Recurring Gifts Overview 💜

Recurring gifts are donations scheduled to process automatically on an ongoing basis. Recurring giving can help organizations build predictable revenue while giving donors a convenient way to provide continued support.

DonorDock can track recurring gifts created through Online Giving, identify recurring donors, report on recurring transactions, and help your team engage new recurring donors through Automations and Journeys.

Recurring Gift Frequencies

Recurring subscriptions through DonorDock Online Giving and Stripe can be established using several frequencies, including:

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Quarterly

• Semi-Annually

• Annually

Recurring information can also be stored on manually entered gift records. When the Recurring Gift option is enabled on a gift, a Recurrence Frequency field becomes available for tracking the applicable schedule.

💡 Marking an individual gift as recurring records information about that gift. It does not create a recurring payment subscription. Payment subscriptions must be established through the Online Giving pages.

Recurring Gifts Through Stripe

When a donor creates a recurring donation through a DonorDock Online Giving Page using Stripe, DonorDock automatically creates gift records as successful payments are processed.

DonorDock also adds tracking information to help identify recurring giving.

For recurring Stripe gifts:

• Monthly recurring donors receive the Contact Badge Recurring Monthly Online Donor.

• Annual recurring donors receive the Contact Badge Recurring Annual Online Donor.

• Recurring gift records include the Payment Note Recurring Online Donation.

These Badges remain on the Contact record and can be used for filtering and reporting.

💡 Recurring donor Badges are not automatically removed if a subscription is later canceled or fails. A report using these Badges therefore represents contacts who have participated in recurring giving, not necessarily only donors with currently active subscriptions.

Recurring Gifts Through PayPal

Recurring PayPal gifts received through DonorDock Online Giving are also automatically identified.

For recurring PayPal gifts:

• The Contact receives the Badge Recurring PayPal Donor.

• The gift receives the Payment Note PayPal Recurring Donation.

PayPal recurring giving is available on a monthly schedule.

Manually Track a Recurring Gift

If you are manually entering a gift that is part of a recurring series, you can identify it directly on the gift record.

1. Create or edit the gift.

2. Turn on the Recurring Gift option.

3. Select the applicable Recurrence Frequency.

4. Complete the remaining gift information.

5. Click Save.

Available frequencies include Weekly, Semi-Monthly, Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually, and Annually.

This can be useful when recording historical recurring gifts or recurring payments processed outside a DonorDock-connected subscription.

Report on Contacts Who Have Given Recurring Gifts

Contact Badges can be used to create a report of donors who have participated in recurring Online Giving.

1. Navigate to Reporting > Reports.

2. Click + Create.

3. Select Contact Report.

4. In the report filters, add the recurring donor Badges you want included:

   • Recurring Monthly Online Donor

   • Recurring Annual Online Donor

   • Recurring PayPal Donor

5. Run the report.

6. Select Save As if you want to reuse the report.

You might save the report with a name such as Recurring Donors.

Report on Recurring Gift Transactions

You can also use a Gift Report to identify the individual gifts created as part of recurring giving.

1. Navigate to Reporting > Reports.

2. Click + Create.

3. Select Gift Report.

4. Add any primary filters you need.

5. Click Run Report.

6. Open the Columns menu and add Payment Note.

7. Click the Filter icon on the Payment Note column.

8. Set the filter to Contains and enter: Recurring

9. Click Filter.

This will identify gift records containing recurring payment notes such as Recurring Online Donation or PayPal Recurring Donation.

Select Save As if you want to keep this report for future use.

Managing a Stripe Recurring Subscription

You can view the individual gift records created by recurring payments in DonorDock, but you manage the underlying Stripe subscription through Stripe.

Changes such as:

• Updating the subscription

• Pausing recurring payments

• Canceling a subscription

should be completed through your organization's Stripe account.

A typical workflow in Stripe is:

1. Log in to your Stripe account at dashboard.stripe.com

2. Navigate to Subscriptions under the applicable Payments or Billing area.

3. Open the subscription you want to manage.

4. Use the available Stripe actions to update, pause, or cancel the subscription.

Changes to the Stripe subscription affect future payments. They do not edit the historical Gift records already created in DonorDock.

Donor Self-Service for Stripe Recurring Gifts

Organizations connected through Stripe can also allow donors to manage their recurring payment information through the Donor Portal link at the bottom of DonorDock Giving Pages.

Donors do not need a DonorDock login. Instead:

1. The donor opens the Donor Portal.

2. They enter the email address associated with their payments.

3. A confirmation code is sent to that email address.

4. After verifying their identity, the donor can access and manage their recurring payment information.

Your organization can also access the Donor Portal URL from Online Giving under your Stripe information and share that URL directly with donors when needed.

Refunding a Recurring Payment

A recurring subscription and an individual payment are separate items.

Canceling or changing a subscription controls future payments. If an individual payment has already processed and needs to be refunded, complete the refund through Stripe. Then review the applicable gift record in DonorDock and update the status to Canceled.

For questions regarding Stripe payment processing or Stripe account functionality, contact Stripe Support directly.

Moving Existing Stripe Subscriptions to DonorDock

If your organization already has recurring subscriptions in Stripe when you begin using DonorDock Online Giving, donors may not need to cancel and recreate those subscriptions.

After you connect DonorDock Online Giving through Stripe Connect, you can update an existing Stripe subscription to use the applicable DonorDock recurring donation product.

DonorDock recurring products are available for frequencies including:

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Quarterly

• Semi-Annually

• Annually

Once you update an existing Stripe subscription to the appropriate DonorDock product, successful future subscription payments can automatically create Gift records in DonorDock.

Manually Update an Existing Stripe Subscription to a DonorDock Product

⚠️ Your organization's DonorDock Online Giving must first be connected through Stripe.

1. Log in to your organization's Stripe account.

2. Navigate to Subscriptions.

3. Open the subscription you want to transfer.

4. Select the option to update the subscription.

5. DonorDock subscription options will show Monthly Recurring Donation (Your Organization Name) and Annual Recurring Donation (Your Organization Name). Each subscription type will show a price of .01. This allows you to set the donation amount on the next step. Select Monthly or Annual based on the current subscription frequency.

6. Set the product quantity to represent the recurring donation amount in cents.

7. Confirm that the resulting amount matches the donor's existing recurring payment.

8. Remove the previous subscription product.

9. Save or update the subscription.

For example, if the recurring donation is $53.35, enter the DonorDock product quantity as 5,335 because the product is configured in cents.

After the subscription is updated, it will continue processing on its existing schedule, and future successful payments can create Gift records automatically in DonorDock.

💡 If you have multiple existing Stripe subscriptions to convert, this process must be completed for each applicable subscription. DonorDock Support may also be able to assist once the subscriptions are available in your connected Stripe account.

Moving Recurring Payments from Another Processor

If another payment processor currently holds your recurring payment information, you must first move the payment credentials into Stripe before you can connect the subscriptions to DonorDock recurring products.

Stripe offers its own payment data migration service and can assist with supported card and ACH migrations.

This migration is handled directly between:

• Your organization

• Stripe

• Your previous payment processor

DonorDock does not perform or manage this migration.

After the applicable payment information and subscriptions are available in Stripe, the subscriptions can be updated to the appropriate DonorDock recurring donation products so future payments create Gift records in DonorDock.

If the subscription cannot be migrated into Stripe, you may need to cancel the existing recurring payment, and the donor may need to establish a new recurring donation through a DonorDock Online Giving Page.

Engage New Recurring Donors with a Journey

You can also incorporate recurring giving into your organization's automated donor stewardship.

DonorDock includes a Recurring Donor Journey designed to help your team consistently engage supporters who establish recurring giving relationships.

When a donor begins a new recurring subscription through Online Giving, a configured Journey can provide a structured series of follow-up communications and actions.

A Journey might include steps such as:

• Sending a recurring donor thank-you

• Introducing the donor to the impact of ongoing giving

• Creating a follow-up task for a team member

• Sending additional stewardship communications over time

Journeys are pre-configured starting points that your team can customize with your own content, timing, tasks, and engagement strategy before starting them.

Recurring Gifts vs. Pledges

Recurring gifts and Pledges can both involve multiple payments, but they serve different purposes.

A recurring donor does not necessarily have a Pledge, and creating a Pledge does not establish a recurring payment subscription.