installments. Past installments keep the campaign, designation, and custom fields they were charged under. To apply the change to past installments as well, select the option to update previous installments before you save.

Click Edit payment details to update the card on the plan. Supporters can also do this themselves in the Donor Portal, without contacting you.

Click Skip installments to pause charging for a set period. The plan moves to Paused status and resumes automatically when the period ends.

To cancel a plan, open it and click Cancel recurring, then give a reason for the cancellation. The plan moves to Canceled status and does not charge again.

When a supporter cancels in the Donor Portal instead, they can add a reason in their own words. Fundraise Up records both the reason and their explanation on the plan, and you can include them when you export your recurring plans.

To restart a canceled plan, open it and click Reactivate.

You can invite a supporter to give more on a plan they already have, without asking them to set up a new one. An upgrade either raises the installment amount or has the supporter start covering the transaction costs on each charge.

Click Offer plan upgrade at the top of the plan to open its upgrade options. The window holds a personal link for each kind of upgrade:

• Recurring amount upgrade link — leads to a page where the supporter raises their installment amount.
• Cost coverage upgrade link — leads to a page where the supporter starts covering transaction costs. This link appears only when the supporter does not already cover fees.

The Recurring plan upgrade options window

You can also reach these from the plan summary: Offer an increase beside the installment amount, and — when fees are not covered — Offer covering beside Fee covered.

Offer an increase and offer covering options, both reachable from the plan summary

Copy a link and send it to the supporter through your own channel, such as an email or your CRM. The supporter follows it to confirm the change to their plan.

Each upgrade link is unique to one plan, so share it only with that plan's supporter — anyone who opens it can complete the upgrade.

Each plan shows whether the supporter is opted in to receipt emails. From Edit on the Recurring plan section, you can opt a supporter out, so they no longer receive a receipt for each installment.

Receipts are still generated and stored under your Receipt settings — opting out only stops them from being emailed.

The Donor Portal is a self-service space where supporters manage their own giving without contacting you. From there, a supporter can update the amount, schedule, or payment method on a plan, pause it, or cancel it. Which of these a supporter can do on their own depends on your Donor Portal settings.

For what supporters can see and do in their portal, see Donor Portal.

To pull recurring plan data out of Fundraise Up, use Quick export at the top of the Recurring section. Apply any filters first to control which plans are included, then choose the fields to export.

In the export window:

1. Choose CSV or XLS as the file format.
2. Select the fields to include, such as Recurring Plan ID, Status, and Create date.
3. Drag the field names to set the column order.
4. Click Export recurring plans.

Quick export gives you a file right now. To save a reusable template, schedule deliveries, or build data for reporting and analysis, see Export data from Fundraise Up.