How do recurring gifts work with Online Express and The Raiser's Edge?

Heidi Ball

When I get a recurring gift and I have the EFT module will it automatically be charged to their account every month on the date that I chose for them to run and will I get some kind of reminder to add the gift to their record every month?

Brittany tmp

You will need to charge them in RE using the EFT module as you would all recurring gifts. Here are a few Knowledgebase Solutions to get you started: https://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?pa...


https://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?pa...

Anne Henry

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled

automatic charging?.


If a donor makes a recurring gift does OE automatically charge that gift every month or is this something that must be done on my end through RE?

Steve MacLaughlin

Anne Henry:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled

automatic charging?.


If a donor makes a recurring gift does OE automatically charge that gift every month or is this something that must be done on my end through RE?

I've merged this topic with a similar question. Unless the recurring gift date is the same date as the day the donor makes the donation, all the recurring gifts are run in The Raiser's Edge.

Sam K

will processing recurring gifts still work if the batch includes regular online gifts and recurring gifts. I only want to create an EFT for one person

Kristan Barata

I am still confused about this topic - we have recently begun using Online Express and we have monthly donors signing up. Are they just signing up with Online Express and we have to process manually in batch how we process our offline monthly donors OR does Online Express automatically take the funds on the date that the donor signed up for and I process the gift through Online Express?

Chris Martin

Hi Kristan. You'll be collecting the month-after-month recurring gifts from within The Raiser's Edge using the EFT module. When the donor submits the recurring gift form, Online Express hands off all of the relevant details to RE (once you download and process the gift) and from that point forward, RE's EFT module is used to collect all future gifts for that donor.



The only exception is if the donor submits the recurring gift form on the same day of the month as you have the form configured to process recurring gifts. For example, if you have your form set to process gifts on the 15th of each month and a donor reaches your donation form on the 15th of the month and submits a monthly gift, then in this case Online Express will collect only that first gift and all future gifts will be handled in RE.



Does that make sense?

Kristen Karpinski

Can someone provide me with a bit of information on how to process recurring gifts if the EFT module is not available to my organization? Will a person physically need to process all gifts in RE or will they be charged on that date through OE? We're in the beginning phases of BBMS and OE, and I'm a bit concerned as to how we will seamlessly transition from another merchant services provider who currently processes our transactions (outside of RE) and we re-key this information into RE to one that is linked to the system. What would we be responsible for handling and what does OE/RE handle? Any and all help would be appreciated!

Chris Martin

Hi Kristen. If you don't have the EFT module for RE, you can't accept recurring gifts using an Online Express donation form. In fact, you shouldn't even see the option to enable this form option at all.



Looking just at the RE side of things, this Knowledgebase article describes the process of manually creating recurring gifts and payments. This article also includes a link to a separate article that describes how using EFT helps to automate that process.



If you have existing recurring gift profiles that you need to move over from your current processor to manage using RE and BBMS, you have a few options. Some organizations will contact their recurring gift donors, informing them of the move to a new payment processor, and politely ask if the donor would set up a new recurring gift on the new page.



I believe other organizations have taken the actual billing details and manually set up these recurring gift profiles in RE.

Kristen Karpinski

At this point in time, I am certain that we will not be purchasing the EFT module, unfortunately. In our case, I think we would need to manually set-up the recurring gift profiles in RE.



With that being said, how would this work with BBMS? I understand to process these payments on a monthly basis, we would need to work through the gift batch, but I'm having a difficult time finding knowledgebase information and steps on how to begin this process?



For example, if I have Donor Y who has a recurring gift of $12 a month for 12 months beginning on 11/12/2014. I would have to key that gift into a batch with a gift batch date of 11/12/2014. How would this be queued up to be processed the following month? Would this be another manual gift batch with manual processing in the BBMS account or is there another way this can be successfully completed automatically? I'm still a little confused with the whole process, so I apologize for my questions.



Also, the link you provided in the previous post would not work. Thank you for your help!

Chris Martin

Hi Kristen...very sorry about the bad link. I had an errant character that broke the link. It should be fixed now (above) and I think that article will answer your questions.



In the example scenario you describe, I'm assuming you're talking about a recurring gift where you obtained the card details in some way other than through an Online Express giving form, correct? Remember that unless you have the EFT module, donor's won't even be able to see recurring giving as an option on your Online Express donation form.

Kristen Karpinski

Yes, Chris.. that's correct. Our organization hosts an annual telethon where donors are able to participate in a $12 by 12 program ($12 a month for one year). We currently book these as pledges in our system, but run the payments automatically on a monthly basis in the third party merchant services account. We would like to close that account and run these through RE, but without the EFT, it looks like it would be a manual process each time and the responsibility of our team to remember to process the cards when necessary, which is a concern of mine. Right now, they are processed, we print the transactions (which are e-mailed to us), then match them to the summary deposit sheet from the merchant services and key these individually into a gift batch in RE. We switched to BBMS to streamline credit card processing and keep us PCI compliant, but I'm not sure if the convenience factor will still be met.

Chris Martin

Hey Kristen, I'll send you an email offline to offer for one of our RE specialists to connect with you directly.

Wendy Sylvester

Hi Chris, I have a donor that states they set up a recurring gift utilizing Online Express and asked that the gift occur the 27th of each month. I did not get an email notice or a transaction notification that it is ready to process. Is there a way to verify this donor actually signed up for recurring gifts?

Matthew Garbarino

Wendy Caliguire:
Hi Chris, I have a donor that states they set up a recurring gift utilizing Online Express and asked that the gift occur the 27th of each month. I did not get an email notice or a transaction notification that it is ready to process. Is there a way to verify this donor actually signed up for recurring gifts?

Hi Wendy. When a recurring gift is made online, the transaction should arrive in Online Express just like a single gift transaction. You can then process the gift, do any constituent matching, etc.



I would check a few places. Check that it isn't in Online Express ready for processing, and you don't see it in the donation history. Also double check that the gift record in RE isn't there. If it's in none of these places, then it looks like the donor didn't complete the transaction, perhaps they missed a field and didn't notice the error message or something like that.

Carrie Sauer

Chris Martin:

Hi Kristen. If you don't have the EFT module for RE, you can't accept recurring gifts using an Online Express donation form. In fact, you shouldn't even see the option to enable this form option at all.

 

We don't have the EFT module but I was able to set up our form to accept recurring gifts and I tested it by making one myself. I see that these posts are a few years old... is the EFT module no longer required?



How can donors cancel or update their recurring gifts?