Create a Recurring Donation

Create an Open-Ended Recurring Donation

Open Recurring Donations are when a donor agrees to donate for an indefinite amount of time.

In this example, a new monthly donor, Vera Reinhold, wants to donate $50 each month by check. She responded to a fundraising solicitation on April 5th, 2020, and will send a check by the 10th of each month.

You can create a Vera Reinhold Contact, or use any existing Contact you'd like for this exercise.

1. Click the Recurring Donations tab.

2. Click New.

3. Enter this information:

   1. Donor Type = Contact

   2. Contact = Vera Reinhold

   3. Date Established = 4/5/2020

   4. Amount = $50

   5. Recurring Type = Open

   6. Day of Month = 15

   7. Payment Method = Check

   8. Recurring Period = Monthly

   9. Effective Date = 4/5/2020

4. Leave all other fields blank or with their default value.

5. Click Save.

The new Recurring Donation is now ready to track each monthly donation. NPSP auto-generates one open installment Opportunity for you at a time. If Vera's your donor, when you receive her check, simply close the open Opportunity. When you close the Opportunity, NPSP generates the next open Opportunity.

Note Your administrator can change the Opportunity auto-creation behavior by going to NPSP Settings | Recurring Donations | Recurring Donations and changing the Installment Opportunity Auto-Creation setting. The default behavior is to always create new installment Opportunities.

Create a Fixed-Length Recurring Donation

Fixed Recurring Donations are Recurring Donations where the donor agrees to donate for a specific number of installments.

In this example, a new donor, Ron Morimura, wants to donate $1250 each quarter (every 3 months) for one year starting on 4/15/2020. He signed up for this Recurring Donation at a fundraising gala on December 10th 2019 and wants to pay using bank transfers.

You can create a Ron Morimura Contact, or use any existing Contact you'd like for this exercise.

1. Click the Recurring Donations tab.

2. Click New.

3. Enter this information.

   1. Donor Type = Contact

   2. Contact = Ron Morimura

   3. Date Established = 12/10/2019

   4. Amount = $1250

   5. Recurring Type = Fixed

   6. Number of Planned Installments = 4

   7. Recurring Period = Advanced

   8. Every = 3

   9. Installment Period = Months

   10. Day of Month = 15

   11. Effective Date = 4/15/2020

   12. Payment Method = ACH

4. Leave all other fields blank or with their default value.

5. Click Save.

The new Recurring Donation is now ready to track each quarterly donation. NPSP auto-generates one open installment Opportunity for you at a time. If Ron was your donor, you would wait until you receive his bank transfer, and then close the open Opportunity. When you close the Opportunity, NPSP generates the next open Opportunity. When all of the Opportunities are paid, NPSP closes the fixed recurring donation.

Track Recurring Donor Status

Using the Sustainer field on Accounts and Contacts, NPSP helps you keep track of who is a current, lapsed, or former recurring donor.

Using the Sustainer field on Accounts and Contacts, NPSP helps you keep track of who is a current, lapsed, or former recurring donor. NPSP updates the Account and Contact Sustainer field based on the Status of the related Recurring Donations.

The Sustainer fields have these values:

• Active—The constituent has one or more Active Recurring Donations.

• Lapsed—The constituent has one or more Lapsed Recurring Donations.

• Former—The constituent has only Closed Recurring Donations.

Use the Sustainer fields in reports and as a quick way to check the recurring donor status of a given constituent.