Pledges¶
- Pledges
A Pledge is a record of a donor’s intent to give a certain amount to a specific fund. In order to track a person’s giving as it relates to a Pledge, the first thing to do is for the person with Finance role to create the Fund to which your donors will pledge. This will be the same Fund to which they will make donations in order to reduce their Pledge balance.
Pledges should be posted to Funds that will eventually be closed (i.e. they will have an end date), not to a Fund such as your normal Tithe or General Budget Fund.
Note
The Fund does not need to be named Pledge Fund. It just has to have the Pledge Fund box checked.
See also
Tip
If you will have Pledge Funds each year, it is helpful to include the year in the name of the fund. For example: Love Offering 2013; Love Offering 2014. If this is a one-time fund that will stay open for several years, then you do not need a year in the name.
A person’s Pledge can be recorded after actual contributions have been recorded. The contribution statement will still reflect the Pledge and all gifts given to that Fund regardless of when the Pledge was recorded.
Roles for Posting Pledges
A user must have either Finance and Access roles or FinanceDataEntry and Access roles in order to create the Bundles and post Pledges. Click here to read about the FinanceDataEntry role.
Stop Displaying Pledges on Statements¶
When you are ready to stop tracking Pledges on individual’s contribution statement you can handle that one of two ways:
- Close the Fund. It will no longer display for posting contributions and any Pledges to that Fund will no longer be included in the Pledge section of the statement. However, you can open the Fund temporarily to post a contribution, and then close it again after you have finished.
- Edit the Fund and remove the check mark that flags the Fund as a Pledge Fund. When you use this method, you can continue to receive contributions for the Fund, but not pledges, and the Pledges will not display on the statement.
There is also an optional Setting relating to this as well. See Special Setting for this other option regarding open Pledge Funds.
Create the Pledge Fund¶
- Step 1
Go to Administration > Contributions > Management > Fund Management and click the green +Add Fund button.
Enter the new Fund ID # and then click the blue Submit button.
- Step 2
Follow the normal steps when creating a new Fund, entering the Name, Description and other information, making sure you check the box for Pledge Fund?.
There is an additional option titled Pledge Grouping, where you can have a fund to which pledges are made, but to which no contributions are ever made. Instead, for this fund you can configure other funds, that during the defined date range, will count toward fulfillment of that pledge fund.
When the Pledge Grouping box is checked, the additional menu items will appear:
- Funds In Grouping
- Pledge Grouping Start
- Pledge Grouping End
- Step 3
- Click the blue Save Fund button.
See also
Caution
Be sure to record Pledges in separate Bundles from Bundles with actual cash/checks. Bundles with Pledges must have a Bundle Type of Pledge.
Record Pledges¶
- Step 1
- Create a new Bundle for just the Pledges, as though it were actual monetary contributions. Do not mix Pledges with contributions in the same Bundle.
- Step 2
Select the default Fund. This will be the Fund you have created as the Pledge Fund.
Select Pledge as the Bundle Type
Leave the Deposit Date empty so that the Pledge Bundle will not display on the Deposit Report.
Enter the total amount of the Pledges in the Total Cash field, with zeros in the Check and Coin fields.
Click Update. Now you are ready to post the individual Pledges.
- Step 3
Click PostBundle Edit on the Bundle.
Verify that the Bundle Type is Pledge (located just under the Fund).
Post the amount of the Pledge for each person just as though you were recording contributions.
- Step 4
- When finished, close the Bundle.
Tip
If you do not know the total for the Pledges, you can leave the total for the Bundle empty. Once you finish posting the Pledges and are ready to close the Bundle, you can enter the Bundle Total at that point.
Important
Once the Pledge has been recorded, record subsequent contributions to that same Fund as you normally record contributions.
Contributions to a Pledge Fund do not have a Bundle Type of Pledge, nor a Contribution Type of Pledge. The contributions are treated like all other cash/check/online contributions.
Do not record contributions in the same Bundle as the Pledge.
You cannot Pledge to one Fund and contribute to a different Fund, or the contribution will not be credited toward the pledge.
Pledges and Contribution Statements¶
Below is a section of a sample statement for a donor with a pledge:
Pledge Summaries When Posting Contributions¶
If you would like to see a pledge summary when posting contributions, add the administration setting PostContributionPledgeFunds and for its value enter the fund ID(s) for which you want summaries. If you enter multiple fund IDs, separate them with commas but no spaces. For example, 301,412.
When this is in place and you are posting contributions, whenever you enter the ID or name of a person who has pledged to one of the designated funds, a popup window will display:
- amount pledged
- amount given toward the pledge
- remaining balance on the pledge
The summary displays when a pledging donor’s name is entered.
Reports for Pledges¶
There are several reports and exports relating to Pledges.
Recurring Pledges¶
If your church uses recurring pledges, see Recurring Pledges for information about configuring this.
| Latest Update | 12/12/2022 |
Added Pledge Grouping option