Set Up a Recurring Donation
Goal: Convert a one-time donor into a sustaining donor by setting up a recurring schedule that charges a saved payment method on an interval — without manual processing each cycle.
How recurring donations work
A recurring donation in Ayuna is a schedule with:
- A donor and saved payment method (tokenized through Finix)
- An amount and frequency — Daily, Weekly, Monthly (recommended), Quarterly, or Annually
- A start date, optional end date or installment count
- A fund and optional campaign / project / event designation
A scheduled background job runs and processes due charges, creating a Donation record and emailing a receipt for each successful charge. Regular scheduled charges process during normal business hours (9 AM Eastern or later) so donors don't see a midnight transaction. Failed charges enter a retry schedule (see Failed charges below); persistent failures pause the schedule and notify your team.
When recurring fits
- A donor has expressed interest in monthly giving
- A campaign has a "monthly partner" track
- A pledge is structured as monthly installments and you want the charges to be automatic (you can also use a Pledge — see below)
Recurring donation vs. pledge
These overlap and people confuse them. Use these rules of thumb:
- Recurring donation — open-ended, no fixed total, charges automatically. The donor can stop at any time. Best for monthly partners.
- Pledge — fixed total commitment, paid in installments over a defined window. Each payment can be card-on-file or by check. Pledges do not auto-charge — payments are recorded as they come in. Best for capital campaigns or major-gift commitments.
If a donor wants to commit $5,000 over 5 years on autopay, the cleanest setup is actually two records: a Pledge for the $5,000 commitment plus a Recurring Donation that automates the monthly payment toward it.
Creating a recurring donation
From the donor profile, choose Set Up Recurring Donation. Capture:
- Amount and frequency
- Start date and (optionally) end conditions
- Fund / campaign / event designation
- Payment method (saved card or new card; ACH if enabled)
The first charge processes immediately or on the start date you set. From then on, the scheduler picks it up.
What the donor sees
The donor experience under Donor Dashboard → Recurring Donations:
- Current recurring schedules
- History of processed payments
- Ability to update the saved payment method
- Ability to pause, resume, or cancel a schedule
- Ability to change the amount
Donors can self-manage these without staff involvement.
Failed charges
Ayuna distinguishes two kinds of failure and handles them differently.
Transient charge failures (declines, network errors)
When a card is declined for funds, a network error trips the gateway, or the bank temporarily refuses the charge, the schedule enters a four-attempt dunning retry schedule:
| Attempt | When |
|---|---|
| Retry 1 | 1 day after the initial failure |
| Retry 2 | 3 days after the failure |
| Retry 3 | 8 days after the failure |
| Retry 4 | 19 days after the failure |
After all four retries are exhausted (≈19 days from the first failure), the schedule auto-pauses, the donor receives a "we couldn't process your gift" email asking them to update their card, and your team gets a payment-failed notification. Resolve by reaching out to the donor; once they update their payment method, resume the schedule.
Instrument failures (expired card, closed account, removed bank)
When the saved payment method itself is no longer usable — expired card, disabled bank account, the instrument was removed by the donor — Ayuna does not enter the retry schedule. Retrying a missing or expired instrument cannot succeed, so the schedule is paused immediately and the donor is emailed directly. The schedule resumes once the donor updates their payment method.
Donor-covered fees
When the recurring schedule was set up with the donor opting to cover fees, each processed gift includes the fee on top of the donation amount. The donor sees a slightly higher charge; your books receive the full intended donation amount net of zero fees.
Cancelling
Donors cancel from their dashboard. Staff can cancel from the recurring donation record on the donor's profile. Cancellation stops future processing immediately; past gifts remain on the donor's record.