Sustaining vs. installment donations?

jdp

I fell like I should know this, but have never really found a good explanation. What's the difference between sustaining vs. installment donations?

We are doing an audit of our autoresponders and thank you messaging, and the standard Autoresponder Center copy seems to be basically the same. We've been operating on the assumption that sustaining donors are monthly donors, but after seeing the copy for the installment donors, I am now wondering.

Do installments have a pre-determined end date (a la as-seen-on-TV products--3 easy payments!), while sustaining gifts continue until the donor says stop?

Where does a recurring gift fit into this? Or is that just another name for a sustaining gift?

Thanks!

Matt Burghdoff 2

You've already figured it out - installment means a set number of charges (I'll give each month for year) and sustaining means a donation from now until whenever in the future (I'll give each month until I decide to cancel, forever in Convio's terms).

Recurring is a more all-encompassing name which includes both.  I believe it shows up in a couple of Convio reports where sustaining vs. installment donations aren't called out separately.