A pledge shows as outstanding when its Fulfilled checkbox has not been set, either automatically or manually.
How auto-fulfillment works
Every six minutes, the system scans new donations and tries to match them against open pledges for the same contact. A donation fulfills a pledge when all of these conditions are true:
The donation belongs to the same contact as the pledge.
The donation date is on or after the date the pledge was created.
The donation amount is greater than or equal to the pledge amount.
When a match is found, the pledge is marked fulfilled and the donation that triggered it is recorded.
Common reasons a pledge stays outstanding
No matching donation has come in. The contact has not yet made a donation that meets the criteria above.
The donation predates the pledge. If the donation date is before the pledge was created, the system will not match them. This can happen with back-dated or imported donations.
The donation amount is too small. The donation amount must be at least as large as the pledge amount. A single donation can fulfill multiple smaller pledges in sequence if there is enough remaining amount, but a pledge will not be matched if the donation (or remaining amount after earlier pledges) is less than that pledge's amount.
The donation is assigned to a different contact. Auto-fulfillment matches on the contact record, not on name or email. If the donation was imported under a duplicate record that has not been merged, it will not match.
The donation has not finished processing. Newly entered or imported donations are processed in batches. There may be a short delay (up to a few minutes) before the match runs.
How to fulfill a pledge manually
Open the contact's profile and find the pledge in the Pledges section.
Click the three-dot menu on the pledge row.
Select Mark as Fulfilled.
To reverse this, click the same menu and select Mark as Outstanding.
Checking the due date
Each pledge has an optional Due by date. Passing that date does not automatically mark a pledge outstanding or fulfilled; it is informational only. If you filter or sort pledges by due date, overdue pledges will appear there regardless of their fulfillment status.