Guide to recurring donations

Recurring donation statuses

Recurring Giving Plans in GoFundMe Pro can have one of the following statuses:

Attempted

This status appears when a supporter tries to set up a recurring giving plan, but their first donation fails to process. To fix the issue, we recommend reaching out to the supporter and having them double-check the payment information they entered.

An Attempted status will remain if a supporter does not try to set up the recurring plan after the first failed donation. In this case, the plan cannot be updated to Canceled because it was never successfully processed.

Active

This means the recurring donation is active and will continue to process. If you’re the admin of an organization that uses GoFundMe Pro, you can edit the recurring donation including when it processes. Learn how to edit a recurring donation as an admin.

If you are a supporter of an organization you can also edit the payment details or cancel your recurring donation. Learn how to edit a recurring donation as a supporter. To change the date that your recurring donation processes, contact the organization.

Failing

This means the last transaction was unsuccessful. To learn more, select the recurring giving plan and select See Decline Details. We also recommend reaching out to the supporter. Oftentimes, a supporter simply forgets to update their credit card information or billing address, which results in a failed transaction. 

A plan is moved from Failing to Active status when it is updated, or a reprocess is successful.

Suspended

This means the last three transactions were not successful. GoFundMe Pro will no longer attempt the recurring donation. We suggest reaching out to the supporter and having them double-check their payment information (oftentimes, their card simply expired and they forgot to update the information). You may also offer some encouragement and share how their recurring donations make an impact.

Once the payment method is updated, GoFundMe Pro will attempt transactions again. If successful, the plan will return to Active status.

Canceled

This means you or the supporter canceled the recurring giving plan. GoFundMe Pro will no longer attempt the recurring donation. We recommend thanking the supporter for their recurring gifts and reminding them that they can set up a new plan in the future.

Ended

This means the recurring donation has passed the end date you or the donor set. GoFundMe Pro will no longer attempt the recurring donation. We recommend thanking the supporter for their recurring gifts and reminding them that they can set up a new plan in the future.

What happens when a recurring donation fails

When a recurring donation fails, GoFundMe Pro will update the status of the plan and attempt the next transactions in the plan a total of three times before suspending it. The supporter will also receive an email notification. You can turn off or edit this email message in your campaign's email dashboard. Learn more about GoFundMe Pro's automated emails.

Recurring giving plans sometimes fail because the card on file expires or bank fraud protections refuse the charge. When a plan fails, GoFundMe Pro will update the status of the plan and attempt the next three scheduled donations before placing it in a Suspended status. A suspended plan can be reactivated by updating the credit card information or billing address on file.

View the status or history of a recurring giving plan

1. In your GoFundMe Pro account, select Transactions and Recurring Giving Plans
2. Select the plan you want to view
3. Scroll down to Activity and select the Updates tab

You'll find a list of all actions taken for this recurring plan.

View decline reasons

You can also see why a recurring donation was declined. To do so, select the plan, and under the Transactions activity, select See decline details next to an unsuccessful transaction to get more information.

Reprocess a recurring giving plan

For unsuccessful transactions in a plan, GoFundMe Pro automatically re-attempts the next three scheduled transactions on the plan's usual processing date. Instead of waiting for GoFundMe Pro, you can reprocess the failed transaction yourself. To do so:

1. Review the decline reason for the unsuccessful transaction
2. Update the plan's billing information. This can be completed by an admin or the supporter.
3. Next to the Recurring Giving Plan, select Reprocess

If the reprocess is successful, you'll see a success notification and the new successful reprocess transaction added to the activity table shortly after. However, if this new attempt also fails, you can select See Decline Details next to the newly added unsuccessful transaction to learn why. Once resolved, select Reprocess again to reattempt the transaction.

Understanding recurring terminology

Recurring giving plan

When a generous individual selects to submit a ‘recurring’ gift (as opposed to one-time), a recurring giving plan is created for them. This recurring giving plan is defined with a unique Recurring ID that can be found within reporting. It is possible for an individual to have multiple recurring giving plans at the same time.

Through GoFundMe Pro, organizations can change the campaign where a recurring giving plan is credited to. This can be a specific campaign, an individual fundraising page, or a fundraising team page. Moving where a recurring giving plan is credited will affect all donations in the future.

A recurring giving plan can have one of many statuses tied to it to reflect the current state it is in. The status will help determine what (if any) action needs to be taken on a recurring giving plan.

Recurring donor

GoFundMe Pro defines the recurring donor as the individual who is making the gift. This recurring donor is related to a specific supporter in the supporters section of the GoFundMe Pro. If a supporter has a current or past recurring giving plan, the supporter is considered to be a recurring donor.

As GoFundMe Pro considers each unique email address that interacts with it to be a unique individual, the email address that the recurring donor enters at the time of creating a new recurring giving plan will determine if the plan is designated to an existing supporter (the email address was already connected to a supporter) or create a new supporter record (the email address was not already connected to a supporter).

The recurring donor will log in to their member profile to manage their recurring giving plan. Within this section, they can update their payment information.

Recurring donation

Recurring donations are best thought of as the individual transactions that have been made as part of a recurring giving plan. These will manifest as individual transaction records within your transactions report. Within the transactions report, one may filter by the property ‘recurring plan ID’ and set the operator to ‘is not blank’ to view an exhaustive list of all recurring donations given to your organization.

Admins may re-credit specific recurring donations to a different campaign, individual fundraising page, or fundraising team page through the transaction profile. All recurring donations that are a part of a recurring giving plan need not be credited to the same location.

Frequently asked questions

How many times can I reattempt a transaction?

You can attempt to reprocess a transaction three times. After that, the plan will be placed in a Suspended status.

OK. I attempted to reprocess a transaction three times, but I updated the billing information and think it will work now. Can I try again?

In this case, we recommend you update the Next Process Date for the recurring giving plan. When the date passes and if the transaction is successful, it will process and update into an Active status. To find and edit the Next Processing Date, select the Recurring Giving Plan ID number.

There are multiple failed transactions on one plan. Can I reprocess all of them?

Yes, you can reprocess each failed transaction. However, you'll need to select Reprocess for each failed transaction.

Why can't I reprocess a failed transaction?

There are a few reasons why Reprocess may be deactivated:

1. The recurring giving plan needs to process successfully at least once before you can attempt to process it again.
2. You, or a member of your team, may have attempted to reprocess the transaction 3 times already. In this case, look to the FAQ above for another solution.

Can a donor convert their one-time donation into a recurring plan?

No, donors who have already submitted a one-time donation will need to create a new recurring donation to start the recurring plan.

What happens to recurring plans when a campaign is unpublished or deleted?

Recurring giving plans will remain active after a campaign is unpublished or deleted. The plans can continue to process, or you can move them to another campaign.

How many times does GoFundMe Pro process a Failing plan?

The plan is processed only on each processing date that corresponds to its frequency (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).

I use Salesforce integration. When will the recurring plans show in my Salesforce org?

With Salesforce integration setup in your GoFundMe Pro account, recurring plans will sync to Salesforce as GoFundMe Pro Recurring Donor records after the first successful transaction in the plan has synced from GoFundMe Pro. If the plan does not appear in Salesforce, be sure to check the status of the transactions associated with the plan in your GoFundMe Pro account. 

If you use NPSP Recurring Donation records and want the recurring plans from GoFundMe Pro to sync to these NPSP records, be sure to install the GoFundMe Pro NPSP extension and activate the "Create & Update NPSP Recurring Donations" setting in the GoFundMe Pro Control Panel settings.