Recurring donations are one of those things that sound complicated until you've actually set one up, and then you wonder why you put it off. In CiviCRM it comes down to a Contribution Page with recurring enabled, and a payment processor that supports it — most of the popular UK ones do.

A few things worth getting right from the start: give donors a choice of amounts rather than a blank box (people give more when there's a suggested figure), and be upfront that the payment repeats. Nobody likes a surprise on their bank statement, and a confused donor is a cancelled donor.

Once it's live, keep an eye on your failed payment handling. Cards expire, banks decline things for no obvious reason, and CiviCRM can retry and email donors automatically — but only if you've told it to. It's a five-minute setting that saves a lot of awkward “why did my donation stop” emails later.

If you get stuck, this is exactly the kind of thing we're happy to jump on a call about.