Direct Debit donations made via Online Express have a premature start date

Emma Neslen

Here at the University of Bristol, our current Online Express giving pages inform direct debit donors that their first gift will be taken on 5th (our chosen start day for direct debits), even though it is not possible to set up a direct debit more than 10 days before it is first due to be collected. Is there a way to edit for form so that it defaults to the 5th of the next month if someone tries to set up a gift within this time frame? At the moment it is causing some confusion amongst our donors.


Thanks,


Emma

Philanthropy Officer, University of Bristol

Elizabeth Perron

Hi Emma Neslen‍ 


I've noticed a peer has not answered your question yet and your issue seems to be technical. If you haven't opened a support ticket yet, I encourage you too.


If you still have questions, please scroll to the bottom of this community page to click on customer support. 


Please let me know if this is helpful or if you need something else!


In harmony,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team
https://community.blackbaud.com/community-managers

 

Chris Martin

Hi Emma Neslen‍. I'm not sure how I missed your post. Thank you Elizabeth Perron‍ for your reply because I got a notification of your post.


For others who may come across this thread, this question (and my answer) only apply to organisations using the UK version of RE.


We are actually actively evaluating what you're describing Emma. We're considering taking the value stored in RE > Config > General for No. of advance notice days and having Online Express factor that number of days into its calculation of the date of the first installment...and to present that first date clearly to the donor. If we do this work, it would likely not include any setting or configuration in OLX at all. It would just behave that way automatically for all OLX donation forms for UK customers when donors elect to make a recurring DD gift. 


Would that meet your needs?


Thanks,

Chris Martin

Blackbaud Product Management

Ruth Whiter

Hi Chris Martin , could you please give us an update on this new feature? We are a medium sized charity about to start using Online Express as our main donation form which will mean handling direct debits as well as single gifts. As we've tested the form internally, colleagues both in Finance and in our Funding Team have confirmed that it's unacceptable to tell a new donor that their gift will be taken on one date, when it will actually be taken a month later. Revising the date in a later communication when the donor has already seen ‘date of first gift’ three times during the DD setup is just not acceptable. We're moving to OLX from an older, less user-friendly system, and yet that system could offset DD start dates. It's 18 months since this post, albeit 18 very unusual months - is there any progress on this? (And thanks to Emma Neslen my fellow Bristolian for the question!)

Catherine Burns

Hi Chris. Is there any reason why this is just a UK feature? Here in NZ that would also be useful.

Ruth Whiter

Hi Catherine, thanks for joining this thread. Since posting my question I've been in touch with Blackbaud and they've told me they are not going to pursue the development Chris outlines below. We are finding this quite frustrating as it looks as though a solution was very close. If this is a problem in NZ too, it would be great to hear how you work around it with your supporters.