Pledge Reminders: Keep Donors' Commitments on Schedule

Steve Stegelin

With pledges, donors can give large gifts as a series of installments over a period of time. Over the past couple of weeks, Raiser's Edge NXT updated pledge records with new details to track their installment schedules and easily monitor their progress. To help donors — who often get busy over the life of a pledge — keep their commitments on track, we recommend you send reminders as scheduled installments come due. In addition to acknowledgements and other tokens of appreciation, pledge reminders can help you cultivate relationships with donor and acquire gifts. As donors give out of generosity rather than obligation, we recommend these best practices to ensure friendly reminders (and not collection letters).

 
Keep it informal. To ensure pledge reminders are short and personal, use the donor's preferred informal salutation, and avoid content that sounds like a computer-generated form letter.

Be helpful. Include details about which installment is coming due, including when it's due, how much is due, and the campaign or fund it applies toward.

Make it easy. To ensure prompt payment, send reminders 30 days before their installments' due dates. Include instructions on how the donor can pay online on your organization's website and — for the less tech-savvy donor — a postage-paid envelope.

Follow up. If the donor doesn't respond to a reminder by the due date, follow up with another friendly reminder and postage-paid envelope at the end of the month. After another month with no response, contact the donor to suggest another pledge schedule. Understand that donors likely want to fulfill their pledges, but circumstances can change.

• If the donor can't pay their installment due to a temporary hardship, offer to suspend the pledge's schedule and reminders for a few months.
• If a donor can't fulfill their pledge, consider writing it off to focus on more viable commitments.

For more information about tracking pledge details in Raiser's Edge NXT, see the Pledges Help.