Pledges
Learn how pledge campaigns let supporters commit to a fixed total and pay it in installments.
A pledge is a supporter's commitment to give a fixed total amount over a set period, paid in installments. Fundraise Up lets you collect these commitments through a pledge campaign, where a supporter chooses a total amount, a payment schedule, and a start and end date, then pays it down until the commitment is complete.
Use a pledge campaign for annual giving drives, capital campaigns, or any timed campaign where supporters commit to a larger amount than they would give at once.
Pledges compared to recurring plans
A recurring plan is open-ended: it starts when the supporter donates and continues at a regular interval until they cancel it. A pledge ends. Once the collected amount reaches the total, or the end date passes, the pledge is complete.
A supporter can also fulfill a pledge with a single payment instead of a recurring schedule — either on the same day or on a future date.
How supporters make a pledge
Once you create a pledge campaign, supporters reach it through a direct link or an Element on your website such as a Donate Button. From there, a supporter:
- Enters the total amount they want to commit and selects a currency.
- Chooses a payment frequency from the options you offer, and sets a start and end date.
- Decides whether to make the first payment now or on the future date.
- Selects a designation, and adds a tribute or comment if they want to.
- Enters their personal details and pays.
Fundraise Up calculates the installment amount and the number of payments from the total, the frequency, and the dates, and shows the supporter their full payment schedule before they confirm.
Pledge management in Donor Portal
After making a pledge, a supporter manages it in the Donor Portal. They can update their payment method, change the frequency or dates within the campaign's limits, skip an installment, or cancel the pledge. They can't change the total they committed, pay it off ahead of schedule, or reactivate a pledge once it's cancelled — those changes go through your organization. You can make these changes from the Dashboard.
Which of these actions supporters can take on their own is controlled by your Donor Portal settings. See Configure your Donor Portal.
Manage pledges in the Dashboard
Your pledge campaigns live under Pledges in the Dashboard, where you can track how much each campaign has collected and how much supporters have pledged.
To find an individual pledge, open the Recurring list in your Dashboard and filter to pledges: select More filters > Additional options > Pledge-based donations. Click a pledge to see its full detail — schedule, installments, payment method, and activity. From there you can make changes a supporter can't make on their own, such as adjusting the committed amount or reactivating a canceled pledge.
Two limits apply:
- A pledge can only be reassigned to a pledge campaign, never to a regular donation campaign.
- A one-time pledge payment cannot be converted into a pledge-bases recurring plan.
Emails
Each pledge campaign sends its own set of supporter emails, which you can turn on or off:
- Pledge created — confirms the pledge after a supporter makes it.
- Installment receipt — sent for each successful installment payment.
- Pledge failed — sent when an installment payment fails.
- Pledge updated — sent when the pledge changes, such as a new amount, frequency, or payment method.
- Pledge cancelled — sent when the pledge is cancelled.
- Pledge fulfilled — sent when the full committed amount has been collected.
Pledges in your CRM
Fundraise Up marks each pledge in the data it sends to your connected CRM, so your CRM can tell it apart from open-ended recurring donations. It also includes the total pledged amount and the end date.
How a pledge appears depends on the CRM:
- Salesforce NPSP records the pledge as a fixed recurring donation — one with a set number of installments and an end date, instead of an open-ended plan. Each installment syncs as a linked Opportunity.
- Virtuous records the pledge as a pledge object, with the committed amount and expected fulfillment date. Each installment is matched to the pledge as a payment.
- Any other connected CRM syncs the pledge as a regular recurring donation. The pledge marker is still sent, but the CRM treats the plan like any other recurring plan.
Exports
When you export recurring plans, you can add pledge fields to mark which plans are pledges and to include the commitment amount and end date:
- Is pledge — whether the recurring plan is a pledge.
- Pledge amount — the total amount the supporter committed.
- Pledge end date — the date of the final scheduled payment.
These fields are optional and available in the new recurring plans, failed recurring plans, and cancelled recurring plans export templates. Add them when you create a new template; existing templates are not affected.
Set up and manage pledge campaigns
To create a pledge campaign and configure its content, frequencies, and emails, see Set up a pledge campaign.