How donors cancel a recurring donation

Donors sometimes need to stop a recurring gift. Pledgix handles this in a way that's fair to the donor and gives your team a chance to retain them.

Every recurring plan created today has a set number of months — a defined commitment — so ending one early goes through a cancellation request that your team reviews. (Older open-ended "until you cancel" plans, from before set lengths, are the one exception — see the note at the end.)

How donors request cancellation

A donor on a fixed-length plan (for example, $100 × 12 months) made a defined commitment, so they can't end it with one click. Instead they file a cancellation request from their donor portal, with an optional reason and note.

Here's what happens on your side:

1. A high-priority task appears on your campaign's task board: "Save recurring donor: [name] ($100.00 USD/month)", assigned to your campaign's managers. If the campaign has no managers, the request is routed to the Pledgix team so it's never lost.
2. Your managers also get a notification: "A recurring donor asked to cancel — reach out to retain them."
3. The plan keeps charging on schedule while the request is open — a request is not a cancellation.
4. A manager then either:

• Retains the donor — reach out, resolve the concern (maybe a smaller amount or a pause), and complete the task; or
• Cancels the plan from the Recurring Payments panel. Cancelling automatically completes the open request task.

When an installments plan is cancelled early, your campaign totals are automatically adjusted so the pledge reflects only what was actually collected.

Tip: Speed matters. The task links straight to the donor's plan — reaching out within a day or two, before the next charge, is the difference between a saved donor and a chargeback risk.

Card problems are not cancellations

If a donor's card is declining, they don't need to cancel — they (or you) can simply update the card. Donors can do it from their donor portal; you can start a card update for them from the plan in your Recurring Payments panel. Once the new card is saved, any pending retry runs promptly.

One exception: some plans are billed by the payment gateway itself on its own schedule. For those, card and billing-day changes can't be made from Pledgix — the dashboard will tell you the plan is gateway-managed, and updates happen on the gateway side.

What the donor sees afterwards

Cancelled plans remain visible in the donor's portal as history, with all past payments and downloadable receipts intact. Only future charges are affected.

Note: legacy open-ended plans

Plans created before set lengths existed ("until you cancel" monthly gifts) still support direct self-cancellation: the donor signs in to their donor portal, opens the plan, and cancels it — charges stop immediately. Everything already collected stays counted in your campaign, and you'll see the plan as Cancelled in your Recurring Payments panel along with any reason the donor gave.