Q1: How do I assign a donation to a 3rd party's pledge?
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 (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 on the Distribution (Distributions sub-page) to open it.
Click Edit.
Assign the correct Pledge.
Save and close the Distribution.
Q2: How do I find people who have NOT made a pledge?
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 (e.g., 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.
Q3: How is a Donation credited to a Pledge?
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.
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. They include a data quality routine that also 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. For this to run, the AssignPledgesNightly configuration setting must be set to Yes; if so, the routine looks back 90 days to assign any unassigned active pledges.
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. 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.
The report titled Campaign Donation to Pledge Matching is found on the Pledge Campaigns page. It prints any donation to a program that is assigned to the campaign which was credited to a donor who has a pledge. Donations by donors whose spouses have a pledge also appear.
Note that 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.
Q4: How can I communicate with those who haven't made a 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 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.
Q5: Can you have an active Pledge for someone whose Contact Status is listed as Deceased?
Yes. When using the Deceased Person's Tool, change the Discontinue Pledges option to No.
Q6: Is there a way to put in a dollar range for Mission Trip cost?
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 desired.
Q7: If we have someone who wants to contribute to the entire missions trip, not a particular person, how do we need to process that in the Platform?
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.
Q8: Could we ask people to pledge to a campaign in November, for example, but not to start donating until January?
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.
Q9: How do I find a donor who has a $0 pledge balance?
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.
Q10: How do I see pledges made which have no gifts associated with them?
On the Pledges page, the No Recorded Gifts view shows Pledges without Gifts.
Q11: Is there a way to "trim out" pledges from a selection?
This can be accomplished by using the Transfer Selection Tool:
Make your starting selection
Save that selection (for example, 2015 Donors)
From the Pledges page, make a selection of the desired Pledges
Click Xfer
Choose the Donors page
Click Transfer
From the Donors page, choose Tools > Transfer Selection
Choose Remove from an existing selection
Choose Donors
Choose your starting selection (2015 Donors)
Click Go. This removes your Pledges selection form your 2015 Donor selection.
Q12: How do I ensure Pledges get assigned if Donations are imported from a 3rd Party (like OnlineGiving.cc)?
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.
Q13: Why do I see a "Program is Not Campaign Eligible" message on my Pledge Campaign report notes?
For a Pledge Campaign to be Program Eligible, it must be designated as the Pledge Campaign on the Program record.
Q14: How do I see and communicate with Donors who Pledged, but have not given?
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.
Q15: When a Pledge Campaign is over, and someone has underpaid a Pledge, should I mark them as completed or mark as discontinued?
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 sub-page), 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.
Q16: We have an annual Missions Trip that happens each year, but the dates and Participants change each year. Can I reuse the same Pledge Campaign? Or should I create a new Pledge Campaign?
We recommend creating a new Pledge Campaign for each trip each year (e.g., 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.
Q17: There is a record that seems correct on the "Miscalculated Pledge" view. However, they do not seem to be miscalculated.
Any pledge with "0" installments planned will show on this view as "0" times any amount is "0." To fix this, change the Installments planned to "0."
Q18: Why are Mission Trip pledges still showing on the BMT?
The Pledge should be marked "Completed" to have it no longer show on the BMT.
Q19: I am running the "Selected Pledge Donation List," what information would populate in the "Notes" column?
- Not Tax Deductible.
- Event Title.
- If it is "Future Donation" or "Not Fully Processed" donation.
- On Pledge.
Q20: I am running the "Campaign Pledge List" Report and how can I limit the pledge list to only current Campaigns?
Change the configuration setting, SSRS, CurrentCampaignFilters to true.
Q21: A Donor added a new pledge rather than completing their old pledge. How should I handle this?
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.
Q22: Is there a way to include multiple pledge campaigns on contribution statements?
Yes. If you do not want to do separate pledge campaign statements, you can work with Professional Services to develop a multi-campaign statement.
