The Pledge feature in Virtuous allows for tracking pledge payments, anticipating when money will be coming in, and tracking the overall progress of a donor's long-term commitment. For more on generating payment schedules, see our What are Pledges? support article.
Linking Gifts with Pledge Payments via the Gift and Contact Import Tool
It is important to note that Gifts are NOT directly connected to a pledge, but rather to a specific payment toward a pledge. This can be done as part of gift processing.
As you are processing incoming gifts in the Gift and Contact Import Tool, you will likely have Gifts that are Pledge Payments. You can create the gift record and link it as a Pledge Payment all within the same screen.
For any Contact record that has an existing Pledge, you will see a clear notation on the righthand side of the screen, as demonstrated below.
During gift entry, input all gift-specific information like date, campaign segment, gift type, etc. Select the field "Pledge" and then select the appropriate Expected Pledge Payment to be fulfilled by the gift. Select "Save and Continue" to save all changes.
Linking Gifts With Pledge Payments Manually
When a Gift has been entered in Virtuous, users with permission to edit Gifts may choose to connect a Gift to a specific pledge payment. Click on the edit icon to the right of any Gift to bring up the edit screen.
On the edit screen, scroll down to the Pledges section and then search for and select the correct payment to link with the Gift.
Once a pledge is selected, enter the amount of the Gift to be applied to the selected payment. The Pledge payment does NOT have to be equal to the Gift amount. For example, one Gift may be linked to multiple pledge payments.
Once you have entered the Applied Amount, click on the add button. The payment info will then look like the image above and be linked to the Gift. Once all payments have been linked, click "Save Gift" to save the changes.
Reviewing Pledge Status
As Gifts are linked to pledge payments, the corresponding pledges will reflect updates. Click on the preview icon to the right of any pledge to view the details of that pledge.
At the top of the View Pledge screen, you will see the amount that has been paid so far and the amount still outstanding on the pledge, along with a progress bar that reflects the overall payment progress.
The Payment schedule will display information on gifts applied to payments, as well as the dates and amounts of the remaining outstanding payments.
Editing Payment Schedules
Despite all the best planning and communication, there may still be times when you need to make changes to an existing payment schedule. Click on the edit icon to the right of any pledge to edit the pledge.
On the Edit Pledge screen, scroll to the bottom and click on "Edit Remaining Payment Schedule" to make changes.
Virtuous will then generate a schedule of payments, just as when creating a new pledge. The newly generated schedule will subtract any amount already paid toward the pledge and then evenly distribute the remaining balance among any number of payments, based on the pledge frequency, between the current date and the Expected Fulfillment Date of the pledge. Editing the actual pledge information will change the schedule accordingly. Users can also choose to create a custom schedule, if needed, to accommodate any remaining payments that do not fit neatly into a single frequency.
Once you have made the needed changes, click on "Save Pledge" to save the pledge with your new schedule.