Recurring
Get an overview of your recurring plans, and learn how to manage recurring donations.
Fundraise Up’s recurring plans denote donation plans whereby supporters give on an ongoing basis. Below, learn about recurring plans and their settings, which are configured from the Recurring Plans section of your main Dashboard Settings.
Basics
When a recurring plan is created by a supporter in a Checkout modal or Campaign Page, or by a user in the Virtual Terminal, records are created for two objects: a Donation object for the first single installment as well as a Recurring object for the recurring donation plan as a whole. If the supporter is new to your organization, a Supporter record will also be created.
For each subsequent installment charged as part of the recurring plan, another individual Donation record is created and linked to that recurring plan.
The Recurring record includes a summary of the recurring plan details, including its amount, frequency and payment method. The record also includes a log of all activity associated with the recurring plan, as well as emails sent to the donor.
Creation date
When a recurring plan is created in the Checkout modal or Campaign Page, the start date of the plan is the date of the first donation. The date of the first installment of the plan and the date of the creation of the recurring plan are always the same.
In the Virtual Terminal, however, supporters can choose a start date in the future for their recurring plan. The payment information for the recurring plan is tokenized at the time the plan is created, but the charge occurs on the selected start date.
Installment retries
When an installment is due for a recurring plan, Fundraise Up attempts to charge the payment method associated with the recurring plan. If the charge fails, Fundraise Up retries the charge. The retry scheduled is based on the frequency of the recurring plan. The schedule is described below.
| Recurring plan frequency | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Daily | No retries |
| Weekly | Two retries: one and two days after the original charge attempt |
| Biweekly | Three retries: one, three, and six days after the original charge attempt |
| Every 4 weeks | Four retries: one, three, seven, and 13 days after the original charge attempt |
| Monthly | Four retries: one, three, seven, and 13 days after the original charge attempt |
| Bimonthly | Five retries: one, three, seven, fourteen, and 21 days after the original charge attempt |
| Quarterly | Five retries: one, three, seven, 14, and 31 days after the original charge attempt |
| Semiannual | Five retries: one, three, seven, 14, and 31 days after the original charge attempt |
| Annual | Five retries: one, three, seven, 14, and 31 days after the original charge attempt |
Retries for bank-based payment methods
If a recurring plan is configured using a bank-based payment method, such as ACH Direct Debit, Fundraise Up will only attempt to charge the account for the scheduled installment. No further retries are attempted to avoid bank fees for the supporter.
Plan failed email
For each failed charge, Fundraise Up automatically sends the “Plan failed” email (if enabled) to the supporter. The email includes a link for the supporter to update their payment method in the Donor Portal.
Handling unpaid installments
By default, your Fundraise Up account uses machine learning to determine when to set a recurring plan’s status to Failed after unsuccessful charge attempts have been made. This default setting balances the opportunity to recover a recurring plan with avoiding potential fees for charge failures.
While the machine learning option is configured by default, you can also select from seven other options. You can wait for up to 6 unpaid installments before marking the recurring plan as failed, or never mark it as failed.
Supported frequencies
Fundraise Up supports all of the nine recurring giving frequencies which can be enabled for Checkout modals, Campaign Pages, the Donor Portal and the Virtual Terminal:
- daily
- weekly
- biweekly
- every 4 weeks
- monthly
- bimonthly
- quarterly
- semiannual
- annual
Managing recurring plans
Recurring plans can be managed by supporters and your organization’s Fundraise Up users.
Donor Portal
The Donor Portal is a self-service dashboard where your supporters can manage their fundraisers and recurring plans, view donation history, and update their profile information. Learn more →
Dashboard
Users with the Organization Administrator, Campaign Administrator, and Support Specialist user roles can manage recurring plans from the Dashboard.
Editing a recurring plan’s campaign and designation
By clicking Edit in the top-right corner of the Recurring plan block, these 3 types of users can change the campaign that each recurring plan is attached to, as well as the designation chosen by the supporter for their recurring plan.
By default, these changes will only apply to future installments within this recurring plan, meaning past installments will still be attached to the previous campaign and designation. If you wish to apply changes to all the previous installments too, check the Update previous installments checkbox.
Receipt email options
Clicking Edit in the top-right corner of the Recurring plan block also allows you to opt supporters out of receipt emails for their donation installments. Receipts will still always be generated as per your Receipt settings, but won’t be sent out to supporters if you uncheck the Opted in to email receipts checkbox.
Recurring plan statuses
There are seven main statuses for recurring plans in Fundraise Up:
| Status | Definition |
|---|---|
| Active | The recurring plan is actively charging installments. |
| Scheduled | The recurring plan has been created, and is scheduled to start at some point in the future. The plan will move to active status when the first installment begins processing. |
| Paused | The recurring plan has been paused for a period of between 1 and 12 months, either by the supporter in their Donor Portal or from the Fundraise Up Dashboard using the Skip installments button. |
| Retrying | The last donation installment of this recurring plan could not be successfully charged. Fundraise Up will continue to attempt to charge the next donation installment based on the retry behavior setting you have configured in your Recurring Plan Dashboard settings. |
| Cancelled | This recurring plan was canceled, either by the supporter in their Donor Portal or from the Dashboard by an account user with a role that allows them to manage recurring plans. |
| Failed | Fundraise Up will not continue to charge installments for the recurring plan. This status is automatically set based on the retry behavior settings configured in your Recurring Plan Dashboard settings. |
| Completed | This status only applies to recurring donations that were created in the Virtual Terminal with a recurring limit in place — a set number of installments, a total donation amount limit, or a cut-off date. The recurring plan in question has how hit at least one of the limits and has come to an end. |
Changing payment methods
Sometimes, a supporter creates a recurring plan using one payment method, but later wishes to update the recurring plan to a different payment method. Supporters can make this change without needing to request it from your organization by accessing their Donor Portal. Learn more →
Automatic card updates
Saved payment method details can continue to work even if the physical card has been replaced by the issuing bank. Stripe works with card networks and automatically attempts to update saved card details whenever a supporter receives a new card (for example, replacing an expired card or one that was reported lost or stolen). This allows your supporters to continue their recurring giving without interruption and reduces the need for you to collect new card details whenever a card is replaced.
Because Stripe charges 0.25 USD for each card update, Fundraise Up applies these automatic card updates to recurring plans only. This means that recurring plans can remain unaffected by expired cards, but your organization won’t pay for unnecessary storage of card details in Stripe for one-time donations.