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Automatic Monthly Donations (credit card/ checking account)

Last post 05-01-2009 11:43 AM by JoAnn Strommen. 4 replies.
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  • 07-01-2008 2:36 PM

    • Laura Dickerson
    • Top 500 Contributor
    • Posts 19
    • Organization: Community Food Bank of Tucson
    • Products:  The Raiser's Edge

    Automatic Monthly Donations (credit card/ checking account)

    Our organization has recently begun accepting automatic monthly donations from people (via credit card or check). It's gotten to the point where we have about 150 people a month.

     

    The problem? it's not actually automatic. We have our website set up so all we need to do is create  a profile for each person and each month all we need to do is type in a password and amount. However with 150 people a month it is getting to be too big a job.We're starting to have more errors and problems. I know this is not technically a RE question, but I was wondering if any of you have automatic monthly donations and what software you use or do you outsource and how much does that cost? Also is there any way to pull a list of monthly donors in RE and just re-use that every month for the gift entry. Or are we stuck typing in the same names and credit card info from month to month?

     

    Thanks so much. 

    Laura Dickerson
    Stewardship Assistant
  • 07-01-2008 2:42 PM In reply to

    Re: Automatic Monthly Donations (credit card/ checking account)

    Absolutely - that is exactly what the recurring gift type is.  You set it up for the amount they pay and the frequency (i.e.monthly/quarterly). 

    With the RE:EFT module you can then go to a blank batch and hit a few buttons and "voila!" the entire batch of 150 outstanding recurring gifts (and pledge payments too if you want them) populates in batch.  You also can (if you have IATS or ICVerify for CC processing) click a button to run all of the cards.  Once everything is run and validated you then committ the batch.

    Melissa S. Graves
    Annual Fund Development Services Manager
    Pathfinder International
    Filed under: , ,
  • 07-03-2008 4:03 PM In reply to

    • Tracie Cassidy
    • Top 10 Contributor
    • User Since: 2002
    • Posts 655
    • Organization: Children's Hospital Foundation
    • Products:  The Raiser's Edge

    Re: Automatic Monthly Donations (credit card/ checking account)

    Laura - Have you tried a recurring gift batch? There's a check box on the first tab of the batch called "Batch is recurring" - I believe this is what our gift processors use for our monthly giving donors. You just change the gift date each month (using "Global Change") under Tools. It will save you a ton of time!

    Tracie J. Cassidy
    Database Coordinator
    Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation
    Seattle, WA
  • 05-01-2009 9:55 AM In reply to

    Question about EFT

    Hi there,

    I'm "throwing this out to you" regarding EFT because it really seems like you have your "stuff" together and I'm hoping you  may have some insight into how it gets set up properly. We are finally looking at setting up EFT in RE but I am trying to understand how during the initial set up of the EFT module, does the Donor come into the office with Photo ID to sign anything stating the length of time, schedule of giving and donor amount or is it done electronically by maybe having them fill a form out?

    Where does the credit card sit if we shouldn't keep them on the system? Can we "access" the credit card when there are changes to the number and/or expiry date?

    Do you know anyone who uses Chase Payment that would be willing to speak with me?

    Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

    thanks so much

    Filed under:
  • 05-01-2009 11:43 AM In reply to

    • JoAnn Strommen
    • Top 10 Contributor
    • User Since: 2006
    • Posts 1,260
    • Organization: Rapid City YMCA
    • Products:  The Raiser's Edge

    Re: Question about EFT

    We use an "Authorization for Automatic Donation Payment" form that we created.  In addition to the bio info, donor indicates amount of pledge/gift, installment amount, installment frequency and start date.  They then choose either EFT via direct debit and provide bank info required or credit card and provide credit card info required.  Statement as to accuracy of info they provided and agreement to the printed statement authorizing us to initiate the charges, cancellation procedure, etc... is done with signature and date.  As most of our campaign solicitions are in person, we made a two-part form so donor can keep a copy for their records. 

    New or changed credit card # can be entered at any point needed.  For long term pledges, expiration dates can be an issue.  There probably is a great solution out there.  Right now, if the card expires before the pledge will be paid, I've got an action to send them a request for new expiration date.

    The credit card # is entered in RE.  When looking at the record, for most users, number appears as XXXX with only last four digits. (System admin at this point can see entire #.)  RE 7.91 should address compliance to new regulations for storage of # in software.  I'm waiting to hear from our business office regarding compliance with new regs on hard copy of the form. 

    JoAnn Strommen
    YMCA of Rapid City
    Rapid City, SD
    Filed under: ,
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