Pledge Campaigns FAQ
- Enter the Donation in the Batch Manager Tool, assigning it to the correct donor (whoever wrote the check).
- Pick the program associated with the pledge campaign.
- Make a note in the Donation notes field that it needs to be assigned to a specific pledge.
- Process the BMT batch as usual.
- Find the Donation record in the Platform on the Donations page.
- Click the Distribution tab to open it.
- Click Edit.
- Assign the correct Pledge.
- Save and close the Distribution.
- Create an initial saved selection of the active people on the Contacts page whom you hope will make a pledge:
- Use Find Donors if you want to drill into people who gave "at least x" to programs "a,b,d".
- Use any other views to add people to that list (for example, all those with envelope numbers).
- Use the Transfer Selection tool as often as needed to keep adding people into your selection.
- Create the pledge campaign. Be sure you edit any programs and connect them to the pledge campaign.
- Create Pledge records when the pledge forms are received.
- Remove the donors and their spouses who have made a pledge from your initial selection.
- Select everyone with a pledge on the Pledges page.
- Use the Transfer or Build a Selection report from the Pledges page.
- Use the Heads of Household option to get both heads and remove both heads from the list.
- Use the Remove option in the Transfer or Build a Selection tool to remove these contacts from your initial selection.
It depends on how and when the donation is entered. The processes described below may be impacted by the Pledge Campaign setup.
- A Donation can be manually assigned to a pledge through the BMT the pledge is credited when the batch is saved.
- Mission Trip/Project Giving is a Portal page which credits the pledge the instant a donation is made.
- When a donation is made online by a donor who has a pledge, that pledge is credited later when the operator creates a batch from selected donations.
- If a Batch Manager Tool user fails to credit a pledge the system does so automatically later when the operator creates a deposit from selected batches.
- Our nightly routines run on a church-defined schedule, including a data quality routine that attempts to do the following:
- Match pledges to donations when the donor or the donor's spouse has a pledge and a donation is recorded against one of their records and they have a Statement Type of Family. This action respects the value defined for the SSRS, AssignIncrementPledgeDays configuration setting.
- Create new pledges for donors who do not currently have a Pledge record (and, if sharing giving, whose spouse does not currently have a Pledge record) toward the related pledge campaign that has been assigned to the program the donor gave to. Only runs for pledge campaigns that have Auto Create Pledge set to Yes.
- Increase the Total Pledge amount on any existing pledges if any new donation distributions caused the sum total to exceed the pledge total. Only runs for pledge campaigns that have Auto Increase Total set to Yes.
- Any Donation Distribution can be manually credited to any pledge at any time by a user with sufficient rights by editing the Donation Distribution record. Note: If a specific donation is not automatically crediting a specific pledge and you feel it should, please provide the specific Donation ID and Pledge ID to your Finance SPoC after you have checked the following facts:
- The donation was distributed to a Program that has the correct Pledge Campaign set.
- The donor or the donor's spouse has a Pledge to the correct Pledge Campaign.
- The donation is dated after the First Installment Date of the Donors the Active Pledge.
- Create a selection of all those who have made Pledges.
- Transfer the selection to the Contacts page.
- Launch the Transfer Selection Tool and transfer the selection again to the Contacts page, ensure that the Select Heads Instead check box is selected so that the selection contains both the male and female heads of household.
- Create a selection of people who you want to communicate with.
- Make the first selection of those who pledged active.
- Launch the Transfer Selection Tool and use the Remove from Existing Selection option. Choose the selection of all contacts you want to communicate with. This removes all those who have pledged from the rest of those you want to communicate with.
- Refresh the page.
- Make the second selection active and this displays the new lesser number of those in this selection.
Yes. When using the Deceased Person's Tool, change the Discontinue Pledges option to No.
No, a Pledge Campaign (Mission Trip) requires one specific Campaign Goal amount. You can edit it at any time during the Campaign if needed. Individual Pledges (Mission Trip Participants) also require one specific Total Pledge Amount. However, you can create each Pledge so that each trip participant does not have the same Total Pledge (fundraising goal). If you are using the Portal for Mission Trip Registration, you must set one specific Fundraising Goal on the Pledge Campaign record. After the person is registered, adjust their individual Pledge as needed.
While it depends what your internal decisions are about these type gifts (what you want to see, and what details matter to you), here are two possibilities for processing:
- Post the gift to the mission's Program, and leave it at that. This would keep it out of pledges and tracking, but be in the right Program for record keeping, OR
- Create a Pledge for (for example) 2016 Romania Team or Anonymous trip participant. Then, any gifts to the trip not specified to a real trip participant are posted to the Donor and matched to the team/anonymous pledge for the trip.
The dates you use on the Pledge Campaign record are what shows on the Portal. There is not a way for the Pledge's installment start/end dates to be different than the Campaign start/end dates.
It depends on if you have updated their Pledge Status accordingly. Pledge Statuses are not updated by the system.
- If the status is Complete, you can see it on the Pledges page, Completed view.
- If the status is Not Complete, you can see it on the Pledges page, Fix Mark as Complete view.
On the Pledges page, the No Recorded Gifts view shows Pledges without Gifts.
This can be accomplished by using the Transfer Selection Tool:
- Make your starting selection.
- Save that selection (for example, 2024 Donors).
- From the Pledges page, make a selection of the appropriate pledges.
- Transfer your selection.
- Choose the Donors page.
- Click Transfer.
- From the Donors page, click the Tools menu, and select Transfer Selection.
- Choose Remove from an existing selection.
- Choose Donors.
- Choose your starting selection (2024 Donors).
- Click Go. This removes your Pledges selection form your 2024 Donor selection.
Edit each Program that contributes to the Pledge Campaign so that each Program is linked to the Pledge Campaign. Many Programs, one per Campus, can be linked to your Campaign. Then, the Platform ensures the Pledges get credited when the Donor gives to any Program associated with the Campaign.
Pledge credit is assigned when online donations are batched. Pledge credit can also be assigned when Batches of checks are made into Deposits. Pledge credit is also assigned nightly by a data quality routine.
If third party gifts need to be given credit to someone else's Pledge, you can do that manually by opening the Donation and editing the Distribution.
For a Pledge Campaign to be Program Eligible, it must be designated as the Pledge Campaign on the Program record.
Use the No Recorded Gifts view on the Pledges page. You can use this view and the New Message Tool or a report (like Selected Pledge Letter or Selected Pledge Mail Merge) to communicate to these Donors. Alternatively, the Pledge Statement reports has an option to include these people.
That is completely up to how you want to manage your Pledge Campaigns. What you choose affects what "bucket" a Pledge shows up on in views on the Pledge page (or tab), what "bucket" they are grouped in on various Pledge reports, and what Donors see on the My Pledges page of the Portal. We just recommend being consistent across Campaigns.
We recommend creating a new Pledge Campaign for each trip each year (for example, Country Y Mission Trip 2015 and Country Y Mission Trip 2016). This way the dates, event, and participants (Pledges), etc. for the current trip and the past trip are clear and visible. This also preserves the ability to run reports on each trip separately.
Any pledge with zero installments planned will show on this view as zero times any amount is zero. To fix this, change the Installments planned to "0."
The Pledge should be marked Completed to have it no longer show on the BMT.
- Not Tax Deductible.
- Event Title.
- If it is "Future Donation" or "Not Fully Processed" donation.
- On Pledge.
Change the SSRS, CurrentCampaignFilters configuration setting to Yes.
The answer is somewhat how you want to handle this and how you want it to appear for the Donor. Many of our churches will add a note to the new pledge that references the old pledge and then discontinue the old Pledge record.
Yes. If you do not want to do separate pledge campaign statements, you can work with Professional Services to develop a multi-campaign statement.