How Do I Modify a Recurring Gift?

There's no doubt that maintaining relationships with your recurring donors is important. But sometimes, changes have to be made to their recurring gifts. The good news is that you can make changes to their recurring gifts without having to cancel them or retrieve the necessary credit card information to create a new one.

Table of Contents

1. Changing the Recurring Gift Amount for Gifts NOT Made through Virtuous Giving
2. Changing the Recurring Gift Amount for Gifts Made through Virtuous Giving
3. Changing the Frequency 
4. Changing the Next Expected Payment Date 
5. Canceling a Recurring Gift

To begin making any of the following modifications to a recurring gift:

1. Go to the donor's Contact record.
2. Click on the Giving tab in their record.
3. On the right-hand side of the screen, under "Recurring Gifts," you'll see the recurring gift. Next to that gift, click the three dots and then Edit.

Changing the Recurring Gift Amount for Gifts NOT Made through Virtuous Giving

In the Amount field, you can edit the amount this donor will contribute monthly.

If your gift includes project designations, you'll need to update the Project Split Amounts to ensure that the total amount designated equals the new recurring gift amount.

Next, click “Save Recurring Gift.”

After the change is made, the recurring gift payments schedule from that point on will reflect the new expected amount. 

Changing the Recurring Gift Amount for Gifts Made through Virtuous Giving

If a recurring gift was made through Virtuous Giving, you’ll be able to identify it by looking for the Virtuous logo:

In the Base Amount field, you can edit the amount this donor will contribute monthly.

If a donor has opted to cover the transaction costs, you'll see that the Cover Costs checkbox is checked. Virtuous will calculate the costs and display that value. When you modify the Base Amount, you'll see the Costs recalculate accordingly.

Be sure to update the Project Split Amounts to ensure that the total amount designated equals the new recurring gift amount.

After making this change, a communication will be sent to the donor letting them know that their card will be charged this new amount moving forward. 

Additionally, after the change is made, the recurring gift payments schedule from that point on will reflect the new expected amount.

Changing the Frequency

In Frequency, you can change how frequently the gift is made (weekly, bimonthly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually, annually, or biennially).

Click the dropdown and select how frequently you want this recurring gift to be made.

Changing the Next Expected Payment Date

By changing the Next Payment Date field, you can change the schedule in which recurring donations are made. In turn, the schedule will follow based on this new next expected payment date. 

Note: This will NOT change your history of past expected payments; you will need to forgive those payments (you will have the option to select all of those payments to forgive, as well). In addition, if you have the Virtuous Giving integration, these changes will carry through and modify the transaction schedule. 

Notice in the above example that while the next payment is expected 11/23/2021, the past due expected payment dates reflect the original schedule (the 20th of every month).

In addition, you have the ability to check the box next to "Forgive All Past Due Payments" if you would like to forgive those payments in bulk.

Canceling a Recurring Gift 

You can also cancel a Recurring Gift on a donor's behalf, if necessary.

NOTE: Canceling a Recurring Gift can ONLY be completed from the Recurring Tab in available in the Online Giving Dashboard. Canceling a Recurring Gift from a Donor's Contact record will NOT cancel the Stripe auto withdrawal. 

After confirming the cancelation, you can expect the cancelation to come through the Gift and Contact Import Tool the next day. After this change in imported, then the cancelation will reflect on the Donors contact record.