Pledges 101
Updated over a week ago

Some organizations provide an option to their contacts and donors that allows them to set up “pledges.”

A pledge is a commitment between your organization and a donor that lets the donor contribute towards a greater, personal donation goal over time.

For example, someone may pledge to donate $5,000 over a 5-year period; someone else may pledge to donate $50 each month over the next 24 months.

Enabling Pledges in Donor Management

In order for pledges to be available to your donors, you’ll first need to enable the pledge feature in Donor Management.

You’ll want to select the “Settings” tab from the navigation on the left side of your screen, and then select the “Your Organization” option that appears below “Settings.”

Once the Settings page loads, you’ll want to scroll down to the section labeled “Pledge Settings.”

You should then see a toggle option labeled “Enable Pledges.” You’ll want to make sure that this toggle option is set to the blue and white checkmark.

You should also see a pledge form URL listed in the corresponding field, as well as several related fields.

We’ll discuss pledge forms and how to set them up below – but in the meantime, you can scroll all the way down and click the blue “Update & Save” button at the bottom of the page, to save your updates.

Creating Online Pledge Forms

One of the easiest ways (for both you and your donors) to collect pledges is by using the customizable pledge forms available in Donor Management.

Under that same “Pledge Settings” section we discussed earlier, you should see several fields related to creating your organization’s own pledge form:

  • Pledge Form URL: This automatically-generated URL is what you can share with your contacts so that they can access the pledge form.

    You can copy and share the URL by clicking on the small “copy” button directly to the right of the URL.

  • Logo: You have the option to upload an image of your organization’s logo, which will be displayed at the top of the form.

    If you opt to not include a logo, the form will display your organization’s name instead.

  • Primary Color: If your organization uses a specific color in its branding materials, you can enter a six-digit hex code of that color to ensure your form matches.

  • Payment URL: This field is where you can enter the URL of one of your Fundraising Pages, where your donors will be able to make their first pledge payment.

    The URL will then be listed at the bottom of the pledge summary page, once the form has been submitted.

  • Default Completion Date: If you enter a date in this field, it will display on your form as the date you expect all donors to complete their pledges by.

    This field is still editable by donors completing the pledge form, so it serves as more of a suggested date of completion for those who may be unsure of how long their pledges should last.

  • Send Pledge Notifications To: This is where you’ll want to add the email addresses of those in your organization who should be notified of new pledge form submissions, as well as weekly reminders of upcoming pledge payments within the next 30 days.

    You can add multiple email addresses by using commas to separate each address.

  • Auto-link Donations: This toggle option, when turned on, will automatically link any donations made by a donor who has set up a pledge directly to that pledge; in other words, every donation that the donor makes moving forward will count towards their pledge goal.

  • Text-to-Pledge: This option, when enabled, allows for your donors to text a specific phone number and make a pledge via their mobile device.

    This feature does need to be enabled by a member of the Support Team. We’ll go over this feature more when we discuss communication tools, but if you know you’d like to enable this feature already, you can contact them directly by emailing success@networkforgood.com.

Once you’ve filled out these fields and saved the information, you’re ready to share this pledge form with your contacts!

To share your new pledge form, you’ll need to navigate to the “My Organization” page, under the “Settings” tab.

Under the “Pledge Settings” section of the page, you should see a “Pledge URL” form.

You can copy the link to this form by clicking on the “Copy” button next to the URL (it looks like two pieces of paper stacked on each other). Then, feel free to share away!

Manually Adding Pledges

If your donor would prefer not to set a pledge up via the form or text-to-pledge, you can manually set up a new pledge on their behalf in Donor Management.

You’ll first want to click on “Giving” in the navigation bar on the left hand side, and then selecting the option for “Pledges” that should appear below “Giving.”

Once the page has loaded, you can click on the green “Add Pledge” button in the top right corner.

You’ll then be asked to fill out a few details about the donor making the pledge, as well as the pledge itself:

Donor Details

  • Donor: This is where you can begin typing the name of the donor submitting the pledge, and select them from the drop-down options.

  • Campaign: This is where you can select an existing campaign where all of the contributions to this pledge will be allocated.

  • Designation: You can also select an existing designation to correspond with all contributions made towards this contact’s pledge.

Pledge Details

  • Total pledge amount: This is where you’ll enter the total amount of the pledge, once all contributions have been made.

  • Date Received: This is where you’ll enter the date that you received the pledge, which can help when reporting on pledges made within a specific time frame.

  • Fulfilled by date: This is where you’ll want to enter the date that the donor has committed to completing all payments towards the pledge.

  • Pledge payment schedule: You can select an option from the drop down menu for the frequency of payments made towards the pledge.

    Donors can choose to contribute annually, semi-annually, quarterly, monthly, etc. - or, if they’d prefer, you can select the “single payment/unscheduled” option to allow the donor more flexibility in contributing towards the pledge.

Notes

  • Notes: This optional field is where you can include additional notes on a pledge that may be important – such as any additional details surrounding the payment schedule, as an example.

  • Attach a file: This field lets you upload any additional files associated with this pledge, such as a pledge card or signed agreement.

How to Link Donations to Existing Pledges

By default, donations aren’t automatically linked to pledges – but linking the two is a quick and easy process, thanks to a few helpful tools within our system.

Linking a Donation Through the Pledge Details Page

When viewing a donor’s pledge details, you should see a section labeled “Unlinked Donation.”

This section displays any recent donations that have been made by this donor that haven’t already been linked to the pledge.

You can easily link the donation from here by pressing the “link” button next to the donation amount.

It'll then automatically be added as a pledge installment and count towards the overall pledge goal.

Linking a Pledge from the Donation Details Page

If you don’t see a donation that should be linked on the Pledge Details page, and it’s not displaying under the “Unlinked Donation” section, you can link the pledge through the Donation Details page instead.

First, you’ll want to pull up that specific donation’s Donation Details page.

You should see a section on the page that lists the donor’s name, as well as “Open Pledges.”

You can then click on the small arrow next to the open pledge, and select “link” from the available options.

That should then link that donation to the pledge that you’ve selected!

Linking a Pledge While Manually Adding a Donation

During the process of manually adding a donation, you can also link that donation to a donor’s existing pledge.

Under the “Optional Details” section of a new donation record, you can select a pledge option from the drop-down list under the “Pledge” field.

This drop-down field to select a pledge will only appear if the donor you’ve selected has an existing pledge – so you may need to go back and create a pledge for that donor first, if you haven’t already!

Editing Pledges

If you ever need to edit or update a pledge on behalf of a donor, you can do so directly from the “Pledge Details” page.

You’ll want to click on the green “Edit” button in the top right corner of the page. (Be sure to click on the “Edit” button, and not the green dropdown arrow next to it!)

Once you’ve made the necessary updates, you can save those changes and should return to the “Pledge Details” screen.

If you’ve made any changes to the pledge that might impact the payment schedule, we also recommend regenerating the installments after making those edits. You can do this by clicking on the green dropdown arrow next to the “Edit” button, and selecting “Regenerate Installments” from the available options.

You can also send a reminder email to a donor from this dropdown menu, if you think they might need a little nudge!

Writing Off Unfulfilled Pledges

Pledges are a great way for a donor to show their commitment to your organization, by providing consistent support over a specific period of time. But what happens if you need to write off the balance of an incomplete, or “unfulfilled” pledge?

Here are the steps you can take to adjust that unfulfilled pledge so it doesn’t affect your financial reports, but still retains the information you might need in the future.

First, select “Giving,” then select “Pledges.”

Next, click on “Actions” next to the pledge you’re looking to adjust, and select “Edit” from the drop-down menu.

Under the section titled “Pledge Details,” you’ll want to adjust the “Total Pledge Amount” field to reflect how much has already been paid.

For example, if the pledged amount initially totaled $500, but your donor has only paid $350 towards that pledge, then you’d adjust the amount to $350.

Then, under the “Notes” section, you can add a note that includes the original, intended amount of the pledge, as well as how much of the initial pledge will be written off, and the date that the write-off was approved.

Once you’ve added that information, you can click on the green “Update and Save” button. This should update the outstanding amount of the pledge to $0, but you’ll still be able to retain the original pledge details for future reference.

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