Recurring donations

Recurring donations — monthly or yearly — are the lifeblood of nonprofit fundraising. They turn one-time donors into stable revenue and dramatically reduce the cost of fundraising over time.

Where they live

Open Donations → Recurring to see only the active subscriptions (monthly + yearly). Each row shows:

Donor name and email
Amount and frequency
Next charge date (when Stripe will run the next payment)
Subscription status (active, paused, canceled)
Lifetime value contributed by this subscription

How recurring is set up

Donors choose a frequency on your public donation form:

One-time — single charge.
Monthly — Stripe subscription that charges on the same calendar day each month.
Yearly — annual subscription, often used for membership-style giving.

Stripe handles all the billing logic: failed cards, retries, dunning emails, etc.

Failed recurring charges

When a card fails (expired, insufficient funds), Stripe automatically:

Retries 3 times over 7 days.
Sends the donor an email with a "update card" link if all retries fail.
Pauses the subscription if the donor doesn't update.

You'll see paused subscriptions with a yellow indicator. From the row's action menu you can:

Email donor — nudge them to update their card.
Cancel — close the subscription if you've concluded it can't be saved.

Donor self-service

Donors can manage their own recurring giving from your public site at /myconsole?tab=donations:

Change amount.
Pause / resume.
Update payment method.
Cancel.

This drastically reduces support load — you don't need to be a middleman for "I want to bump my monthly from $25 to $50."

Recurring vs. pledges

Recurring donations are automatic (card on file, Stripe charges automatically). Pledges (in Fundraising → Pledges) are promised donations the donor pays manually — typically used for capital campaigns where someone commits "$10,000 over 3 years" and pays in chunks.

Use recurring for repeat-gift sustainers; use pledges for major-gift commitments.

Common patterns

End-of-year asks — convert one-time year-end donors into monthly the following January.
"Give monthly" anchor — your donation form's default toggle. Pre-selecting Monthly increases conversion to recurring by 15–25%.
Sustain anniversary — at 12 months, send a thank-you email celebrating their first year of consistent giving. Improves retention noticeably.