Forms: Create and manage recurring gifts

In this article:

How can I set up my form to accept recurring gifts?

To allow a recurring donation to be submitted through your LGL form, the only required steps are to:

  1. Enable your payment form to accept recurring gifts
  2. Offer a selection within your form that will allow your donors to designate the gift as recurring and choose their donation schedule

NOTE: In order to classify a gift as "recurring" in LGL, you will first need to create a designated gift category that can be applied to all recurring gifts. (This is how you'll later be able to search and report on them.) Instructions for creating a gift category can be found here. You will then need to make sure the gift category is set by default or mapped in the gift record so that each recurring gift submitted through your form is properly classified. If you do not take this step, your recurring gifts won't be classified as recurring and you won't be able to search for them in LGL.

These two screenshots show how you can set up your form and the selection of one-time or recurring donation schedule options within it:

To edit the donation schedule options, click Edit Field in the Amount field as you're editing your form, and then set up the donation schedule options you want to offer.

Setting up the mapping

Our recommended approach is to add a new gift category of "Recurring" (if one doesn't already exist). This will allow you to track your recurring donors and their gifts. Then in your form mapping you can set the gift as recurring by mapping the “Payment is recurring?” field to the "Recurring" gift category. 

First make sure you're on the mapping page for your form by clicking either the LGL integration or the Linked option below your form on your Active Forms page:

Then click on the “Payment is recurring?” field name to set up the mapping for that field:

Select the fields for the mapping:

Add the gift category for the "Yes" and "No" "Payment is recurring?" field value options by first clicking on the light blue “Map values” compass icon within the gift mapping:

...and selecting "Gift: Recurring" for "Yes" and "Gift: Donation" (or whatever option applies) for "No". Then save your changes.

Here’s how the mapping looks once it is all set up:

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

  1. If the gift category of "Gift: Recurring" does not yet exist in your account, it will need to be added before you can map it here. Please allow at least a half hour after adding it before you attempt to map it. It will take that amount of time to become available to use in your form mapping.
  2. You can choose whether to sync values from fields other than constituent name, email address, and gift for only the first submission of the recurring gift or every submission:

CAUTION - PayPal users must be logged into PayPal to be able to make a recurring donation

Only PayPal users who are logged into PayPal will be able to make a recurring gift through your form. For this reason, we recommend against using PayPal as the only payment processor in a form. A good alternative is to use PayPal with Stripe.

How can I update details to an existing recurring donation?

How do I edit name, contact information, or entries to an input field for a recurring donation?

To edit name or contact information for a recurring donation, go to LGL Forms, and then click Donations/Payments > Recurring > Scheduled Recurring. From here, you can either click the View/Edit link for the recurring donation you want to make changes to:

...or you can search for the recurring donation by typing the donor's name, if you know what it is, into the search field available on the "Received" tab:

Once the search result containing the recurring donor's name appears, you can click the View link within the most recent submission:

Then click any of the pen icons to make your update/s:

NOTE: If a scheduled recurring donation is not scheduled to process within the next 30 days, it will not display on the Scheduled recurring page. You will need to locate the recurring gift by navigating to Donations/Payments > Received and then searching for the donor’s recurring donation/s. Click View for the recurring donation. Then, under Submission Status, click on View recurring payment info. Select View/edit original submissions. 

Here's a complete list of the fields you can edit in a previously saved recurring donation:

  • Prefix
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Suffix
  • Email
  • Address
  • Dropdown
  • Radio buttons
  • Checkboxes

How do I cancel/pause or edit payment information for a recurring donation?

To edit or cancel a recurring donation for a donor, go to LGL Forms and click Donations/Payments.

If the donation is scheduled to recur in the next 30 days, you can click Recurring > Scheduled Recurring:   

Then scroll through the list to find the name of the donor whose recurring payment information you want to change. Click View/Edit below the date of their last donation:

If the donation will recur beyond the next 30 days, navigate to Donations/Payments > Received and look up the donor by name or email.

Click View/Edit for the submission, and then click the View recurring payment info link.

From here, you have the option to change the donation amount or schedule, change payment information, and cancel or pause the recurring donation.

NOTE: If a scheduled recurring donation is not scheduled to process within the next 30 days, it will not display on the Scheduled recurring page. You will need to locate the recurring gift by navigating to Donations/Payments > Received and then searching for the donor’s recurring donation/s. Click View for the recurring donation. Then, under Submission Status, click on View recurring payment info. Select View/edit original submissions to edit the name data. 

How do I restart a paused recurring donation?

To restart a recurring donation that has been paused, you can go to the Donations/Payments > Received page in LGL Forms and look up the donor whose recurring gift you want to restart by name or email address.

Then, within the most recent submission data for that donor, click the "View" link, and then click the "View recurring payment info" link shown here: 

screenshot91.png

Click the Restart payments button to restart the recurring donation.

What if a donor submits the form, didn’t complete the payment, but still wants to make the donation?

In this case, you have the option to navigate to the submission and complete the payment on the donor’s behalf, which reprocesses the payment.

Look up the donor by name from the Donations/Payments > Received tab:

When you locate the affected submission, click the “Complete payment” option:

When you complete the payment, the recurring gift data will automatically sync to your database.

What can I do if a recurring donation fails?

Occasionally, payment of a recurring gift through an LGL form is disrupted because of various reasons. There may have been a temporary issue with the card, in which case you can try resubmitting it. (If this doesn’t work, you may want to contact the donor to get an updated credit card number.) There are numerous other possible causes for when a credit card payment fails as well.

When a recurring donation fails, you have the option to resubmit the payment from the submission summary in LGL Forms.

To resubmit the payment, within LGL Forms navigate to the Donations/Payments > Received tab and search for the recurring gift that failed. You can search on date, donor name, and whether the gift is unpaid and recurring:

First you can update the person’s credit card. Then navigate to the incomplete payment submission to resubmit the payment, as shown here:

After this step, you’ll be taken to the submission detail page, where the payment status will be updated to “Paid”.

NOTE: Any recurring payments that have been canceled will display a "Cancelled" tag within the donation status column.

How can I see which recurring donations are scheduled to end soon?

To see a list of recurring gifts with an end date coming up, go to your Donations/Payments page and navigate to Recurring > Ending recurring. You'll be able to see which recurring donations are scheduled to end by selecting any of the various filters available in the Filter by date dropdown menu:

Related Articles