Recurring Gifts

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Candy Geeter
Candy Geeter
Seventh Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper First Comment
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Candy
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  • JD Bergeron
    JD Bergeron
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Loyalty Badge

    Daniel Bayer:

    Unfortunately, the answer to this is "yes, BUT..."


    As in, yes, Online Express is capable of setting up recurring gifts, BUT someone on staff still has to run them every month(/week/quarter/etc.). What happens is that when a constituent fills out the Online Express donation form and puts in the recurring gift info, that data will come through the connector to Raiser's Edge, and you import it into a batch, and then process that batch into RE. But that is only the initial Recurring Gift "setup record" (as I like to call it). OLX does NOT automatically process that credit card at the interval the donor has chosen. You have to set up a recurring gift batch for the Recurring Gift payments that you then run whenever the chosen interval comes around.


    All things considered, it's not that difficult to do, but it's far from ideal.

     

    I want to back up what Daniel has said. OLX and RE are capable of doing recurring gifts but the functionality is really not ideal. Staff must be on board to run the recurring batches on time and be ready to resolve numerous credit card errors each time it is run. Some of those errors are understandable since people's credit cards are getting compromised more often these days, but others are "hiccups" in the system and no one at Blackbaud has been able to provide any good explanation. We have actually been exploring ways to go BACK to PayPal for recurring gifts because at the very least the credit card info and transaction failure is handled between PayPal and the donor reducing some of the burden on your team to have awkward conversations: "Sorry, we don't know precisely why your credit card failed but can you please check with your bank to see if there is some sort of block on automated payments?"


    Good luck!

  • Michele Thompson
    Michele Thompson
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes

    JD Bergeron:

     

    Daniel Bayer:

    Unfortunately, the answer to this is "yes, BUT..."


    As in, yes, Online Express is capable of setting up recurring gifts, BUT someone on staff still has to run them every month(/week/quarter/etc.). What happens is that when a constituent fills out the Online Express donation form and puts in the recurring gift info, that data will come through the connector to Raiser's Edge, and you import it into a batch, and then process that batch into RE. But that is only the initial Recurring Gift "setup record" (as I like to call it). OLX does NOT automatically process that credit card at the interval the donor has chosen. You have to set up a recurring gift batch for the Recurring Gift payments that you then run whenever the chosen interval comes around.


    All things considered, it's not that difficult to do, but it's far from ideal.

     

    I want to back up what Daniel has said. OLX and RE are capable of doing recurring gifts but the functionality is really not ideal. Staff must be on board to run the recurring batches on time and be ready to resolve numerous credit card errors each time it is run. Some of those errors are understandable since people's credit cards are getting compromised more often these days, but others are "hiccups" in the system and no one at Blackbaud has been able to provide any good explanation. We have actually been exploring ways to go BACK to PayPal for recurring gifts because at the very least the credit card info and transaction failure is handled between PayPal and the donor reducing some of the burden on your team to have awkward conversations: "Sorry, we don't know precisely why your credit card failed but can you please check with your bank to see if there is some sort of block on automated payments?"


    Good luck!


    This is precisely why we are reluctant to use OLX for our everyday donations. The friction involved in maintaining recurring donations is terrible. There are other online processors who do this automatically for you. I don't know why Blackbaud Merchant Services isn't doing this.  ~Michele

     

     

  • Susan Gilbert
    Susan Gilbert
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Comment

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    We just have our donation page set up for monthly only, on the 15th. That makes it easier when you have to manually process monthly donations in RE.

     

  • Sue Chiaro
    Sue Chiaro
    Tenth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment

    Susan Gilbert:

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    We just have our donation page set up for monthly only, on the 15th. That makes it easier when you have to manually process monthly donations in RE.

     

    I agree with Susan, it is much simplier to run recurring gifts once a month. We have our donation page set up to collect the recurring gift on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.   

    Sue

     

  • Linda Rooney
    Linda Rooney
    Eighth Anniversary First Comment Blackbaud Certified Facilitator Level 1

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    We tried processing recurring gifts using Online Express and it was very cumbersome. Now we only use OLX for singel donations and went back to processing recurring gifts through our website payment processor - it is more automatic and donors can choose the day they want the payment paid on the credit card. It's not ideal. 

  • Coby Bennette
    Coby Bennette
    Ninth Anniversary First Comment Facilitator Level 1 Praiser Level 1

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    Last year, I set up OLX for both one time donations and recurring donations. The one-time was great, batch them each week, simple.  The recurring donations, not so simple.  I work limited hours/days for my non-profit, and so I was not always available on the days that the recurring gifts needed to be processed. This year, I kept OLX for one-time donations, and moved back to Greater Giving for recurring donations, as it is automatic.  My intention this summer is to move recurring gifts to Paypal as it appears to be the lowest fee for credit card processing (2.2% for non-profits).  Any thoughts on credit card processor with more economical yet automatic processing of recurring gifts?

  • Beverly Cruz
    Beverly Cruz
    Seventh Anniversary First Comment

    Susan Gilbert:

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    We just have our donation page set up for monthly only, on the 15th. That makes it easier when you have to manually process monthly donations in RE.

     

     

    I'm glad I found this; I've been looking for an answer to a similar question. We also have our donation page set up so that we ideally only process on the 5th of the month. However, if you've received recurring gifts via OLX throughout the month, is it possible to consolidate them all into one gift batch and then process the one batch? The card # or the direct debit info would have come in through a form so we don't have all the information. Or do you need to actually process each batch separately?

  • Susan Gilbert
    Susan Gilbert
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Comment
    I only process once a month, so if they sign up for a recurring donation on the 20th, let's say, I will run it for the first time on the 15th of the next month. That's the only way I know how to do it. I know you can go in an manually adjust a recurring donation, but it gets messy and I think it's just easier to do it once a month. Do we possibly miss out on one month of a gift? Probably, but our recurring donor pool is very small.
  • Beverly Cruz
    Beverly Cruz
    Seventh Anniversary First Comment
    And if you have say, 5 people who need to be processed...do you just do each one separately in their own batch?
  • Susan Gilbert
    Susan Gilbert
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Comment
    I do them all at the same time. I just select New Gift Batch, and the box that says "batch is recurring," is checked. I did type out the steps because there are quite a few of them and at first when I was learning, I was committing them to the record but not actually processing the credit cards!
  • Beverly Cruz
    Beverly Cruz
    Seventh Anniversary First Comment
    And are you able to do this because you actually have the bank and credit card info provided by the constituent? I'm assuming that we don't have the full number when they come in on OLX....it comes in as ****1234. Thank you so much for the replies!!

     
  • Susan Gilbert
    Susan Gilbert
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Comment
    No I do not have credit card info. It's already in there but I can't see it. We use Blackbaud Merchant Services.
  • Beverly Cruz
    Beverly Cruz
    Seventh Anniversary First Comment
    Ahh...we use BBMS as well. That means it shoudd work for me too. Thank you so much!!
  • Rachel Nigro
    Rachel Nigro
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Comments 100 Likes Photogenic
    Hi Beverly, 


    Just wanted to chime in with some additional info! Raiser's Edge will "tokenize" the credit card numbers, so that you're only able to see the last four digits for security purposes. If you see the last four digits preceded by asterisk, this means that the credit card is stored in Blackbaud Payment Services and can be charged in batch! For more information about this, we have a great solution here: Why do credit card numbers appear with question marks (????) or asterisks (****)? 


    I hope this helps! 
  • Marny Hackley
    Marny Hackley
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Connector Level 1

    JD Bergeron:

    Daniel Bayer:

    Unfortunately, the answer to this is "yes, BUT..."


    As in, yes, Online Express is capable of setting up recurring gifts, BUT someone on staff still has to run them every month(/week/quarter/etc.). What happens is that when a constituent fills out the Online Express donation form and puts in the recurring gift info, that data will come through the connector to Raiser's Edge, and you import it into a batch, and then process that batch into RE. But that is only the initial Recurring Gift "setup record" (as I like to call it). OLX does NOT automatically process that credit card at the interval the donor has chosen. You have to set up a recurring gift batch for the Recurring Gift payments that you then run whenever the chosen interval comes around.


    All things considered, it's not that difficult to do, but it's far from ideal.

     

    I want to back up what Daniel has said. OLX and RE are capable of doing recurring gifts but the functionality is really not ideal. Staff must be on board to run the recurring batches on time and be ready to resolve numerous credit card errors each time it is run. Some of those errors are understandable since people's credit cards are getting compromised more often these days, but others are "hiccups" in the system and no one at Blackbaud has been able to provide any good explanation. We have actually been exploring ways to go BACK to PayPal for recurring gifts because at the very least the credit card info and transaction failure is handled between PayPal and the donor reducing some of the burden on your team to have awkward conversations: "Sorry, we don't know precisely why your credit card failed but can you please check with your bank to see if there is some sort of block on automated payments?"


    Good luck!

     

    I have had nothing but trouble with recurring gifts, some downloaded to batches work fine each month, but others, such as the gift that the donor filled out the OLX form field: Company Name with "this is an individual gift" so I can't download the ONX gift to an indivdual because it wants a company record are making me crazy. Part of my problem is that I was so used to the ease of eTapestry automatic recurring gift process where the donor has the options of when to start the gift and when to have the gift processed each month and all you have to do is look at the email notification that is generated from eTapestry when the recurring gift is AUTOMATICLY processed. The gift record goes directly to the donors record which only caused one problem (in two years) with a mix up between a Jr. and Sr. with the same name and address. (There is no batch process in eTapestry).  The office manager lists the daily credit card gifts using the email notifications from ONX but there are no email notifications generated from ONX for a recurring gift so the DBA has to remember to make a notification for the record.  I wish the Credit Transmission File- Credit Card Report that is generated when a transaction processes would show the donor name rather than just the credit type, # of transactions and amount which I could give to the office manager for the daily donation record. Our process is the office manager opens the mail/email and gives the DBA a list of gifts with copies of checks,  email notifications for the daily gift batch.  Maybe someone has a suggestion for a process to get the recurring gifts on the donation record. Our accountant emails a list of the ACH donations at the end of each month I guess she could include the recurring gifts.  The DBA-me, is the only staf person processing gifts-donor letters, reports, mailing lists etc. so the complicated (to me)  recurring gift process seems ridiculous compared to the AUTOMATIC eTapesty process. Years ago I worked on RE before RENXT and I don't remember the anxiety of recurring credit card gifts, it was within batch and seemed so simple.  I was so disappointed when I figured out our new "state of the art" RENXT database did not automaticly process recurring credit card gifts. 


    Can't wait until the recurring gift process is AUTOMATIC!

  • Kristina Wheelock
    Kristina Wheelock
    Ancient Membership 10 Comments Photogenic Blackbaud Champion

    Candy Geeter:

    Is it possible to setup recurring gifts for a donor, using my Online Express?  We currently use Paypal (as well as some features of Online Express) and we are looking to use Online Express only, but donors our requesting the ability to setup recurring gifts.


    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Candy

    It seems like OLX gets a lot of negative comments around the recurring gift process, but we actually prefer it to the automated process that was running through our website processor.  Despite someone having to actually set up the batch and hit process (we've cross trained this so there is always someone around who can do this)  I actually like the control it gives our organization on when to make a decision to charge or not to charge.   We were already running daily batches of recurring gifts and pledges that were set up offline, so pulling in the OLX recurring gifts to that batch is pretty straightforward.  And the fact that our donors can set up direct debit recurring gifts is amazing, since we couldn't do that previously. 


    For us, the key is just making sure we are organized so that when a recurring gift is set up initially, we have a process in place to pull that gift into the batch on the day that it should be processed.  We have a paper file created for each recurring gift, with a copy of the initial set up request/donation, the letter we sent to the donor and a calendar page that we stamp as paid for each transaction.  It gives us something to check against, if the recurring gift doesn't pull up, or if one does pull up and shouldn't.  It also helps us file the paperwork for the correct date for the next transaction. 

  • Cory Davis
    Cory Davis
    Sixth Anniversary First Comment Facilitator Level 1 Praiser Level 1
    I agree with what some of the others have said about "Yes, but..."


    I was appalled regarding this functionality when I came to RE after working with other databases. I can remember co-workers daydreaming about RE when they had issues with the other db's cause RE is the "gold standard." That may be the case for some but honestly the fact that there is not an option for automated credit card processing is awful--isn't that the whole point of making a recurring donation online!? I would echo what someone else said and say I'd prefer to move back to PayPal, too, because at least the payments are automatic! We have people mail in automatic paper checks from their bank every single month and that honestly is less work on our end.


    Before I started this job there were several months when people forgot to process recurring credit card donations here and it turned into a giant mess, then someone had to call 200+ monthly donors to explain why their payment wasn't processed and ask if we could do a double charge in a later month! We are still dealing with how to handle them and every single month it's an ordeal. I came to RE from CiviCRM, and I've also used Salesforce before. Both of them have the ability to integrate with fully automated payment processors. I'm extremely disappointed that this is not something RE can do.
  • Michele Thompson
    Michele Thompson
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes
    I have recently received the following response from BBMS about automatic recurring donations. So there is hope on the horizon!!

    Michele,

    Actually, that is a project we are working on right now! Automatic recurring gifts through RENXT will be available in the first half of 2019. I will definitely make note to follow up with you to discuss more once it is available!

    Liza

    Liza Hood
    Client Account Executive, Payment Services
    Blackbaud, Inc.
    2000 Daniel Island Dr. Charleston, SC 29492
    Phone: 843.654.3141  |  Fax: 843.216.6100
    liza.hood@blackbaud.com  |  blackbaud.com

    Need support fast?  Chat with BBMS Support

    From: Michele Thompson <Michelethompson@rachelhouse.org>
    Sent: Monday, September 17, 2018 11:58 AM
    To: Liza Hood <Liza.Hood@blackbaud.com>
    Subject: RE: Liza from Blackbaud Merchant Services

    Hi Liza,
     
    Thank you for following up. At this time, we are easing our way into recurring donations with BBMS so $30 is a little high for the two constituents we currently have on a recurring schedule. I will definitely keep this information for down the road as we increase our recurring donor base in Blackbaud. Currently we use eGiving who partners with Payment Brands as a processor for our recurring donations. It is automatic, we don’t have to run anything to make the donations process. Do you know if BBMS has any plans in the future for that type of functionality? The positive about eGiving is that the donor can choose any day to create their recurring donation. I realize that is also possible with BBMS/Raiser’s Edge but it would require a staff interaction every day with the batch to make the donations process. Just curious!
     
    Thank you and have a great week!

     

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