Policy for Cancellation of Recurring Gift After Multiple Failures

Lisa Whatley
Lisa Whatley
Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions
Hi - Does anyone have a current policy on when to cancel a recurring gift on a credit card after failure to process if there have been multiple attempts to contact the donor with no response?
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Comments

  • Barbara Schlichter
    Barbara Schlichter
    Tenth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1 Loyalty Badge
    Strike three you are out!?
  • Linnea Oddie
    Linnea Oddie
    Fifth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    Echoing what Barbara said!


    I usually do phone call, email, phone call. Now with working remotely, I just do three emails. But if they don't respond within two or three days of the last contact, I update the status of their gift to "Terminated".


    I try to space out the contact by a few days each time, just so that it's not super pushy.
  • Catherine Burns
    Catherine Burns
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi Lisa. For us it depends on the payment method and failed payment reason. For insufficient funds on a credit / debit card we will try the card again at two day intervals for a total of 4 attempts before considering an individual payment failed. For other failed payment reasons we use phone, SMS and email to try to contact the donor and get new details but will leave their gift active while we do so. It is only after 4 payments fail, usually over 4 months, that we will cancel the gift. However for Direct Debits we do not rerun payments within the same month because the donor is charged dishonour fees, and will immediately cancel a gift if the failed payment reasons is "Authority Cancelled" or similar. We also have regular reactivation programmes to try to pick some of the donors back up if they had a good gift history before the failed payments. 
  • Michelle Tribe
    Michelle Tribe
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 2 Participant Facilitator 1
    Hello Lisa:


    At my organization, as we spend a lot of resources in acquiring new recurring gift donors, we don't let them go easily! If they have a phone number and email address on file, after attempting the credit card gift three times, we:
    • Call three times (once every three business days);
    • Email a credit card declined series which includes pictures of animals who are depending on the monthly gift (once every three business days, after the last phone call);
    • A letter signed by a staff person which contains a credit card renewal form and a self-addressed stamped envelope; and finally,
    • A month after the first letter, we send a letter signed by a staff person that says something along the lines of "we tried to reach you, so sad to see you go", informing the donor we have cancelled their gift, along with a credit card renewal form and a self-addressed stamped envelope. 
    If they don't have a phone number on record we start with the emails; if they don't have an email address on record we skip those and go directly from phone calls to the first letter.


    Those donors are then added to a segment called "lapsed PAW donors" and they are added to our telemarketing and direct mail campaigns. 


    I hope this helps!

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