Skip to main content

Start or Update a Recurring Gift

Goal: Set up a monthly or annual recurring gift, or change one that's already in place — without going through your bank or affiliate office.

Setting up a new recurring gift​

You can start a recurring gift two ways:

  • From a donate form — toggle "make this monthly" or "make this annual" while making a regular donation
  • From your donor dashboard — at /donor/recurring, click "New Recurring Gift" and set it up

Either way, you'll choose:

  • Amount — what you want to give each cycle
  • Frequency — monthly, quarterly, or annual
  • Start date — usually today; you can pick a future date
  • End — open-ended, after a number of cycles, or a specific end date
  • Designation — fund, campaign, or project the recurring gift supports
  • Payment method — saved card or new card; ACH where enabled

Once set up, the first charge processes either immediately or on your start date. From then on, the system handles the schedule automatically.

Managing your recurring gifts​

At /donor/recurring, you'll see:

  • Each active recurring schedule
  • Amount, frequency, next charge date
  • History of past charges
  • Total given through the schedule

For each, you can:

  • Update the amount
  • Change the payment method
  • Pause the schedule (resume later)
  • Cancel the schedule

Changes take effect on the next scheduled charge. Already-processed gifts aren't affected.

When a card fails​

If your card expires or gets declined:

  • The system retries on the next scheduled run
  • After repeated failures, the schedule pauses and you'll receive an email asking you to update your card
  • Update the card via /donor/payment-methods — once updated, the schedule resumes

A friendly heads-up: monthly donors are the easiest gifts for an affiliate to lose track of when a card declines, because the donor often doesn't realize anything happened. If you change banks or get a new card, update your saved methods promptly to avoid disrupting your giving.

Donor-covered fees​

If your recurring schedule was set up with the option to cover processing fees, each cycle includes a small additional amount to cover the fee. Your statement reflects this slightly higher amount; the affiliate receives the full intended donation.

Tax receipts​

Each successful recurring charge generates its own receipt. You can:

  • See receipts as they arrive (one per charge in your inbox)
  • Download all of them from /donor/history
  • Get a consolidated annual statement in early January summarizing the year

Stopping​

You can stop a recurring gift any time:

  1. Open /donor/recurring
  2. Find the schedule
  3. Click Cancel
  4. Confirm

Cancellation stops future charges immediately. Past gifts remain on your record. There's no penalty or fee for cancelling.

Switching to a pledge​

If you want to commit to a specific total over a defined period (e.g., "I'll give $5,000 over 5 years"), that's a pledge, which is structured differently:

  • Total commitment is fixed
  • Payments are tracked against the total
  • The affiliate's books treat the pledge as a receivable

Reach out to the affiliate's development office to set up a pledge — it's not a self-serve flow because it usually involves a conversation about the commitment and how it'll be paid.

Combining recurring and pledges​

Some donors set up both: a pledge for a specific multi-year commitment, plus a recurring donation that automatically pays toward it each month. The affiliate's development team can set this up for you.