Donors can subscribe to recurring payments through RaiseNow, either weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually, depending on the means of payment and, of course, the donor's wishes. The amount of a subscription can be either freely selectable or stipulated by the organisation. The supported payment methods are the use of Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Discovery, PostFinance Card, Cymba, and PayPal.
Where is the card information kept for subsequent payments?
The credit card information is only saved after the completion of a donation subscription, as this is necessary for the automatic repeat transmission of the fixed donation amount.
- For one-off donations: no sensitive payment data is stored
- For donation subscriptions: RaiseNow stores an alias of the credit card number. The Payment Service Provider authorizes this alias for the respective amount upon completion of the donation.
All data is stored on our servers in Switzerland and the UK. Our servers are PCI-DDS3 certified and protected by firewalls and various other security measures against unauthorised access.
Why is the first transaction of a subscription a Final Cancel?
Credit Card Subscriptions:
The first transaction of a subscription always has the status final cancel in the RaiseNow Manager. However, this does not mean that the subscription has failed - the first transaction is only the authorization transaction which will initiate the subscription.
With this transaction we ask for the 3D Secure of the donor. This authorization will then trigger a subscription on the the recurring contract of the acquirer, which does not include the 3D Secure verification any more (otherwise the donor would need to enter his password for each beginning of the interval again).
All charges of the subscriptions will be on the recurring contract, this is why the first transaction will automatically be set to Final Cancel in order to avoid having two charges on the first day of the subscription.
PayPal Subscriptions:
For PayPal we have an authorization transaction as well (authorization success) which will trigger the subscription. However, with PayPal the first charge will not be triggered immediately after the authorization and we cannot define the exact timing since the charge is being done by PayPal itself.
Therefore we have to wait until PayPal has charged the first transaction of the subscription which is normally done during the same day. Only then you will find the subscription in the RaiseNow Manager.
How and when will regular donors be informed if a donation has not been successful?
The donors receive a message by email after an unsuccessful transaction, which resulted from any number of causes.
As a rule, the unsuccessful donation will be processed again as soon as possible. The unsuccessful charge does NOT mean the end of the subscription. The donation subscription is still active and the payment will be processed again as soon as possible. (See also "Expiration date")
The credit card is no longer valid - what happens with the donation subscription?
If the donor's credit card has expired or the donation charge cannot be carried out for other reasons (for example, the account limit is exceeded or insufficient funds etc.), the system will send a message to the donor reporting the situation. The message contains a link which will allow the donor to enter new card details.
The organisation also receives a copy of the email, as a blind copied BCC email, and can contact the donor if necessary. The RaiseNow Manager also shows when the credit card expires.
When is a donor informed about the next donation instalment?
The donor is informed by RaiseNow via email and will also have the possibility to change or terminate his donation subscription. This email is triggered after the transaction.
Normally, the first charge is made immediately after completion of the subscription and the recurring debit email is sent shortly after the confirmation of the subscription. However, it may be that the payment means must first be verified, resulting in a delayed charge. This is determined by the specific beneficiary organisation.
Does a recurring donation have an expiration date?
No. The donation process is executed automatically for as long as the payment amount and method is valid; there is no expiration date.
The recurring donation is only interrupted if the charge was not possible. This can be the result of various reasons, for instance an expired credit card or exceeded banking limits.
If you want to donate regularly for a certain period only, you need to cancel the donation subscription at the desired time.
How and when can a recurring donation be cancelled or altered?
The recurring donation can be terminated at any time and takes effect immediately. You can unsubscribe via the link received in the confirmation message sent after each donation.
This link takes you to your current personal data, where, in addition to cancelling the subscription, you can also deposit a new credit card or update card details, if the card used previously has expired.
If you want to change the donation frequency, the amount and/or the donation goal, you have to cancel the old donation subscription first. Thereafter a new subscription with the desired details can be created.
Subscriptions will be set to inactive in the manager automatically after the the last 10 consecutive charge attempts have failed.
If a donor cannot find their link any more or is not able to cancel the subscription by themselves you can do that for them in the RaiseNow Manager. If your user has sufficient access rights you will have the option to deactivate a subscription so that there will be no future charges.
To cancel a subscription go to the subscriptions Tab in the RaiseNow Manager and open the subscription to be cancelled.On the top right you find the button that says Actions, click here to have the option Cancel subscription, another click and the subscription is set to inactive - no future charges will be issued.
What do the different status and alert levels mean?
The RaiseNow Manager marks recurring transactions with a status and an alert level:
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- Status:
Active means that the subscription is active. This does not contain any information about the success of the payment .
Inactive means that the subscription is not active any more. The donor can set their subscription to inactive at any given time.
- Alert Level OK
Ok means the last subscriptions payment was successful - the subscription is ok. This does not give any information about earlier payments only the very last one. An earlier payment could have failed and the level would still be ok.
Example 1: Alert Level OK, monthly subscription
- Payment in May OK
- Payment in June OK
- Payment in July OK
Example 2: Alert Level OK, monthly subscription
- Payment in May OK
- Payment in June failed
- Payment in July OK
Example 3: The donor is subscribed to donate CHF 30 monthly, always on the last day of the month. On 10 August the level ok means that his payment on 30 July was successful.We don't know by this level whether the p ayment on 30. June was successful or failed.
- Alert Level -2
Alert level -2 means that the last two subscription payments failed. It doesn't tell us if the payment three times ago has been ok or failed.
Example 1: Alert level - 2, monthly subscription
- payment in May failed
- payment in June failed
- payment in July failed
Example 2: Alert level -2, monthly subscription
- payment in May ok
- payment in May failed
- payment in May failed
Example 3: The donor gives 10,- monthly. In June and July the transactions failed. We don't know whether the transaction in May was successful or failed, too.
- Alert Level -1
Alert level -1 means that the last payment failed.
Example 1: Alert Level -1, monthly subscription
- payment in May failed
- payment in June OK
- payment in July failed
Example 2:
- payment in May OK
- payment in June OK
- payment in July failed
Example 3: The donor gives 100,- monthly. On 1 August we can see that the transaction in July failed. The transaction in June was OK, else the level would be -2.
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