Give your donors the ultimate flexibility, or set up pledges to all end on the same date with more recurring date options!
Though we only recommend enabling these options for specific purposes, the added functionality creates a whole new set of possibilities as you expand your recurring donation strategy!
Check out below for a full rundown of available options for recurring plan stop dates.
Please note: Custom Stop Dates are available on our Team & Enterprise Plans. To upgrade your account and gain access to these and all upgraded features, please click here!
You have 4 options for setting up Stop Dates:
Until Cancelled
This is the default behavior, and no action required for this in the form builder. We recommend this for most recurring plans! While giving donors the option to control their recurring donations is a nice gesture, it can lead to a confusing experience if not explained properly, or in the proper context of a specific Campaign.
Allow donor to set Stop Date
The simplest option for a stop date other than starting immediately is to let the donor pick a date if they would instead like it to stop on a specific date in the future. By simply toggling on "Allow donors to set Stop Date", a calendar field will show labeled "Stop Date" with "Until Cancelled" whenever the donor selects a recurring cadence from the donation form.
For example, if you have this option toggled, when the donor selects "Monthly Recurring Donation", they will see this on the donation form:
If the donor clicks into this field, they will be presented with a calendar where they can pick their own stop date. The calendar will default to one-cadence in the future, depending on the selection. That is - for monthly donations, the calendar will show one month in the future; for annual donations, one year in the future, and so on.
The donor can set a stop date before the second installment in the plan will run, which will effectively make it a one-time donation. For that reason, we recommend being intentional about allowing this option.
Set a default Stop Date
Along with defaulting the stop date to "Until Cancelled", you can also set a default date to a variable time in the future after the stop date, ranging from 1 day to 100 years (we would not recommend that far in the future :) !)
To set this option, toggle on "Allow donor to set Stop Date", then select "Set Default Stop Date" from the dropdown. Once you do this, two fields will display:
The field on the left is for you to pick a number, and the field on the right is the time variable. For example below, if I select "Years(s)", the stop date will default to 2 years in the future from the Start Date. That is - if the start date is 1 month from now, and you set the default Stop Date to 2 years, the stop date will be in 25 months from now for a monthly recurring donation.
On your donation form, that will show as:
While the donor is able to adjust the date, they are only able to choose days after your default date. That is - only at least 2 years in the future if your default is 2 years.
Set a Fixed Stop Date
If you have a specific Campaign running where you want all recurring donations to end on a specific date, you can opt to set a fixed stop date. This is a great option for things like Fun Runs, or Pledge Campaigns.
We only recommend this option in very specific situations! If you set a fixed stop date, once that date has passed, recurring donations can still process through the form, but will instead process immediately as one-time donations. This may result in a very confusing donor experience.
To set this option, toggle on "Allow donor to set Stop Date", then select "Set Fixed Stop Date" from the dropdown. Once you do that, a calendar field will display:
On the donation form, the donor will be able to see the future date, but will not be able to edit it:
