Recurring Gifts

Recurring gifts are gifts where the donor has agreed to make a gift of the same amount on a regular basis, every week or month, for example. Once the donor has set the parameters for a recurring gift, the gifts are generally processed by credit card or funds transfer without requiring any further action from the donor. The parameters include a start and end date, an amount, and a frequency, such as monthly. In addition you can specify all of the fields that you normally associate with any gift, such as Reason, Fund, and Campaign codes. Each recurring gift is defined by a Recurring Gift Template, added on the Recurring Templates tab of the Recurring Gift Manager. You can also add a Recurring Gift Template when you add a gift.

Once you have set up your recurring gift templates, they need to be processed on a regular basis. This means the actual money transaction must occur and, if successful, a gift needs to be added to the giving history for the donor. You may also wish to create an acknowledgment letter for each transaction.

There are two ways that recurring gifts can be handled in ExceedFurther:

  1. iATS - you enter the parameters of each recurring gift into ExceedFurther, specifying that the transactions are to be processed using iATS, either credit card or bank transfer. After you create a template, giving the recurrence rules, and save it, these rules are passed to iATS. iATS will then automatically complete the transactions during each specified time period. These transactions can then be imported into ExceedFurther through the Recurring Gift Manager tab of the Gift Manager. They appear in the Recurring Transactions tab. From there you create giving history records.
  2. Stripe - you enter the parameters of each recurring gift into ExceedFurther, including credit card or bank transfer information, but these recurring gift parameters are not sent to Stripe. Instead you process the transactions each period through ExceedFurther. By opening the Recurring Transactions tab and selecting a date range, you can view a list of all of the transactions that are expected during that period. You select those you wish to process, and send them as a group to Stripe to be charged. Once these have been completed, you create giving history records for the transactions that succeeded.
  3. Exceed - you enter the parameters of each recurring gift into ExceedFurther, but you process the transactions each period outside of ExceedFurther. For example, you may run the credit card transactions manually for each gift each period. By opening the Recurring Transactions tab and selecting a date range, you can view a list of all of the transactions that are expected during that period. Once these have been completed, you select the transactions and create giving history records.

Getting started with recurring gifts

To create and update recurring gifts, do the following:

  1. Before you begin adding recurring gift templates, you must specify which method you are going to use: iATS, Stripe or Exceed. This is entered on the Client Defaults tab of the Admin tab. All of your recurring gift templates must use the same method; that is, all must be entered into iATS, all must be processed by Stripe, or all must be processed outside of ExceedFurther.
  2. For each recurring gift, add a recurring gift template from the Recurring Templates tab. This specifies the recurrence pattern for the gift, along with the date range, amount, and any other information you wish to record about these gifts.
  3. Once in each period during which you expect a recurring gift, perhaps once a month, go to the Recurring Gift tab of the Gifts Manager. Select the date range you wish to view.
  4. If you are using iATS to process your recurring gifts, import the latest list of transactions from iATS. You can review the results, contact donors whose transactions have failed (credit card expired, for example), and create the gift records for each transaction.
  5. If you are processing the transactions using Stripe, select the transactions you wish to process and click on the Process button. You can then review the results, contact donors whose transactions have failed (credit card expired, for example), and create the gift records for each transaction.
  6. If you are processing the transactions outside of ExceedFurther, print the list of expected transactions or export it to Excel. Using the list, process all of the expected gifts. Then you can return to the Recurring Gift Manager list and create gift records for each successful transaction.
  7. If you need to make changes to a recurring gift template, use the Recurring Gift Template tab.
    1. If you are using iATS for your recurring gifts, make all changes, such as the amount or recurrence pattern, through ExceedFurther. Although you can make these changes directly on the iATS website, any changes made there are not transferred to ExceedFurther. However, changes made in ExceedFurther are transferred to iATS when you save them.
    2. Although Stripe allows you to set up a recurring charge, those transactions cannot be imported into ExceedFurther. Instead, create the recurring template in ExceedFurther and then use the Process button to charge the credit card or make the bank transfer at the appropriate time each cycle.