Regular Giving That Ends by Itself
In Engage, Enter Donation needs the Process Donations permission. Create Pledge is under the same button, so it needs Process Donations as well as Create & Modify Pledges. Changing an existing regular giving's Allocations needs Edit Allocations. The action that thanks the donor is set up in the Admin area, so that needs someone with administrator access.
A regular giving takes a payment every month, quarter, year or week until someone cancels it. You can also set one up to stop by itself, and how you do that depends on what the donor has agreed to:
- "I'll give £10 a month for 12 months." The donor has agreed to a number of installments, so set the regular giving to end after 12 paid installments.
- "I'll give £500, at £50 a month." The donor has promised a total, so create a pledge for £500 and have the regular giving pay toward it.
Once the donor has given what they agreed, the regular giving's status changes to Completed and Engage takes no more payments from them.
Ending after a number of installments
- Open the donor's account, select Giving, then select Enter Donation and choose Regular Giving.
- In Allocations, choose what the donation is for and enter the amount of each installment, such as £10, and select Save & Continue to Payment.
- Choose how the donor pays. When the Regular Payment Options appear, choose how often the donor pays, the Usual Collection Day and the First Payment Date.
- Under Ends, choose After and type the number of installments in the box. For 12 monthly installments, type 12 so it reads After 12 paid installments.
- Below the options, Engage shows the date of the last installment, assuming none fails. Check it, then select Enter Donation.
Only paid installments count. If one fails, the regular giving carries on until 12 have been paid, so the donor still gives every installment they agreed to. To change the number later, see Editing Donations.
Ending when a promised total is paid
A pledge is Engage's record of a total that a donor has promised to give. A regular giving can pay toward a pledge, and other donations, such as a one-off gift, can pay toward it too. If the pledge is the only thing the regular giving pays for, the regular giving stops once the pledge has been paid in full.
- Open the donor's account and select Giving. Select the arrow beside Enter Donation, then Create Pledge.
- Leave Enable Allocations as No and type the promised total, such as £500, in Amount. Fill in the pledge's other details (see Creating Pledges), then select Create.
- Go back to the donor's Giving, select Enter Donation and choose Regular Giving.
- In Allocations, under Add Another Line?, select Pledge. In Search Pledges, select the pledge you've just created. Engage adds a line marked Towards Pledge, with the pledge's reference.
- On that line, choose what the donation is for and enter the amount of each installment, such as £50. Select Save & Continue to Payment.
- Choose how the donor pays and fill in the Regular Payment Options as you would for any regular giving, but leave Ends as When cancelled, because the pledge decides when the regular giving stops. Then select Enter Donation.
How the two compare
| A number of installments | A pledge | |
|---|---|---|
| Use it when the donor agrees to give | A set number of installments, such as 12 | A set total, such as £500 |
| How you set it up | On the regular giving, under Ends, choose After and type the number | Create a pledge for the total, then select it in the regular giving's Allocations |
| What counts toward it | Only this regular giving's paid installments | Everything given to the pledge, including one-off donations |
| The last installment | The usual amount | What's left to pay on the pledge, if that's less than usual |
| If each installment's amount changes | The donor still gives the same number of installments, so the total changes | The donor still gives the same total, so the number of installments changes |
| When it stops | When the last installment has been paid | When the pledge has been paid in full, if it's the only thing the regular giving pays for |
| The status at the end | Completed | Completed |
We recommend a pledge whenever the donor has promised a total, especially if some of it may arrive another way, such as a one-off gift.
Checking how far a regular giving has come
The Commitment card shows when a regular giving ends and, if it ends after a number of installments, how far it has come:
- Ends says when it stops, such as After 12 paid installments. On a regular giving that carries on until someone cancels it, this reads When cancelled.
- Paid so far shows how many installments have been paid and how many are left, such as 4 of 12 · 8 to go. When the regular giving finishes, it reads 12 of 12 · Completed, followed by the date it finished. If someone cancels it early, it shows only what was paid, such as 4 of 12.
- Expected last installment is the date the last installment is due if none fails. It's an estimate, worked out from the next payment date and how often the donor pays. It appears only while the regular giving is active or its last installment is being collected, and never while its status is Error.
A regular giving that pays toward a pledge, with Ends left as When cancelled, shows no progress here. You'll find its progress on the pledge instead, where Outstanding shows what's left to pay.
Which installments count
For a regular giving that ends after a number of installments:
- A failed installment doesn't count, so the regular giving carries on until the number has been paid.
- An installment that's still being processed, such as a Direct Debit payment that hasn't cleared yet, counts once it's paid.
- A partly refunded installment still counts as paid.
- An installment that's refunded in full, or returned by the donor's bank, doesn't count, and while the regular giving is still running it takes another installment in its place.
The number covers every installment since the regular giving began, even those taken before a change to its amount or to how often the donor pays. For example, if a regular giving of £10 a month for 12 installments changes to £15 after the fourth, it takes eight more installments of £15 each.
Changing the number
You can raise or lower the number, add a number to a regular giving that doesn't have one, or change Ends to When cancelled at any time until the regular giving ends. The steps are in Editing Donations.
If you add a number to a regular giving that has already taken installments, the ones already paid count toward it. The number can't be lower than the installments already paid or still being processed. Lower it to exactly that many and the regular giving finishes once they're all paid, which is right away if none is still being processed.
When you change the amount of each installment, Engage shows what that does to the total still to collect, such as "8 more installments × £15.00 = £120.00 still to collect (was 8 × £10.00 = £80.00)". The number of installments stays the same, so the total changes. If the donor has promised a total, link a pledge instead, as Engage suggests.
To switch an existing regular giving to a pledge:
- Create a pledge for what the donor still has to give, as in steps 1 and 2 of Ending when a promised total is paid. Installments the regular giving has already taken don't count toward the new pledge.
- On the regular giving, select the pen icon on the Allocations card. Under Add Another Line?, select Pledge, and in Search Pledges, select the pledge. On the new Towards Pledge line, choose what the donation is for and enter the amount of each installment.
- On the old line, select ⋯, then Delete, so that the pledge is the only thing the regular giving pays for. Select Save Changes.
- Select the pen icon on the Commitment card, set Ends to When cancelled, and select Update.
How a pledge ends a regular giving
When what's left to pay on the pledge is less than the regular giving's usual installment toward it, Engage lowers the installment to what's left. That way the regular giving never pays more than the pledge still needs.
If the pledge was the only thing the regular giving paid for, its status changes to Completed as soon as the pledge has been paid in full. If the regular giving also pays for other things, Engage removes the pledge line and the regular giving carries on paying for the rest.
If someone cancels the pledge instead, a regular giving that also pays for other things carries on paying for the rest. One that paid only for the pledge is paused, and if it's still paused 90 days later, Engage cancels it.
A regular giving can have both a number of installments and a pledge, and it stops as soon as it reaches either one. You don't need either for a regular giving that pays for a fixed-term sponsorship, because its payments for the sponsorship stop when the sponsorship ends. A regular giving that pays only for the sponsorship is paused when the sponsorship ends, and if it's still paused 90 days later, Engage cancels it, which leaves time to renew.
A regular giving whose only allocation is a feedback also finishes as soon as the feedback has been paid in full, unless Engage replaces the paid feedback with a new one, in which case the regular giving carries on paying for the new feedback.
After a regular giving has ended
Once a regular giving's status is Completed or Cancelled, its commitment can't be changed. Its amount, how often the donor pays, its number of installments, what it pays for and its payment method all stay as they are, whether you try to change them in Engage or through an import. The pen icons on its Commitment, Credentials and Allocations cards no longer appear. A completed regular giving stays completed, even if one of its payments is returned later.
Engage also stops retrying its failed payments, and refuses Retry Collection, Copy Pay Link and Send Pay Link for them. A pay link the donor already has for one of them stops working, and + Add Payment is refused for them too. The same happens as soon as a regular giving's full number of installments is paid or being processed.
Telling the donor
Engage can send the donor an email or letter when something happens, using an action. An action sends a template when Engage raises a signal, which is Engage's name for each thing that can happen. To set one up, see Actions.
Saying an installment is the last one
Receipts for each installment need Enable installment actions checked in the Regular Payment Options. With that on, a receipt template on the Donation model can use the Is Final Installment field to say that an installment is the last one:
{{#if donation.isFinalInstallment}}This is the last payment of your regular giving.{{/if}}
The field is only ever true for a regular giving that ends after a number of installments, and only on the installment that makes up that number.
Thanking the donor when it finishes
Engage raises the Regular Giving Completed signal once, when a regular giving's status changes to Completed, however it finished. We recommend this signal rather than the last-installment field for a thank-you, because it's also raised when a pledge or a feedback ends a regular giving. Set up the action like this:
- Under What kind of entity is this action related to?, choose Regular Giving.
- In Select Signals, choose Regular Giving Completed.
- Set the template's Template Models to Regular Giving.
For a regular giving that ends after a number of installments, a template on the Regular Giving model can include these fields:
| Field | Syntax | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Paid Installments Limit | {{regularGiving.paidInstallmentsLimit}} | The number of paid installments the regular giving ends after. Empty if it carries on until someone cancels it |
| Paid Installments Collected | {{regularGiving.paidInstallmentsCollected}} | How many of them have been paid. Empty if it carries on until someone cancels it |
| Paid Installments Remaining | {{regularGiving.paidInstallmentsRemaining}} | How many are still to be paid. Empty if it carries on until someone cancels it, and once its status is Completed or Cancelled |
Finding these regular givings in Lists
When you build a list of regular givings (see Creating Lists), you can show these fields:
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Paid Installments Limit | The number of paid installments the regular giving ends after. Empty if it carries on until someone cancels it |
| Paid Installments Remaining | How many more installments must be paid before it finishes. An installment still being processed counts as remaining until it is paid. Empty if it carries on until someone cancels it, and once its status is Completed or Cancelled |
| Final Installment Expected On | The date of the last installment if none fails, as Expected last installment shows it. Empty whenever that row is hidden on the Commitment card |
| Paid Donations Counter | How many of the regular giving's donations are paid, since it began |
A list of scheduled givings can show Paid Donations Counter too. Lists of regular givings and lists of scheduled givings also have Unpaid Donations Counter, which counts the unpaid donations since the most recent paid one.
Imports and your website
You can also set the number of installments through an import or from your website. An import uses
the Paid Installments Limit column, described
in importing regular givings, and your website uses the paidInstallmentsLimit field, described in Regular Giving (Basic).