Pledges

Sometimes donors want to give large gifts, but can only afford to do so at a later date or over a period of time. These commitments to donate in the future with a single gift or through multiple installments — such as a gift of $1200 as 12 monthly payments of $100 — are known as pledges. When a donor pays toward the commitment, you can track the gift as a pledge payment.

On the pledged gift record, you can view how much the donor already paid and has left to pay under Pledge summary. You can also view how much (and when) they’ll pay the next installment.

On the pledged gift record, under Pledge burndown, you can view the donor’s progress toward their commitment, alongside the installment schedule and detailed information about its payment history. For each transaction, you can view its type (such as payment or write-off), how much was paid (and when), and how much was left to pay toward the gift at the time of the transaction.

To view the pledge burndown offline, select its menu to print or download the chart. You can also view the burndown details as a data table and download the results as a comma-separated values (CSV) or Microsoft Excel (XLS) file.

On the pledged gift record, you can view how often the donor pays installments and how many they committed to pay under Pledge schedule. You can also select View full schedule to view a complete list of the installments and pertinent details about each, such as the date, amount and remaining balance for each installment. For more information, see Pledge Schedule.

Tip: In the database view, you can manage pledge details, such as adding a write-off, from the Gifts tab of the pledged gift record. To save information about how much (and when) the donor will pay each installment, select Schedule. After you receive a payment, create a new gift record and select Gift, Apply to, Pledge to apply it toward the pledge.