When a donor contributes on the Donor Page, they can set up their donation to be on a monthly basis.
In Method, this will be known as a Recurring Donation Plan, and when you view a recurring donation in Method, you will see the title Monthly Donation, as well as a link beside the donor called Recurring Plan as shown in the image below:
Clicking Recurring Plan will take you to the Recurring Donation Plan page, where you can view, edit and cancel the plan.
NOTE: Once you cancel a recurring donation plan, you cannot reactivate it. A cancellation is permanent. Make sure you really want to cancel a recurring donation before doing so.
Viewing all Recurring Plans
When viewing the list of donations, you will notice a Recurring Plans tab at the top of the grid:
Selecting this tab will take you to a list of all the recurring donations plans you currently have. You can filter between active plans in and inactive plans. Selecting a plan in the grid will allow you to view and edit that plan.
Editing a Recurring Plan
The Recurring Donation Plan will hold all the information of a regular donation, however, you will also have information on the frequency of the plan.
Active / Inactive - In the header, a green dot indicates the current plan is currently Active. Once the plan ends, or you cancel the recurring donation, this will change to a grey dot and text will state it is Inactive.
Frequency - How often the donation recurs. Currently, you can only have a monthly plan.
Last Donation - when the last donation occurred.
Next Donation - when the next donation will occur.
Start Date - when the donation plan started.
End Date (Optional) - when the recurring plan will end. When the recurring plan ends, it will automatically become inactive.
Payment Error Handling
If payment fails to collect
If the payment fails to collect for a recurring donation, the assign to will be notified with an activity and the application will retry the payment automatically the next day. Once the donation is successful, the next donation date will reset to the next future donation date.
When payment method expires
When a recurring donation’s payment method expires, the assigned to will receive an activity informing them of the expiry so they can reach back out to reinstate the recurring donation. Once the card has expired, the Recurring Donation will be automatically set to inactive.
Cancelling a Recurring Plan
To cancel a recurring plan, click the Cancel Recurring Donation button.
A warning will pop warning you that this cannot be undone:
Once cancelled, the button will turn grey and say Inactive.
Recurring Donation FAQ
Question: How do I create a recurring donation?
Answer: Creating a recurring donation needs to be done from the Donor Page, and will be initiated by the donor themselves.
Question: Can I enter in a recurring donation in the Donations App?
Answer: No. The only place to set up a recurring donation plan is from the Donor Page.
Question: Where do I set up recurring donations?
Answer: This is configured in the Donor Pages Setup under Accept Donations. You will find it under donation frequency.
Question: Why doesn't the recurring donation option show on my Donor Page? I set it up properly in the Donor Pages Setup.
Answer: If you have customized your Donor Page screen based off an old screen before recurring donations was released, your donors will not see the option to donate on a monthly basis.Why? When Method pushes new updates to screens, it will not overwrite screens that are customized to make sure nothing is overwritten.
You will need to create a new copy of the original Donate Now screen and recreate your customizations off of that.