eTapestry API: Recurring Donations

I spent long enough trying to puzzle out whether I should use Recurring Gifts vs. Recurring Gift Schedules in the eTapestry API that I figured it was worth a short post.

The goal was to handle recurring donations. Every month, Suzy wants to donate $10 to Cool NPO. It’s not a pledge, in that she’s not dedicating herself to $120 for one year. Just $10/month. (Forever! Bwua-ha-ha!)

In short, don’t bother making an actual Recurring Gift, just make the Recurring Gift Schedule (RGS). eTapestry itself will create the Recurring Gift and reference your RGS when you call the addRecurringGiftSchedule method. The two-part creation will show up right in the Journal for the user in question.

Pleasantly easy, but initially confusing from the documentation.