StockCrowd lets you manage your regular givers easily. This article explains how: view the list of regular givers, edit the amount or the frequency of a subscription, pause it, reactivate it, cancel it or unblock it, import donors and export reports.
What a regular giver is and what a subscription is
A regular giver is a donor who, instead of giving once, has authorised a payment that repeats automatically every so often, according to the frequency that has been set. That authorisation is the subscription, and each payment it generates is a transaction. The subscription stays alive until you pause it, you cancel it or the donor cancels it from their personal area. The same regular giver can have several regular donations at once, each with its own amount, frequency and status. A regular giver is also called a subscriber, a periodic donor or a recurring donor: they all mean the same thing.
Where each task lives
If your campaign accepts regular donations, the data collected and the tasks you can carry out afterwards are spread across several sections that you need to tell apart.
Day-to-day management sits in two sections, both at campaign level:
Management → Regular givers: here you manage everything about the regular giver and their subscription: generating the regular giver report, changing the amount or the frequency, pausing or reactivating, and cancelling subscriptions.
Management → Transactions: here you will find one-off and regular payments individually. It shows only paid or effective donations. If you want to act on one specific payment, you need to do it from here: generating the certificate for that payment, resending the thank-you email or generating a report of those payments.
There are three more places you will use in specific cases:
Dashboard → Donations: this is the donations view at organisation level, with the donations from all your campaigns and in every status (paid, pending, abandoned, and so on). It is where a regular giver's email is changed.
Dashboard → Regular givers and donors: this is a section for analysis and monitoring, not for management. There you can consult, among other things, the list of blocked and cancelled subscriptions.
Company → Users: it does not manage subscriptions, but it determines which options each user on your team can see. It is only visible to account administrators. More detail in Add Users to your Account and Manage their Permissions.
Finally, there is the Stripe or Redsys dashboard, which is external to StockCrowd. You use it to cancel or refund specific payments and to check the exact reason for a failed payment.
The rest of this article shows you how to manage these subscriptions from the Regular givers area.
The Regular givers dashboard at a glance
The Regular givers dashboard is the general view of your regular givers and their subscriptions inside Management → Regular givers.
Once inside Regular givers, you can see a quick overview of all your regular givers. The total number of regular donations is shown at the top, and the Options button on the right, from which you import donors and export the reports. Bear in mind that this total counts subscriptions, not people: the same regular giver can have more than one regular donation, so they will appear in as many rows as they have subscriptions.
Each row in the list is one regular giver's subscription, and shows these columns:
ID: the identifier of the regular donation.
Registration date: when the subscription was created.
Next payment: the date on which the next charge will run.
Email and First name: the regular giver's contact details. Next to the email you will see the Imported label if that subscription was created through a donor import.
Amount: how much is charged each time.
Frequency: how often the payment repeats.
Payment Gateway and Payment method: where and by what means the payment is taken.
Status: Active, Paused, Blocked or Cancelled.
At the end of each row, the ⚙️ icon opens that regular giver's options menu.
Above the list you have the filters, so you can go straight to the regular givers you need:
Name, surname or email, to search for a specific regular giver.
Status, Payment Gateway and Payment method.
Registration date, giving a start and an end period.
Next payment, also by start and end period.
Once you have chosen the filters, click Search. Clear removes them all and brings back the full list.
Subscription statuses
The status of the subscription determines which options appear in its menu on the right:
Active: the subscription is working normally and payments run automatically in each cycle.
Paused: you have stopped it manually and temporarily. It is reactivated from "Edit regular donation".
Blocked: an automatic payment could not be taken. It is reactivated from "Unblock regular donation".
Cancelled: the subscription has ended and will not generate any more payments.
To see only the blocked subscriptions, use the Status → Blocked filter. You can also consult them in Regular givers and donors → Blocked subscriptions, inside the Dashboard.
Options for each regular giver
Each regular donation in the list has an options button on the right, from which you can reach all the available information about the regular giver and carry out certain tasks:
View details: you reach all the available information about this regular giver: personal details, subscription details and payments taken. It is an information panel only: if you need to change any of these details, you have to do it from the right place.
Edit regular donation: you can change the amount, the frequency, the next payment date and the language of the communications for this subscriber. It is also the option that reactivates a paused subscription.
Modify subscription SEPA mandate: use it when you need to change the user's account number (IBAN). Remember that the donor can also do it from their donor personal area, in the Regular donations section.
Cancel regular donation.
Edit donor data: changes the regular giver's personal details, such as the phone number or the address.
Pause regular donation: stops payments temporarily without cancelling the subscription.
Unblock regular donation: regular payments run automatically and, if one of these payments cannot be taken, the account may be blocked. Before unblocking the account we recommend checking this with the donor and/or with the bank to confirm that the payment will go through correctly. This option only appears when the subscription is in Blocked status.
Editing a regular giver's personal details
A regular giver's personal details, such as the phone number or the address, are changed from Management → Regular givers:
Find the regular giver in the list and open their options menu.
Click Edit donor data.
Change the detail and save: it will be updated for the following payments.
The email is not changed from here. It has its own procedure, explained in the "Changing a regular giver's email" section of this article.
❗Important: This will change the details for future transactions, but if you need to change a transaction that has already been paid or is effective (to regenerate the donation certificate, for example) it has to be done from Management → Transactions, finding the donor and going to ⚙️ → User data, where you will be able to edit it.
Pausing and reactivating a subscription
Pausing a subscription stops its payments temporarily without cancelling it, and reactivating it starts them again. Both tasks are done from Management → Regular givers.
How to pause a subscription
From Management → Regular givers, in the regular giver's options menu, choose Pause regular donation.
When you pause it you can set:
When the pause starts: right then or from a specific date.
How long it lasts: indefinitely or until a specific date.
A note with the reason for the pause, to keep an internal record.
How to reactivate a paused subscription
A subscription in Paused status is not reactivated with "Unblock regular donation": that option only exists for blocked subscriptions. To reactivate it:
Go to Management → Regular givers and find the regular giver.
Click Options → Edit regular donation.
Check that the next payment date is correct.
Click Update.
When you save, the subscription becomes active again and the first charge will run on the next donation date you have set.
Failed payments and blocked subscriptions
When a regular payment cannot be taken, the subscription is not always blocked: it depends on the gateway, on the payment method and on the type of incident. This section explains what happens in each case, how to unblock a subscription and what to do if the charge has failed but the subscription is still active.
Unblocking a subscription
Unblocking a blocked subscription starts its automatic payments again, and when you do the system recalculates the next charge date.
What happens when you unblock
When you unblock a subscription, the system automatically recalculates the next payment date with this logic:
If the payment day has already passed or is today at the moment of unblocking, the next payment is scheduled for that same day of the following month.
If the payment day has not arrived yet this month, the payment is taken on that date within the current month.
This means that, if you unblock after the payment day has passed, that month's instalment will not be charged and the subscription will jump straight to the following month.
Example: a subscription with a payment on 5 April that is unblocked on 14 April will move to being charged on 5 May. April's instalment is never taken.
How to recover the month's instalment
Before doing anything, speak to the regular giver. This procedure forces a payment outside the usual calendar, so you should only apply it once you have confirmed two things with them:
That the cause of the block is resolved and the payment will go through correctly.
That they want to recover that month's instalment and agree to being charged in the next few days.
If the regular giver would rather not recover that instalment, do nothing else: unblock the subscription and the payment will resume normally in the next cycle.
With those two confirmations, the key is to act at the same moment as the unblock:
Unblock the subscription
Then go to Options → Edit regular donation.
Change the next payment date to the following day (or any date the donor gives you) and save.
Wait for the payment to run on that new date.
Once the payment is confirmed, restore the original date so that the following cycles keep to the usual calendar.
❗Important: Do not forget step 4. If you skip it, the subscription will keep the changed payment date permanently.
What happens when a regular payment fails
A failed payment does not always block the subscription. You may come across a subscription in Active status whose last charge has failed. In that case you will not see the "Unblock regular donation" option, because the subscription is not blocked.
It is not possible to relaunch a failed regular charge manually. The only retry route is unblocking a subscription that is in Blocked status.
If the subscription is still active and the charge has failed, what you can do is:
Check the exact reason for the failure in your payment gateway.
Ask the donor to resolve the cause with their bank.
If the problem persists, ask them to use another card or another payment method.
If the donor authorises a payment outside the usual date to recover the failed one, you can edit the subscription as explained in the previous point, "How to recover the month's instalment", and once it is charged, set their payments back to their usual next date.
If the donor does not authorise recovering that failed instalment: wait for the next scheduled payment, which will be attempted automatically.
When a subscription is blocked and when it is not
Whether a failed payment blocks the subscription or not depends on the gateway, on the payment method and on the type of incident.
In short: with Redsys the subscription is always blocked. With Stripe and a card it is blocked straight away if the card has expired, and only after the third failed attempt if there are not enough funds. With Stripe and SEPA the subscription stays active, unless a dispute is opened, which cancels it automatically.
Case by case:
Gateway | Method | Incident | Regular donation status | Retries |
Stripe | Card | Not enough funds | Stays active until the 3rd attempt; then it is blocked | 3 retries 3 days apart. If the last one is not successful, it is blocked. |
Stripe | Card | Expired card | It is blocked | No retries |
Stripe | SEPA | A dispute is opened | It is cancelled automatically | None |
Stripe | SEPA | Payment refused by the issuing bank | Stays active | No retries |
Stripe | SEPA | Insufficient funds | Stays active | No retries |
Stripe | SEPA | Incorrect IBAN | Stays active | No retries |
Redsys | Card | Not enough funds | It is blocked | No retries |
Redsys | Card | Expired card | It is blocked | No retries |
Action required in each case:
Stripe + SEPA + dispute: the organisation has to ask the regular giver to subscribe again, or re-import them.
Redsys + not enough funds: contact the regular giver and unblock the subscription once they confirm there are funds.
Redsys + expired card: cancel the regular donation and ask the regular giver to subscribe again through a form. The regular giver can also cancel the regular donation themselves from their donor personal area.
Other tasks that are not done from Regular givers
There are other subscriber options and changes that you cannot make from Regular givers. Here is how to proceed in each case.
Changing a regular giver's email
You can change a regular giver's email, and the change also affects future regular charges, because what is changed is the user's email on the platform and not the email of one specific donation. You do not need to cancel the subscription or create it again.
Go to Dashboard → Donations and find one of the regular giver's transactions.
Click the ⚙️ gear icon on the right.
Select the "Change user email" option.
If you need to, you can then resend the confirmation email from Management → Transactions, so that it reaches the correct address.
Bear in mind two limitations:
The option does not appear on transactions in Pending status. Since Dashboard → Donations shows donations in every status, make sure you go into one that is in Paid status.
The option is only visible to users with the Administrator role. Users with the Gestor role will not see it.
The role can be changed from Company → Users: find the user, click the edit symbol and select the corresponding role in the "Permissions regarding [your organization]" section. Only an Administrator can change roles. If you are not one and you think you should have permission for this action, ask an administrator in your organisation to make the change.
Changing the bank card number
Changing the bank card number of a subscription is only allowed by certain payment gateways: Paypal, Stripe or Braintree. If the payment was made with one of these gateways, only the donor can update their card details from their donor personal area.
Cancelling or refunding the first payment of a regular giver who unsubscribes
If someone signs up as a regular giver and changes their mind before the first payment is issued, the charge is handled from the payment gateway dashboard:
Cancel it directly: if the charge has not been sent to the bank yet, you can go into the payment from the payment gateway and cancel it. The option is available while the payment is still processing.
Refund it: if it can no longer be cancelled, once the payment completes you can issue the refund from the payment gateway, at no extra cost to the regular giver.
Whatever you do in the payment gateway with that first charge, you must also cancel the subscription in StockCrowd from Management → Regular givers so that no future payments are generated.
General options
As well as the tasks for one specific regular giver, from Regular givers you can carry out certain actions and tasks at a global level.
Importing donors
Importing donors lets you enter into the software a list of regular givers whose payments you take offline, so you can start managing them from our platform.
To import donors you need to have SEPA debit enabled as a payment method, which is only possible through the Stripe payment gateway.
Download the import template by clicking Management → Regular givers → Options → Download template to import regular givers (XLSX).
For now, every column in the import template is compulsory.
More detail about importing donors is explained in this article: Import Recurring Donations (Only for Spain) 🇪🇸.
Exporting regular donations
Exporting regular donations lets you download a report with the data of every subscription. You can filter and add the data from other campaigns to generate a report better suited to what you need.
Email notifications
You can receive notifications by email for certain actions that happen in relation to your donors:
Subscription blocked.
Subscription cancelled.
Card expired or about to expire (only available for Paypal, Braintree and Stripe).
Disputed payment.
Direct debit returned.
You can sign up for these notifications as explained in the article Receive Notifications for Issues in the Payment of Periodic Donations.
❓Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Transactions and Regular givers?
Management → Transactions contains donations individually, and it is where you handle one specific payment: generating the certificate for that payment, resending the thank-you email or generating a report of the donations received to date. Management → Regular givers contains the regular giver and their subscription, and it is where you generate the regular giver report, change the amount or the frequency, and cancel, pause or unblock subscriptions.
Why has a regular giver's subscription been blocked?
A subscription is blocked when one of its automatic regular payments cannot be taken. The most frequent causes are that the card has expired, that there are no funds in the account at the moment of the payment, or that the donor's bank has SEPA direct debits blocked. Before unblocking it we recommend checking the information with the donor and/or with the bank to confirm that the payment will go through correctly.
When is a subscription charged after you unblock it?
When you unblock a subscription, the system automatically recalculates the next payment date. If the payment day has already passed or is today, the next payment is scheduled for that same day of the following month. If the payment day has not arrived yet this month, the payment is taken on that date within the current month.
Why has this month's instalment not been charged after unblocking the subscription?
Because you unblocked the subscription when the payment day for that month had already passed. In that case the system moves the payment to the same day of the following month and the current month's instalment is never generated. For example, a subscription with a payment on 5 April unblocked on 14 April moves to being charged on 5 May, with no payment in April.
Can I recover an instalment that was lost when unblocking?
You can recover it. After unblocking, go to Options → Edit regular donation, change the next payment date to the following day and save. Once the payment has run, go back in and restore the original date so that the following cycles keep to the usual calendar. We recommend confirming with the donor beforehand that they agree to this payment.
Where can I see the blocked subscriptions?
Blocked subscriptions are found in Management → Regular givers, using the Status → Blocked filter, or in Dashboard → Regular givers and donors → Blocked subscriptions, inside the Dashboard.
How do I change a regular giver's email?
To change a regular giver's email, go to Dashboard → Donations, find one of the regular giver's transactions in Paid status, click the ⚙️ gear icon on the right and select "Change user email". The change also affects future regular charges, so you do not need to cancel the subscription or create it again. You can then resend the confirmation email from Management → Transactions.
Why is the option to change the user's email not showing?
The option to change the email may not show for two reasons. The first is that you are on a transaction in Pending status: the option is only available on transactions in Paid status. The second is your user role: only Administrators (ROLE_EMPRESA) can see the option, not Gestores (ROLE_EMPRESA_GESTOR). The role is changed from Company → Users and only an Administrator can do it, so ask an administrator in your organisation.
A regular giver has unsubscribed before the first payment, how do I handle it?
If the charge has not been sent to the bank yet, you can cancel it from the Stripe dashboard while it is still processing. If it can no longer be cancelled, wait for it to complete and issue the refund from Stripe, at no extra cost to the regular giver. In both cases, also cancel the subscription in Management → Regular givers so that no future payments are generated.
Can the donor update their own bank details?
The donor can update their bank details from their personal area, in the Regular donations section. Changing the card number is only allowed by the Paypal, Stripe and Braintree gateways; if the payment was made with another gateway, the card number cannot be updated from there.
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