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Automatic Recurring Payments NXT & Membership Renewals

Leslee Camardo

I am looking for input from other organizations that has NXT, uses the automatic recurring gift option , but processes all gifts in database view. We do not use WebView forms. We use OLX forms and then I convert the gift to recur automatically in WebView.

(I do understand that I can do the "automatically generate transaction…" in Database View, but it's important to me that we are consistent in the communications with our members about when they'll be charged.)

We are a membership company. Nearly every gift I process is for a 1 year membership that renews annually. We're trying to keep up with modern times and have payments automatically charge annually to renew memberships.

The problem is, you have to approve the WebView batch to get it into Database View, but it automatically commits the batch before I can renew memberships, change the fund/ appeal/ letter code.

At this time, I am going into each constituent to update the membership dates, which is working for now, but I am wondering if there is an organization out there that is doing memberships better that I can learn from.

Every time I call BB, I get a different answer and today I was told they can't recommend any best practices to me. I am open to learning about how any membership-driven organization utilizes RE or NXT to be successful with recurring giving.

If there is any organizations out there that is using WebView, WebView Automatic Recurring giving WITH membership renewals that have expiration dates, I would appreciate any time or information you could share regarding your best practices and what has helped you have more success processing recurring MEMBERSHIP gifts.

Thank you

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Comments

Crystal Bruce

@Leslee Camardo discussion moved to Raiser's Edge NXT® community. Thanks!

Sarah White

@Leslee Camardo
Hi Leslee, did you ever get any feedback on your question or find any solutions? Almost all of our organization's recurring gifts are membership related, so while I'd love to convert them to automated renewals, your post definitely gives me pause. It seems like the time saved by automating the renewals would be offset by having to manually go into each record and update the membership info. Would love to hear if anyone has any suggestions!

Beverly Porzelt

@Leslee Camardo
Hi Leslee,

We have NXT but still process all of our batches in database view. We are primarily a membership organization and use only the OLX forms. We have not converted our recurring gifts because we are small and still want to run them on or close to the 15th of the month. We do try to set them up on the 15th when starting the schedule, for that day when we might convert. On our forms, confirmation, and thank you emails, etc we state we will run on the 15th or first business day after.

After committing a batch, we’ve been using a query to catch any membership payments that we may not have linked to a membership renewal, just as standard practice. It’s a gift query that asks the batch number, and selects recurring gift pay-cash and the fund ID. Then we link any gifts we missed, and if the batch is not posted one could still change the appeal, fund, etc. Maybe that is what you are already doing, but if not, it might make it easier.

Beverly

Leslee Camardo

@Sarah White
I have a work around process right now. Blackbaud is not prioritizing those of us who use memberships. I do have to pull a query with everyone who recurs and renew their membership manually within their record. It's annoying… BB doesn't even plan to review memberships until 2025 and I was told its probably going to be a third party software they partner with.

I am looking into changing how our organization does everything to be able to capture recurring gifts without using the membership tab. We will still tell donors they are members, but our reporting and internal processes will have to change.

I hope this makes sense. Let me know if you want me to tell you what my current work around process is.

Sarah White

@Leslee Camardo
Thank you, this is incredibly helpful and I really appreciate your sharing your experience with this! I think we'll definitely hold off on converting to the automated recurring gifts based on your feedback. It really sounds like it would create more work for us vs our current practice. Converting to not using the membership tab was actually something we've discussed here as well - it's too bad that the current system is so lacking here that that becomes a potential viable workaround. Hopefully this moves up on their priority list, though I can't say that I'm terribly optimistic.

Beverly Porzelt

@Leslee Camardo
I am interested in your workaround. The future of membership processing is of great interest to us, we've been using BB for membership for 15 years now, used to be 95% of our usage and still is a necessity for us.

When you are both talking about using the membership tab, are you referring to the option on the batch process setup? Recently we've been using it sometimes, and using the link to membership button at the top frequently as we are processing donations and payments also at this point.

Have you ever setup your recurring gifts and tied it to the membership schedule at set up? I know one can, tried once unsuccessfully.

Thank you!