Pledge due date

Tasha Mikoz

Hi,

When creating one-off Pledges with a single instalment our system is showing them as Overdue/Due, adding an automated tag to the doner card. When in fact it’s not overdue, is just the date the pledge was entered into the system.

Is there a set-up somewhere that we can change the default “due date” for these single instalment pledges to be more realistic, like 8 weeks? For us, that is a more reasonable timeframe for the Pledges to be paid.

Thanks

Alex Wong

@Tasha Mikoz
here's an article on how to reschedule a pledge:

When creating the pledge, you (or whoever is doing gift entry) should pay attention and correctly schedule the installment, then you won't have this problem.

JoAnn Strommen

@Tasha Mikoz
Ditto what @Alex Wong said.

No, there is not a way to set a default due date 8 weeks or any set time frame in the future.

Christopher Horn

@Alex Wong
Do you have any suggestions for entering installment schedules on pledges where installment date/schedule isn't an applicable category? My org has been ignoring the category for many years before I got here in 2022 because it isn't relevant to many of our pledges, which does mean just living with every pledge saying it's overdue until it's paid. If there's a better way, I'm in a good spot to nudge things that direction.

As a representative example, say a religious laity fundraising group who decides which groups they'll support on a triennial schedule pledges us $10,000 and tells us that we're the 5th group they'll pay once funds are available: the pledge could be fulfilled anytime in the next three years. We have less extreme examples involving pledges to give $X towards a translation project within the vague future, but we don't have very many who promise to give $X per month on a schedule until the project is funded.

Alex Wong

@Christopher Horn
I don't know what you mean by “isn't an applicable category”. If you are talking about “tag” used in RE NXT, that's not something you can configure.

From my org's finance perspective, it is not right to have pledge that is “forever”. So there is always an agreed upon timeframe for payment to these pledges that we schedule into installments.

I would think if there is a reasonable date of payment, you can make that the installment date (i.e. 3 years later, 5 years later, etc). this is also useful to “trigger” a discussion with the constituent that pledged when the overdue comes about to get better understanding of when the payment may occurs, then readjust the installment date accordingly.

Christopher Horn

@Alex Wong
I meant that pledge payment installments or schedules aren't applicable to most of our pledges because Raiser's Edge wants us to enter specific dates on which installments of the pledges are due, but most of our pledges are paid sometime within a 1 year or 3 year time frame rather than on a schedule. We often don't know when the donor is planning to send us the donation.

Thank you for the advice! Setting the date in the installment schedule to 1 year or 3 years out instead would work well for my org's needs, I think. That should make pledge reports more accurate too.

Alex Wong

@Christopher Horn
OK, understand your question now.

RE Pledge will require having at least 1 installment, that is a requirement. So yes, your best bet is to schedule out the installment date to something that is more meaningful.

JoAnn Strommen

@Tasha Mikoz Yes, your decision to schedule 1-3 years out should solve your problem.

Other things to keep in mind -

• do you plan to/need to send reminders to constituents with these pledges? Having dates at various points in the future could make that a challenge.
• do you do cash flow projections? Extended dates will likely be more realistic for you but are projections accurate if pledges are paid whenever.
• Do you have pledges with actual schedules? If so, you may want to adopt a pattern for actual vs estimated projections. Like estimated are due on day 2 of the month. (If I were in your situation a year from now I would want quick, easy way to know if payment is due or just a ballpark date.)
  

Dariel Dixon

I don't think this is a system problem @Tasha Mikoz, but a gift entry issue. Even with a single installment, you have the ability to set the date when the pledge is due. If these are written pledges, I would think that information would be entered before the gift is committed and posted. There's no where else you would enter that information. But you can't change this default value.

In regards to your question @Christopher Horn, I'd consider adding them with a single installment due 5 years from now. My organization doesn't allow pledges to be entered without a written payment schedule, so I wouldn't be entering these gifts as pledges at all, which is also worth considering.

Pat Phillips

@Tasha Mikoz
When we enter pledges, we always put in a schedule for payments. If the donor does not provide their planned schedule, I enter one payment due on our fiscal year end date.