Overview
This article explains how to use Pledges in Kindful, and it outlines the various stages of the pledge as well as how to manage them properly.
Linked Articles:
Understanding the Attributes of a Pledge
Kindful Definition: In Kindful, a pledge is a commitment a donor has made to your organization to give a certain amount. This could be a gift made on a monthly basis through mailing in a check or making a regularly scheduled online donation that can come with a goal of giving a certain amount.
Contact: Assign a pledge to an active Contact in Kindful
Campaign: Assign a pledge to an active Campaign in Kindful. This is useful for finding all Activities associated with a Campaign, including One-time Transactions, Recurring Transactions, Notes, Pledges, and more
Date: This is the date you are associating with the entry of the Pledge. It could be the Pledge receipt date or simply the date you are entering this in from an audit perspective
Amount: This is the amount of the Pledge as specified by the donor
Due Date: Use this to select an optional date to track when a pledge is due. This field can be used to indicate the status of pledges as well as to filter for pledges that are due within a set timeframe
Admin Note: This field is used to add in a custom note about your transaction like you can on any new transaction being entered into Kindful. This field replaces the “Transaction Type” field on a pledge, and we have migrated the content that users had previously selected in this field
Pledge Status - “Past Due”: If the pledge is not paid in full by the Due Date, the pledge is automatically considered past due at 12:00 am the day (night) after it is due. This time is according to the time zone that is set in the organization’s General Settings. For example: if you create a pledge that with a Due Date of 4/29/2019, that pledge would transition from being “Open” to “Past Due” at 12:00 am on 4/30/2019
Understanding the Statuses of a Pledge
Pledge statuses are automated, meaning the status changes as the Admin user is taking action towards the pledge.
Open: An open pledge has a remaining balance greater than $0. If the pledge details show a due date, it means that the due date has not passed yet.
Past Due: A pledge that is past due has not been fulfilled by the due date that has been set. A user can change this due date to a future date in order to make this pledge “Open” again.
Completed: If a pledge is completed, it has a remaining balance of 0 and has been fulfilled. A user cannot complete a pledge unless the pledge is fulfilled, but a pledge can be over-fulfilled. Overpaying a pledge can be useful when using $0 pledges.
Canceled: An open or a past due pledge can be canceled by the Admin. A canceled pledge has a remaining balance greater than $0. An Admin user can “reopen” the pledge in order to move it into an open state again and continue to add payments towards the pledge.
Taking Action on a Pledge
Depending on what status your Pledge is in, there are specific actions you can take on a Pledge.
Add a Payment: Use this option to add a payment towards a pledge to either pay the balance partially or completely
You can also add a payment directly from the Pledge from the Activities page by clicking the dropdown arrow on the right hand side of the Activity line
Cancel: If a pledge is Open or Past Due, it can be canceled. A pledge that has been canceled is one that has a remaining balance, but the organization might no longer actively be trying to collect more of that balance. Canceling a pledge takes the pledge off of the Open Pledge widget on a contact's profile Overview page.
Reopen: If a pledge has been canceled, the user can reopen the pledge in order to start adding payments again. Reopening a pledge that has been canceled changes the status from Canceled to Open. Here are some scenarios that can reopen a pledge:
- An admin clicks the Reopen Action on a canceled pledge
- A payment that was previously applied towards a pledge has been refunded/voided/canceled/deleted, and the total amount applied towards the pledge is now less than the original pledged amount
- The total pledged amount of a completed pledge is increased to an amount greater than the amount that has been applied towards the pledge
Edit: This button appears on pledges of all statuses and is used to change any of the attributes assigned to the pledge
Delete: This button appears on pledges of all statuses and is used to remove the pledge entirely from the contact
Filtering For and Reporting On Pledges
Activities Filters
Pledge Status: This filter displays a drop-down of all pledge statuses and will return all Pledges with the corresponding status selected
Amount Equal to: This filter returns activities that have a currency amount equal to a specific number
Amount Between: This filters for all activities that are between two currency amounts. This is inclusive of the values entered into the filter
Pledge Payment: This filter allows you to see all transactions that have been applied towards any pledge
Pledge With Due Date After: This filter allows you to see all pledges that have a due date after what is selected
Pledge With Due Date Before:This filter allows you to see all pledges that have a due date before what is selected
Pledge With Due Date Between: This filter allows you to see all pledges that are due between a specific set of dates
Pledge With Due Date On: This filter allows you to see all pledges that are due on a specific date
Contacts Filters
Has Pledge With Status: This filter allows you to find Contacts with Pledges based on status
Has Pledge Past Due: This filter helps users find contacts with a pledge past due within certain time frames. Example: Filtering contacts for “Has Pledge Past Due: Last Month” finds all contacts who have a pledge that have a due date last month
Has Pledge Coming Due: This filter finds contacts with a pledge about to be due within specific time frames. Example: Filtering contacts for “Has Pledge Coming Due: Next Month” finds all contacts who have a pledge that has a due date next month
Basic Search: Use the tab on the Contacts page which helps users easily use the filters described above
Report Columns
Admin Note: This report column will return the contents of an admin note of a pledge, as well as transactions.
Pledge Due Date: This report column allows you to export the due date on a pledge
Pledge Status: This report column allows you to export the current status of the pledge
Pledge Balance: This column exports the current balance remaining on a pledges
Pledges List View
This page (Fundraising > Pledges) gives the Admin user more insight into their pledges at a glance, and allows them to take action on multiple pledges on the same page.
Columns
Contact: The contact column contains the contact’s first and last name, ID, street address, and email address
Created At: This shows the Pledge Created At date in the MM/DD/YYYY format
Due Date: See the due dat of a Pledge
Balance: See the open balance of a Pledge
Status: See the Status of a Pledge
Actions: Take action, dependent upon the current status of the pledge, on any of the pledges from the list view
Still have questions?
Feel free to send our support team an email, or you can call the phone number found in the lower left hand corner of your Kindful Admin account to speak to a team member.
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