Recurring donors are incredibly instrumental in helping organizations to further their missions and so when you find yourself needing to migrate recurring data, it's important to do so with care.
When Would I Need To Migrate Recurring Data?
If you are moving to a new payment gateway, you will need to move your recurring schedules from your old gateway to your new gateway. Because RaiseDonors doesn't store sensitive credit card information, migrating your recurring data is really a blend of moving the schedule from the gateway and capturing the related schedule object from RaiseDonors. Think of the schedule object like a link between the gateway and RaiseDonors (it's a similar concept to credit card numbers being tokenized when you make a purchase online).
How Do I Get Started With Migrating Recurring Data?
There are two main chunks of data that need to be migrated:
1. The actual relocation of sensitive credit card and ACH information from the old gateway to the new gateway.
- The specifics for all of this depends on which gateway you are moving from and which gateway you are moving to. Typically, each gateway vendor has its own specific compliance, rules, and schedules for this. Check out these articles to learn more about Stripe and Authorize.net.
2. The setup of schedule objects inside of RaiseDonors to ensure there is a 'link' between RaiseDonors and the schedules at the new gateway.
- There are two distinct approaches to migrate recurring data into RaiseDonors, in both cases schedules already exist in the new gateway and schedule objects need to be created inside of RaiseDonors.
- Approach #1 - Passive
- Approach #2 - Manual
Can you talk me through a few scenarios of how all of this works?
Absolutely! This stuff is REALLY detailed and every situation is different. Ultimately you need to have a schedule in the new gateway that 'links' to the schedule object in RaiseDonors. Wether you're working with rearranging schedules and schedule objects you currently have, OR starting from scratch, the overall goal is the same - schedule 'linked to' schedule object!
Here's a few high-level scenarios:
Scenario #1
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You've been using RaiseDonors for a period of time and you're just switching your payment gateway
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This means your donors have a schedule in the old gateway that 'links' to a schedule object in RaiseDonors
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You need to give your donors a new schedule in the new gateway that 'links' to a new schedule object in RaiseDonors
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When you complete the transition from old gateway to new gateway each donor in RaiseDonors will have two schedule objects (one 'linked' to the old gateway and one 'linked' to the new gateway)
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The schedule object 'linked' to the old gateway needs to be updated to a terminated status
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tl:dr / you are updating everything existing AND making new 'links' as you go
Scenario #2
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You're new to RaiseDonors OR you're new to recurring giving
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This means you don't have schedules established with a gateway
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You need to create new schedule objects in RaiseDonors on the proper donor account
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When a schedule is created in the new gateway, you'll 'link' to the schedule object in RaiseDonors
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tl:dr / you are making new 'links'