When a member selects the Automatically renew this membership checkbox, a recurring gift downloads to The Raiser’s Edge. The member must pay for the renewal by using a direct debit or credit card. If the member uses a direct debit, the recurring gift downloads to The Raiser’s Edge batch and the recurring gift payment processes the day the member enters in the Starting on field. If the member uses a credit card, a recurring gift downloads with the first recurring gift payment in the same Raiser’s Edge batch. For information about processing recurring gifts and recurring gift payments in batch, see The Raiser’s Edge Batch Guide.
Not all membership categories are available for automatic renewal. The renewal schedule for a membership category must match a recurring gift schedule. For example, a membership category renewal schedule that is once per year matches a recurring gift payment schedule that is once per year. Memberships on a weekly or daily renew schedule are not supported for automatic renewal. Lifetime memberships are also not supported.
Note: When you process a membership that has been renewed automatically, you can select a membership category for the transaction that does not allow for automatic renewals. If you do this, a notification for the membership category change is not sent to the member. If you change the membership expiration date, the default recurring gift schedule remains the same.
When you process automatic renewal memberships from Blackbaud NetCommunity in The Raiser’s Edge, it is important to remember the following.
| • | On the Commit Gift Batch screen, select Apply the payment to the same membership. When you select this checkbox, the recurring gift payment in the batch is applied to the recurring gift and the membership. |
| • | If a user automatically renews a gift of membership and you soft credit gift of membership recipients, you must manually add the soft credit in The Raiser’s Edge. You cannot add the soft credit in Batch. |
For information about committing a batch, see The Raiser’s Edge Batch Guide. For information about manually adding soft credits, see The Raiser’s Edge Gift Records Guide.