Pledge Cash- In Details

Pam Gealy

We have 2 types of phonathon pledges.  1 is a regular pledge, and the other is a 'consider'.  We enter the Consider as a .01 (1 cent) pledge.  We use a special gift subtype to flag these types of pledges.


I need to split out all 'cash-in' for phonathon.  Cash-in details:

1. credit card gifts on phone with caller (we have a subtype for these gifts that aren't linked to a pledge)

2. pay-cash gifts (pledge payments) on regular pledges

3. pay-cash gifts (pledge payments against our 'consider' pledges)


All of this cash-in is coded with an appeal.  So, I can capture all cash-in for the appeal.  I know that 'cash' is cash that comes in on the appeal without a pledge.  And, I know that 'pay-cash' is a pledge payment.  However, I don't know how to get back to the original pledge to see the gift subtype for considers.  So, I tried the pledge status report for pledge cash-in. I figured that I could run one version for regular pledges and one version for considers.  But, I  can't seem to get it to filter by the subtype on the pledge.

Any suggestions?

Daniel Bayer

I'm not entirely sure what kind of report you're trying to pull, but I would suggest creating a query of all phonathon gifts, and then a query of phonathon gifts where Gift Type = Pledge AND Gift Amount = $0.01. Then add the Pledge Balance to the output and copy-and-paste the resulting spreadsheet to the bottom of the spreadsheet of other gifts, sort by Constituent ID or Name and then payments on those Considers will be right next to the pledges, allowing you to see. But this may not be what you're looking for.


For what it's worth, though, I don't think this is the ideal way to go about entering those Consider pledges. For one thing, it sounds like the person making the pledge hasn't given an actual amount, so you could run into audit issues. Plus, when the person actually does make a payment on the pledge, RE won't let you "overpay" a pledge, instead splitting the gift into two - a Pay-Cash and a Cash gift with the reference line "Cash for Remainder". Unless, of course, you adjust the pledge to a higher amount when the actual payment comes in.


We enter all Phonathon calls as Actions, with the caller listed as Solicitor, Action Type of Phonathon, and Action Status of either, Pledge, Refusal, Considering, or No Contact. This way, we can create queries of people who fall into any category and use them to report on, and we don't run into any issues with the Business Office. We also use gift subtype for Considerings, so we can track them, but it's not an available field for many reports, so I've had to create my own from query exports.

Christine Cooke 2

Pam Gealy:

We have 2 types of phonathon pledges.  1 is a regular pledge, and the other is a 'consider'.  We enter the Consider as a .01 (1 cent) pledge.  We use a special gift subtype to flag these types of pledges.


I need to split out all 'cash-in' for phonathon.  Cash-in details:

1. credit card gifts on phone with caller (we have a subtype for these gifts that aren't linked to a pledge)

2. pay-cash gifts (pledge payments) on regular pledges

3. pay-cash gifts (pledge payments against our 'consider' pledges)


All of this cash-in is coded with an appeal.  So, I can capture all cash-in for the appeal.  I know that 'cash' is cash that comes in on the appeal without a pledge.  And, I know that 'pay-cash' is a pledge payment.  However, I don't know how to get back to the original pledge to see the gift subtype for considers.  So, I tried the pledge status report for pledge cash-in. I figured that I could run one version for regular pledges and one version for considers.  But, I  can't seem to get it to filter by the subtype on the pledge.

Any suggestions?

In general it is not good practice to enter "consider" pledges.  It's not really a pledge its and "I'll think about it and get back to you maybe".  But yes, I can understand that you want to keep track of these folks.


There are also other sticky things like folks that tell you verbally that a gift of xx amount is coming through a donor advised fund.  You do not want to lose track of those either.


My suggestion is to utilize Actions and you could make an Action Attribute with the "Consider Amount" or "Verbal Promise" amount.  I personally prefer the term Verbal Promise.  And you could still utlize the $.01 as an indicator that they did not tell you how much.  By putting this info in Actions, you will not run into auditing issues.  Especially if your RE and FE (if you have both) are linked, you would not want this info in Gifts!  Messy messy and difficult to explain.

If you are NOT linked to FE, then you could use the Gift Subtype of Verbal Promise and the $.01 amount.  Those would be easy enough to include or exclude from any financial reporting etc.  But I can tell you that that is not recommended.

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