To cancel a Human Rights Campaign donation, contact HRC Member Services at membership@hrc.org or 800-727-4723, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. HRC does not offer a self-service online portal for recurring gifts, so you need to reach a person or send an email. If you set the donation up through PayPal or an app store, you’ll also need to cancel it there, or the charges can keep going through even after HRC closes your recurring gift on its end.
Contact HRC Member Services
Calling 800-727-4723 or emailing membership@hrc.org is the direct route. HRC’s support page confirms the team can adjust, pause, or cancel a recurring gift at any time. Have your name, the email address you used when you signed up, and the last four digits of your payment method ready. If you have a Donor ID from a past mailer or receipt, mention that too. More identifying details means a faster lookup.
If you call, ask the representative to confirm the cancellation before you hang up and request an email confirmation. If you email, use a clear subject line like “Cancel Recurring Donation” and put the same identifying details in the body. Either way, save the date and time of your request. That timestamp matters if a charge slips through after you’ve canceled.
HRC processes monthly donations on or around the 20th of each month. Reaching out well before that date gives the team time to stop the next charge before it runs.
Cancel on PayPal Too
If you set up your recurring donation through PayPal, canceling with HRC alone may not be enough. PayPal keeps its own record of automatic payments, and that authorization can keep sending money even after HRC marks your account as canceled.
To shut it off at the source, log in to PayPal on the web, go to Settings, click Payments, then select Subscriptions and Saved Businesses (sometimes labeled Automatic Payments). Find the Human Rights Campaign entry, open it, and click Cancel. PayPal shows a confirmation screen once the automatic payment is turned off. Save or screenshot that confirmation. If you only cancel on HRC’s side but forget PayPal, you could see another charge next month and wonder what went wrong.
Cancel Through Apple or Google Play
Some donors set up recurring contributions through a phone app. Those subscriptions are managed by Apple or Google, not by HRC, so you have to cancel in the right place.
On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, find the HRC entry, and tap Cancel Subscription. On a Mac, open the App Store, click your name, go to Account Settings, scroll to Subscriptions, and click Manage. Uninstalling the app does not cancel the subscription.
On Android, open the Google Play app and go to your subscriptions. Select the HRC subscription and tap Cancel Subscription, then follow the prompts. You can also manage subscriptions through your device’s Settings under Google, then Manage Your Google Account, then Payments & Subscriptions. If you don’t see the subscription, make sure you’re signed in with the same Google account you used to subscribe.
Stop Payment at Your Bank as a Backup
Federal law gives you an independent right to stop any preauthorized recurring transfer from your bank account. Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, you can notify your bank or credit union orally or in writing at least three business days before the next scheduled payment, and the bank must block it. The bank may ask you to confirm an oral request in writing within 14 days; if you skip that follow-up, the stop-payment order expires.
This is a useful safety net if you’ve already contacted HRC and PayPal but want extra insurance, or if the next charge date is close. This right covers transfers pulled from a bank account (ACH debits). If your recurring donation charges a credit card instead, the process is different: you’d dispute the charge with your card issuer under the Fair Credit Billing Act rather than place a stop-payment order.
A stop-payment at the bank does not notify HRC that you’ve canceled. From HRC’s side, the donation failed rather than ended, so still reach out directly to get your records updated.
Check That the Cancellation Stuck
After canceling, watch your bank or credit card statement through at least two billing cycles. The first cycle after your request is the one most likely to slip through if your cancellation landed close to the processing date. HRC processes around the 20th, so a charge that posts shortly after you canceled on the 18th may be a timing issue rather than a failure to cancel.
If a charge posts well after you canceled and you have confirmation of the cancellation, contact your bank or card issuer to dispute it. For bank account debits, federal rules require your financial institution to investigate an unauthorized transfer once you report it, as long as you report within 60 days of the statement showing the charge. For credit card charges, you have the same 60-day window from the statement date to dispute in writing.
Think Twice Before Filing a Chargeback
If a post-cancellation charge appears, filing a chargeback through your credit card company works as a last resort, but it’s a blunt tool. Every chargeback triggers fees that can exceed $75 per transaction, and the organization loses the donated amount on top of that. High chargeback rates can threaten a nonprofit’s ability to accept credit card payments at all.
Contact HRC Member Services first, give them a chance to reverse the charge, and escalate to a formal dispute only if HRC doesn’t resolve it. You’ll get your money back either way, but the direct route is faster.
Ask for a Refund on a Recent Charge
If your most recent charge went through before you had a chance to cancel, you can ask HRC to reverse it. Contact Member Services at the same email or phone number and explain the situation. There’s no publicly posted refund policy with a specific deadline, so the sooner you ask, the better your chances. Be clear about whether you want just the latest charge reversed or whether you’re also canceling going forward. Those are two separate requests, and making both explicit in the same conversation saves a follow-up call.