New requirements and sample templates for PAC donors
Overview
As of March 2023, major credit card companies such as Mastercard, Visa, and others, are creating new requirements for recurring payments.
The original effectivity date for these changes was scheduled for September 22, 2022. The effectivity date for these requirements has since been delayed to March 21, 2023.
Whenever a recurring credit card payment* is due to be sent to your nonprofit - either for a monthly donation, or other type of pre-authorized contribution, for example - new requirements by the credit card companies require that your nonprofit sends to the donor an electronic notification advising them that a payment is going to be charged to them on their credit card.
*If you are not processing recurring credit card payments from your donors, these new credit card requirements do not apply to you.
If you are already notifying your donors in advance of their upcoming payments, you are likely already meeting these new requirements.
If you are unsure about what you need to do to comply, or need more information on what these new credit card requirements mean for your nonprofit, we suggest that you get in touch with one of the following organizations to learn more:
- The payment processing company (ex. iATS, Stripe, Moneris) that your nonprofit works with to process credit card payments from your donors.
- The credit card company(ies) (ex. Mastercard, Visa) that your donors use to make their payments with your nonprofit.
How you can use Silent Partner DMS to satisfy these new requirements
We want to ensure that your donors have a positive and seamless experience when they are donating to you.
Recommendations
To help your organization satisfy these new credit card requirements and continue to provide a great experience to your donors, consider these recommendations:
- Have a designated email address that donors can use to contact your organization when they have questions about making adjustments to, or canceling, their recurring payments.
- Review any email templates you are currently using to make sure they clearly inform your donors that they have signed up for a recurring donation and provide them with clear instructions on how to cancel their recurring payment if they wish to. If you need some guidance on how to craft this kind of messaging, review our sample email templates below.
- Using your Silent Partner DMS, you can quickly find all of your donors with PAC credit card payments so you know which are due soon or have just been processed. Use the screenshot below as a guide for finding the active PACs you have on file with the standard built-in query:
Next, you would have to run an additional query to get a list of active PACs made by credit card. Depending on the way you record credit card PACs in your Silent Partner, this could be a query by payment method(s), motivation code(s), or a query for PACs that have credit card details on file.
4. Once you’ve found the PACs, export the list of donors from Silent Partner DMS so you can email them in bulk to satisfy these new credit card requirements. And if you need help getting started with how to craft those emails, we’ve created some sample templates for you below.
Sample Email Templates
For donors who have recurring PAC donations (e.g. monthly donors), we've compiled three sample email messages you can use as a jumping off point!
Recurring donation sign-up confirmation message
After a donor has signed up to make recurring donations, these new requirements mean you must send a thank you email that confirms the terms of their recurring donations. This email must provide the donor with clear instructions on how to cancel or make adjustments to their recurring donations. For example:
Dear <<Name>>,
Thank you for signing up to be a recurring donor!
On <<sign up date>>, you agreed to become a regular recurring donor to our organization. This email confirms that your donation will be processed automatically every <<frequency>> months, on the <<date of the month>> day of each month.
If you would like to make adjustments to your recurring donation amount, or cancel your recurring donation, please email us at <<email@yourcharity.com>> to request this change.
Thank you again for becoming a recurring donor to <<Your Organization’s name>> - we greatly appreciate your contribution to our cause.
Reminder for upcoming payment
For donors who have signed up for a less frequent recurring donation schedule (i.e. 6 months or more between each payment) you must send the donor a reminder email in advance of their next payment letting them know that a payment will be taken soon. Credit card companies require that you send this reminder email within 3-7 days of their next payment date.
This email must provide the donor with clear instructions on how to cancel or make adjustments to their recurring donations. For example:
Dear <<Name>>,
This is a reminder that you have an upcoming donation payment of $<<amount>> coming on <<date of upcoming payment>>. This payment will be taken automatically. No further action is required.
On <<sign up date>>, you agreed to donate $<<amount>> every <<frequency>> months, on the <<date of the month>> day of each month.
If you would like to make adjustments to your recurring donation amount, or cancel your recurring donation, please email us at <<email@yourcharity.com>> to request this change.
Thank you for your recurring donation to <<Your Organization’s name>> - we greatly appreciate your contribution to our cause!
Recurring donation payment receipt message
After a recurring donation payment has been taken, you must send a payment receipt email to confirm to the donor that the payment was successful. This email must provide the donor with clear instructions on how to cancel or make adjustments to their recurring donations.
Note: this message does not need to include an official tax receipt for the donation. Many recurring donors prefer to receive a single tax receipt at the end of the calendar year for the total amount of their annual contributions. You can continue providing an annual tax receipt to donors who prefer this option.
Dear <<Name>>,
Thank you for your donation of $<<amount>> on <<donation date>>!
On <<sign up date>>, you agreed to donate $<<amount>> every <<frequency>> months, on the <<date of the month>> day of each month.
If you would like to make adjustments to your recurring donation amount, or cancel your recurring donation, please email us at <<email@yourcharity.com>> to request this change.
Thank you again for your recurring donation to <<Your Organization’s name>> - we greatly appreciate your contribution to our cause.
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