How can I email Sustaining Givers whose credit card has expired or expires soon?

Esther Pomeleo-Fowler · July 2008

1) Create a query that queries for sustaining gift**. You can query for cards expiring in the past or in the future.

2) Use that query to build a group that rebuilds at least monthly.

3) Create an Email Campaign that has nothing but that group as the audience.

4) Create a self-copying*** monthly recurring message that sends to that group letting them know that their credit card has expired and offer them a link to update their credit card.

**If you do not have a Field Type of "Sustaining Gifts", contact Convio platform support .

***The Email Message must make a copy otherwise if the same constituent expires twice, s/he will not get the message as s/he has already received it.

For more information on sustaining gifts, see the sustaining gifts FAQ.

Michael · November 2008

I was just about to create a ticket on this... funny coincidence

So... for clarity sake... the actual query would be:

Card Expiration Date 1 Today

Right? Just wanted to clarify since that's sort of cloudy syntax.

Michael · November 2008

Oh, one other thing I thought of as I was looking at this. Probably should also add an additional clause "AND Status equals 2" (that is, they are an Active sustainer). Wouldn't want to pester the folks that have actually canceled their cycle voluntarily and didn't have the common decency to keep their credit card up to date anyway.

Jeana Hollingsworth · December 2008

Good catch!

Jessica Sotelo · March 2009

With the recent winter release, if you've updated your recurring payment settings and are capturing donations through credit cards that have already expired, you likely do not want to email these people anymore.

Has anyone figured out a way to identify the sustaining donors whose credit cards have expired and still are not successfully processing?

Michael · September 2009

Maybe I'm not understanding your question? Is there some difference in the recent release that changes things such that this (below) is no longer true?

Card Expiration Date falls on or before 1 day or days prior to Today

AND Status equals 2

This would give you a set of recurring donors with an Active recurring status but an expired credit card. These are people who have NOT cancelled their donations, but are failing to process due (probably) to out of date credit card information.

Jeana Hollingsworth · September 2009

Michael,

As far as I know, that should still work. If it doesn't, submit a support ticket so we can look into it. The main difference in the recent release (or the one just before it) is that we now have an autoresponder, "Failed Sustaining Payment Notification", in donation forms that could make it so that you no longer have to do all this querying business.

I recently put together a FAQ for sustaining gifts that includes information on that autoresponder, see the sustaining gifts FAQ.

Jessica Sotelo · October 2009

Hello Michael,

With the recently enhanced recurring payment settings, you can set up your system so it retries expired cards. It is possible to continue to get donations from cards that that have already expired. I recommend to speak to your account manager about this and s/he can help you set it up.

Good luck!

Nikki Valentine Odens · October 2009

I am not understanding how you "create a self copying message" I think I understand the logic behind it, but don't know where or how you do this. I created the query, group and message - but where do you create the self copy? Can you please explain more on this?

Thanks!

Jeana Hollingsworth · October 2009

Best I can do is give you instructions on how to do this. You do not have to complete these steps entirely to get a feel of how this works. Hopefully this will help:

1. Create an email campaign and message (if you haven't done so already).

2. Approve the email message (again, if you haven't done so already).

3. From the "Messages" tab, click on "Setup a Recurring Delivery" on the left.

4. Find the email message you want to use and click "Setup".

5. On the first page, fill out #1 and 2 as approriate.

6. Check #3.

7. Follow the on screen prompts to complete the process.

The wording for #3 (in my step 6 above) may be of some help:

"By default, the system will not send the same message twice to anyone in the target audience. However, if your message content is dynamic enough to change at each delivery interval, you can instruct the system to make a copy of the original email and send the copy to the target audience at each interval."

It implies that your content has to be dynamic which is usually true. However, a dynamically generated audience will do as well.

- Jeana

Nikki Valentine Odens · October 2009

Thanks Jeana - I've heard great things about your knowledge!

Ok so I followed your steps, but before I go through with it, I have a couple more questions. Your steps indicate to set the message up for a recurring delievery. Yes I will be sending this email monthly, but the target group should be different (rebuilt - it will be different consitituents with a expired credit card. I guess it means that I need to set group up to rebuild at delivery.

I am asking also because when the group is rebuilt and there are hard bounces it gives me a chance to fix those hard bounces before the message goes out - since the group doesn't include opt outs or hardbounces. What about the failed gift autoresponder - should I turn that off? So they aren't getting two messages?

#2 indicates sending the message weekly or daily - what sould I put if it is once a month?

I feel I am talking in circles. Thank you this is really new to me.

Ericka Greenham · November 2009

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a monthly recurring email to be sent to individuals whose credit card will expire in the next 30 days. This email is intended to be a heads-up to the donor before their card expires and the Failed Sustaining Payment Notification autoresponder is sent.

So far, I've been able to follow Esther's instructions at the top of the page successfully. I get stuck at step #4, however, when trying to set up the monthly recurring delivery. The only delivery intervals I see are "every day," "every weekday," and "every week on ______." Any suggestions?

Note: the criteria for my Expiring Credit Card query are: Status equals 2 AND Card Expiration Date falls on or before 30 day or days beyond today.

How can I email Sustaining Givers whose credit card has expired or expires soon?

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