Pledges represent a donor’s intention to make a gift. You can find pledges on a constituent record in the Giving tab. You can enter pledges with or without an installment schedule, depending on how the commitment will be fulfilled.
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Entering a pledge
To enter a pledge on a record:
Go to Records.
Select a person record.
Select the Giving tab.
Select Pledges.
Select New Pledge.
💡 You can also create a new pledge with a form.
Pledge Fields
Amount (required)
The total amount of the pledge.
Fund (required)
Connect the pledge to an existing fund.
As you start entering text in the field, matching fund names appear.
Selecting a fund displays two additional links:
View Fund: Opens a new browser tab to display detailed information about the fund.
Clear: Removes the selected fund from the Fund field.
Type (required)
Select the type of pledge being entered. Pledge types available in your database are created and modified by configuring the Gift Type (gift_type) Prompt.
Status (required)
New databases come with pledge statuses: Pledges, Fulfilled Pledge, and Pledge Write Off. Pledge statuses are created and modified by configuring the Gift Status (gift_status) Prompt.
Date
Select the date the initial pledge was made.
Write Off Date
The date that a pledge, or part of a pledge, has been written off.
Write Off Amount
The amount of the pledge that has been written off.
📝 Note
Type, Status and Write Off fields are created with special configurations.
Connections, Soft Credits, Tributes, Details, and Custom Fields have the same field descriptions as Gifts.
Installment Fields
Configure Installments
Select this option to set up installments.
Start Date Override
By default, the initial installment date will default to the date of the pledge. Inserting a date in this setting will override that date.
Number of Installments
Enter the total number of payments for which the pledge to be fulfilled.
Months Between Installments
Enter the monthly recurrence of the installment (e.g. every month = 1; every other month = 2; twice a year = 6; etc.).
Overriding installment schedules
If you selected Configure Installments when you created your new pledge, Slate constructs an installment schedule based on your starting date, the number of installments, and the months between them.
After saving the pledge, you can modify this schedule by opening the pledge, clicking “Edit”, and selecting Override Installments.
From there, you can adjust installment amounts and dates, as well as add or remove installments as needed.
Fulfilling Pledges and Installments
To fulfill a pledge, either in full or in part as an installment, create a new gift and select the pledge from the Fulfilling list.
Slate automatically handles the distribution of pledge payments and calculates the remaining balance for each installment. Gifts are automatically applied to the earliest installment with an outstanding balance.
This means, a single gift can pay multiple installments, and multiple gifts can pay a single installment.
For example, a gift of $1,000 was applied to this pledge, so the amount over the earliest installment is automatically rolled into the next installment:
