Recurring donations are an important part of any nonprofit organization’s sustainability strategy. Ideally, the fundraising software they use or the payment processor through which they accept donations will have this option in-built, and many platforms do allow donors to decide whether they want to make a one-time donation or whether they want to subscribe to the nonprofit’s recurring gifts program.
Importance of Recurring Donations
Recurring donations guarantee a steady income stream for nonprofit organizations, which can help sustain them. All organizations cannot spend too much time and money in raising funds and holding fundraising events, but they will need funds to carry on their day-to-day operations. In fact, many one-time donations are usually for specific programs and campaigns and not for the organization’s daily functions.
As such, recurring donations are very useful in making sure that the organization can keep functioning and plan for the long-term without worrying about where it’ll get the funds to do so. Not only does it expand the revenue stream, but it also expands the donor pool and project scale.
With recurring donations, your donors can also feel like they are doing their part in helping the community without needing to divulge large sums at once. There are many platforms where you can set up recurring gifts programs.
Salsa Labs is one such platform, which nonprofits can use to manage their donors, raise funds, and use tools for digital marketing to expand their reach.
Using Salsa Labs for Recurring Donations
But how do you set up recurring donations with Salsa Labs?
Recurring donations are usually charged automatically to donors at fixed intervals (usually monthly) and treated differently by Salsa than regular one-off donations.
To see all the donations from any recurring donations profile, you can go the Donations Package option within the platform and see ‘all donations by recurring donors,’ which will lead you to a section where you can see a list of all the donations that have been made through the recurring donation program with their details. You can also see the profiles for each recurring donation through the ‘recurring donors’ link, i.e., details on when the donation started, how long it will recur, and the amount you will receive with each one.
By using a Salsa Labs query, recurring subscriptions can be accessed as a donation type, and filter out all your donations by their recurring status.
While Salsa Labs does accept recurring donations, the repeated payment is recorded by the payment processor being used, rather than with Salsa Labs itself. Though Salsa does make a note of the fact that a recurring donation was subscribed, you would have to contact the payment processing merchant to cancel or change information for this donation.
Ashraf Samhouri
Salah Hamwi