Hi we are just starting up a renewal program to have our donors give a monthly gift that we would charge there credit card once a month. Is there any one out there that has set this up already and how do you make it work? Any help would be great. Also How do you track these gift? Thank you Debbie Drummond Hanna Boys Center Database Manager [Email Removed] 707 933-2540

We use the action notes to let us know when there is a gift to be processed on a recurring basis.

I highly recommend the EFT module for this. Each month it has a program that you run which automatically pulls all payments needing to be run into a batch. It is really nice. The only problem with actions is that RE has not yet invented a recurring action. You can get a prompt after marking an action complete as to whether or not to create a follow up action but I don't think that is as good as a recurring action. Melissa S. Graves Manager, Development Database & Direct Mail Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

We currently have this type of program, but it has only been promoted at higher donor levels. So, the number of people participating in monthly giving is relatively small right now. I charge these gifts once a month after we are officially in the new month. For example, this month I charged the gifts on 2/6/06 because the data entry staff was didn't finish entering all the January gifts until the 5th. Keeping charges for different months separate is something our finance office has asked us to do.

1. I run a recurring gift report that I have set up (it's an activity report). I use the report for backup and to have something to enter for projected totals in the batch setup.
2. I have a recurring gift template in Batch. So, I create a new batch in RE, pull in the fields from my recurring gift template and go to data entry.
3. We have EFT, so I download the transactions/payments for the current month.
4. I compare the records in my batch with my recurring gift report and investigate any discrepancies.
5. Then I enter all the letter codes for the gifts. (Currently, we are sending out thank you letters for all gifts over $100, however, I am trying to get them to change this for the monthly donors and instead send an initial thank you and then a yearly one with their tax-deductible total for the year.)
6. I committ the batch.

We set up the monthly donations as either Recurring gifts or pledges. We use recurring gift, if it is for ongoing support. We use pledge if it is for a set amount for a program to be fulfilled in a specific amount of time. For both gift types, we make sure that we mark the EFT box, so we can download the payments. For the pledge ones, we make sure to unmark the send reminders box, so they won't get sent any of those. Also, I have a report that I run every month to look ahead and find anyone with a credit card that is expiring in the next three months and who also has an outstanding recurring gift or automatic charge pledge. I don't usually find anyone, but when I do, we request updated credit card info. Having the report look out into the future is helpful so you don't find these people as you're trying to charge the batch.

If you have any questions or want any additional information, please let me know.

Elisabeth McMillon
Database Administrator
The Oregon Zoo Foundation
[Email Removed]

We have a small number of monthly payments and we don't have the EFT or online credit authorization so I have all of my monthly payments setup as an outlook appointment - this automatically reminds me each month and then I just print it, run the cards and then enter the payments in Raisers Edge. I wouldn't suggest doing this for large numbers, but if you're a small org without a ton of them it'll do. Laurel Laurel Quaintance Friends of Bassett Manager,Fund Development Services Cooperstown, NY 13326 [Email Removed] 'please forgive my typing mistakes!'

We also use the Recurring Gift for both our credit card and direct debit transactions in Raiser's Edge. We setup a Recurring gift type on a donor's record if they sign up to our monthly giving program. Every month, our gift processing person extract the gifts through Batch. We have more than 1500 participants in our monthly-giving program. These are mainly on the annual giving level. We do not have the EFT module but we have a program from our bank where we can post the payments.
Rose Benavidez
Database Management Analyst
Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation of Toronto
[Email Removed]

Hi Debbie, I would have to agree with the woman from the zoo. Set each gift up as a recurring gift and "schedule" the gifts according to how frequently the donor would like to be charged (weekly, semi-weekly, monthly, etc.). There is a standard report (go to Financial reports/activity reports. Open and select only Recurring Gift) for you to review on a weekly or monthly basis to charge the donor. Another easy way to keep track of who to charge is by setting up a GIFT query, selection criteria is "gift type = recurring, and "gift next transaction date = this week (or month, or how frequently you are charging these donors). That way, weekly/monthly, you can pull the constituents name, CC number, cc expire date, cc type, recurring gift installment amount, date to charge. I pull this weekly, since donors are on different monthly cycles. After charging their cards, you go into each record and add a new gift -- RE will function very similarly as pledges and fill in the gift record for you with all relevant info. It is really an easy function to follow and keep up with. We did have an issue where recurring gift donors were accidentally sent a pledge reminder (they were telemarketing donations and our outsourced company made a mistake) and people sent us checks for their payment amount. You can add their gift and "skip next transaction" of the recurring gift if needed. There is a knowledgebase solution for this if you run into trouble. Lastly, if it is a large group and you don't want to have to process each payment in RE separately, you can set up a BATCH for recurring gifts only. That way, on a monthly basis you could just re-commit the batch instead of typing each gift in. Makes it much easier for your gift processors. Hope this helps. Thanks.

We used to use recurring gifts, but then we switched to pledges because recurring gifts are hard to project for financial reports and pledges are easier...and we are happy with that system. We enter the pledge as a yearly amount, with a monthly pledge payment schedule, and mark the gift as EFT. We then run the batch monthly, and it is as smooth as butter and accurately projects yearly revenue for board reports, etc. Kate Villa Director of Development Vermont Youth Conservation Corps

We have had a monthly giving program for several years, both check and credit card payers, and we have recently started creating Recurring Gifts for those donors. One thing I learned the hard way -- the recurring gift is not a gift, more like a gift template. If you take the donor's last gift and convert it to a recurring gift, it doesn't work so well! For the credit cards, we set them up with a recurring gift, due the same day each month. Once per month our accounting department processes these charges, and gives the report to Development. Development then opens the recurring gift batch, makes any necessary changes, additions, or deletions, and then commits the batch. Our other "monthly" donors are set up according to however often they want to give.

We use pledges and not recurring gifts because the Cash Flow projection reports are very important to our Finance department. Recurring Gifts can be stopped at anytime and are not counted in cash flow projections because there is no 'total value' like a pledge has. Laurel Quaintance Friends of Bassett Manager,Fund Development Services Cooperstown, NY 13326 [Email Removed] 'please forgive my typing mistakes!'

That's why we do not use pledges to count our recurring gifts, for the very reason that they can be stopped at any time. I know that the same argument can be made for pledges, but when I had this argument with one of my campuses, it was the same reason that came up. You should not "count" on that money coming in simply because the donor can stop the payment at any time, therefore it is not a pledge. Each recurring gift pay-cash should be looked at as a new cash gift, NOT a pay-cash like on a pledge. For example, instead of using a credit card, the constituent sets up a bill pay with their bank to send us a check every month for $100. This would be entered as a cash gift every month, with no recurring on it because we are not doing the recurring portion. And we would not enter a pledge for $1200 because at any time the constituent can call the bank and say don't send any more checks to them. Just my two and a half cents. There is a big difference in how pledges and recurring's should be looked at. Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed]

I absolutely agree with Doug. We do CC monthly donations as recurring becuase the CC can be declined or expire, etc, and it is OUR responsibility to ensure payment is made - meaing, we are responsible for charging the card internally. Monthly checks are cash gifts. Pledges are signed documents promising to pay a certain amount of money in a specific period of time -- i.e. making a million dollar pledge over 5 years. The donor could have us Write Off their gift under certain circumstances, but usually when they sign a document and we bill them, they pay up (even if it isn't on schedule).

Sorry if I misled anyone - The system I use is for monthly payments on pledges only - we have a ton of multi-year pledges. We do also have a few recurring gifts - but these are CASH gifts on a monthly basis. I use the same manual reminder for both in outlook since we don't have EFT or online credit card abilities.I use recurring Batches to house all of these transactions so I don't have to manually re-enter them every month. Better? Laurel Quaintance Friends of Bassett Manager,Fund Development Services Cooperstown, NY 13326 [Email Removed] 'please forgive my typing mistakes!'