RENXT Recurring Gift Functionality - pros and cons

Kari Burnside

My organization is exploring the possibility and pros and cons of utilizing the recurring gift functionality on Raiser's Edge with the goal of better managing and reporting on our recurring gifts. We are not currently using the recurring gift functionality, and our recurring gifts are currently marked with a cash gift type and with a gift subtype of "recurring".  We use attributes/custom fields to track a sustainers status, frequency, amount and other key recurring gift values. We have explored utilizing recurring gift functionality at various times in the past and each time we have decided not to.  I'd love to hear from or speak with anyone who is using the recurring gift functionality successfully to manage their recurring gifts — I'd specifically like to hear the pros and cons of using this functionality. Or if you do not use the recurring gift functionality, I love to hear what features you use to successfully manage your recurring gifts.

Thanks for any advice and guidance.

Carlene Johnson

Assuming you are talking about using the Automated Recurring Gift functionality where a donor signs up online, securely provides their credit card info, and then the gifts process on the schedule they select on the form, there are virtually no down sides. It is amazing!

If you are talking about recurring gifts that are processed through a 3rd party platform or through mechanisms such as employee payroll deduction then there is more to think about.

Could you clarify how your recurring gift program currently works? How are gifts solicited, charged, processed, etc.… ?

JoAnn Strommen

I would definitely use the recurring gift type functionality. So much cleaner regardless if you have it automated or a recurring batch. Are you looking at using in db view for the next year or jumping to web view for implementation? Why have you opted not to use it? What were your issues?

@Carlene Johnson raised some valid questions to help understand your specific questions. The word 'recurring' can be defined in different ways.

Sunshine Reinken Watson

The recurring gift functionality is using the system as intended and will work well for you. Like others have mentioned, it may not be the best solution for third party recurring gifts that can be less reliable. I would also warn against using it for employee payroll giving if you have a large number of staff donors. I found it makes the monthly payroll giving batch a bit too complicated in that scenario (I was processing 500+ payroll gifts a month). If they give via credit card, you can automate the transactions, and it works great.

Kari Burnside

@Carlene Johnson and @JoAnn Strommen, thanks for your responses! We are an advocacy organization and we use Engaging Network for our eCRM. All online donations are processed through Engaging Network, including monthly and annual recurring gifts. We also have some monthly EFT gifts processed through a 3rd party vendor. So we don't use Blackbaud Merchant Services. Our recurring gifts are imported into RE and coded as a "Cash" gift type and "Recurring" gift subtype. We don't currently use the recurring gift template with a gift type of "Recurring Gift." This is what we are exploring but now I also want to look into the automated recurring gift functions. I don't know all the reason that we haven't used this functionality — I think there were concerns about managing the recurring gift templates and the lack of ease in editing subsequent gifts.

Are you both using the Automated Recurring Gift functionality on NXT? Thanks for any recommendations.

JoAnn Strommen

We don't post the original recurring gift entry, just hte recurring gift-pay records, so editing is not an issue. I can update C/F/A etc as/if needed.

We also are not currently using BBMS. Our gifts are brought in as recurring gift type. Right now this is a bit more manual than it needs to be - moving forward on our entire import process. It's nice as C/F/A and other gift details will all auto fill. When importing or adding manually, it's just a matter of telling RE to apply to recurring gift.

Kimberly Harris

We use the NXT recurring gift functionality for BBMS processed recurring gifts and it functions well. We recently moved from Luminate Online forms to the NXT web form options and they are functioning well, although I hope the functionality for Tribute acknowledgment to the the one honoured to go automatically comes on line soon. For third party recurring gifts, we do not have many by comparison to our online donations. I set up the recurring gift in the record and then manually batch the payments so they get applied to the recurring gift properly. It works well for the volume we have. The time to manipulate/enhance the 3rd party data so I can use the import function to match the recurring gift payments to the recurring gift is about the same as a quick manual batch process so I've stuck with that for now. I do have experience with Engaging Networks as a fundraising and communications platform at a prior organization and they are a solid partner. We imported the gifts from EN using the JMG Solutions Super Importer Exporter. We used pledges rather than recurring gifts there, and the payments did get applied appropriately during the import. I am not affiliated with JMG, but know them well through extensive use of the Super Importer Exporter.

Heather Jewell

We use recurring gift records, and I think it allows you a much easier way to understand the monthly gift commitments. We know with certainty when someone signed up as a monthly donor, any missed payments, when the commitment is cancelled, if they make a new monthly commitment, etc., all without having to use logic outside of RE. This means that it's easy to identify donors who need an expired credit card follow up or who to add to a reactivation campaign.

Our offline-acquired donors are processed through BBMS and online-acquired through Luminate Online (imported with Omatic). If they give through a third party, like CanadaHelps, we do not mark them as monthly, but I have dreams to!

We have ~15k monthly donors right now, but have been using recurring gift records for the last 20 years.