Best Practices: Single vs. Recurring Gift

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Christopher Barona
Christopher Barona
Ancient Membership Photogenic First Comment Facilitator Level 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Since single and recurring gifts are lumped into the same giving option in OLX donation forms, how have people worked around those inherent limitations? For example, we try to nudge people to giving various amounts during a fiscal year ($250, $500, $1000, etc.). In OLX, they could set up a pledge with those specific amounts in mind with an end date and play with various installment terms. Currently, single gifts and recurring gifts are lumped together. That means I can either display those giving levels for the single gifts (e.g., $1,000), thereby confusing recurring givers, or I can display the levels for recurring gifts (e.g., $85/month), thereby confusing one-time givers... and maybe recurring givers while I'm at it. I could link to a different form for recurring gifts only, but that means more clicks, which always means fewer gifts. Plus, you know... a second giving form and page for every single appeal we run. Complaints about how Blackbaud should program recurring gifts differently aside, what's everyone doing in the meantime?


How do you compromise in your language and presentation between single and recurring gifts on your giving forms?
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  • Adam Davenport
    Adam Davenport
    Eighth Anniversary 25 Likes 10 Comments Photogenic

    Christopher Barona:

    Since single and recurring gifts are lumped into the same giving option in OLX donation forms, how have people worked around those inherent limitations? For example, we try to nudge people to giving various amounts during a fiscal year ($250, $500, $1000, etc.). In OLX, they could set up a pledge with those specific amounts in mind with an end date and play with various installment terms. Currently, single gifts and recurring gifts are lumped together. That means I can either display those giving levels for the single gifts (e.g., $1,000), thereby confusing recurring givers, or I can display the levels for recurring gifts (e.g., $85/month), thereby confusing one-time givers... and maybe recurring givers while I'm at it. I could link to a different form for recurring gifts only, but that means more clicks, which always means fewer gifts. Plus, you know... a second giving form and page for every single appeal we run. Complaints about how Blackbaud should program recurring gifts differently aside, what's everyone doing in the meantime?


    How do you compromise in your language and presentation between single and recurring gifts on your giving forms?

    This is a good question, and I am intetested to know what others are doing.

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Ancient Membership 500 Likes 500 Comments Photogenic
    Single gifts and recurring gifts don't have to be on the same donation form. You can have unlimited forms. On the extras tab you have the option to "Include the recurring gift option" and you have the ability to disable the single gift options. If you had say two donation pages, one for your single gifts you could build your suggested gift amounts around that, and one for your recurring gifts you could then decrease the amounts to reflect monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually likely amounts for your organization. We don't find that lumping them together is an issue. So I don't have separate language but we do allow other gifts amount - also a choice on that page.


    Hope this helps :)

    Elizabeth
  • Christopher Barona
    Christopher Barona
    Ancient Membership Photogenic First Comment Facilitator Level 1
    I know we can have as many forms as we want, that's kind of the problem. As I mentioned in my original post, that doubles the work (okay, more like 1.5x-1.75x, since you could duplicate the language and formatting of a given form...). We make and send out lots of forms for our different appeals. Some for alumni, some for retirement events, some for special campaigns, some because it's time for one of our major biannual appeals, etc. Each new form has to be designed and reviewed separately, plus requires its own unique landing page on our website. Do you market your recurring gifts separately? Do you use two separate donate buttons, or do you have a single donate button in your emails with a separate link on its landing page to a different form? It may seem silly, but I know how easy it is to lose potential donors because the giving format is unclear/confusing.

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