Editing a pledge in Altru is easy right up until money has moved against it. A pledge with no payments and nothing posted can usually be changed freely. A pledge with installments paid, a payment schedule in motion, or revenue already sent to your general ledger has to be handled more carefully, because what you change will show up in finance’s reports.
So before you open the record, figure out what kind of change you’re actually making. That decides the right tool.
Sort the change first
Nearly every pledge edit falls into one of these buckets:
- Descriptive details: the designation or campaign, the appeal or source code, the date, a typo in a note, the wrong constituent. These don’t change how much is owed.
- The schedule: the donor wants to pay quarterly instead of monthly, push the next installment back, or pay the balance over a longer period. The total stays the same.
- The amount: the donor is raising or lowering what they committed.
- The balance going away: the donor can’t or won’t finish paying. That’s usually a write-off, not an edit.
Write down which bucket you’re in and why, and keep that note on the record. Six months from now, someone in finance will ask why the pledge looks different from the signed commitment letter.
Descriptive changes
Open the pledge from the constituent’s revenue history and edit the pledge details. Designation, appeal, and similar fields are generally editable before posting. Be careful with two of them:
- Designation changes after payments. Payments already applied to the pledge may carry their own designation split. Changing the pledge alone may not move the payments, so your fund totals can end up out of sync. Check both the pledge and each applied payment.
- Wrong constituent. If the pledge was entered on the wrong person, or on an individual when it should be on the household or organization, confirm whether your version of Altru lets you reassign it directly. If not, the clean route is often to delete the pledge (only if nothing is applied or posted) and re-enter it on the right record.
Changing the installment schedule
Schedule changes are the most common request and usually the least risky. Altru lets you edit the installments on a pledge: frequency, dates, and how the remaining balance is spread. Paid installments generally stay fixed. You’re reshaping what’s left.
A few habits keep this tidy:
- Look at the current balance before you edit, and confirm the new schedule adds up to the same number.
- If the donor pays by recurring card or bank draft, check whether the payment method or any outside processor also needs to change. Editing the installment dates in Altru doesn’t necessarily change when a card gets charged elsewhere.
- Re-send or update any pledge reminder letters so the donor sees the new dates.
Changing the amount
Raising or lowering the total is where you need to slow down.
No payments applied, not posted: edit the amount and rebuild the installments. This is effectively correcting a data entry error.
Payments already applied: Altru may restrict how far you can lower the amount, since it can’t drop below what’s already been paid. Increasing it is usually possible, but you’ll need to decide how the extra money spreads across the remaining installments.
Revenue already posted to the GL: this is where behavior varies by setup and permissions. Posted revenue typically can’t be edited the same way as unposted revenue. Changes may generate adjustments that flow through your next post, or the field may simply be locked. If you’re not sure how your database handles it, test the exact change in a sandbox, or ask Blackbaud support before touching a live, posted pledge. Then tell your finance contact what you did and when.
For a donor lowering a commitment, many organizations prefer to write off the difference rather than edit the original amount. That keeps a visible record of what was promised versus what came in, which auditors and gift officers both tend to want.
When the balance won’t be paid
Don’t edit a pledge down to zero or delete it because the donor stopped paying. Use a write-off for the unpaid balance (or the portion you’re forgiving), with a date and reason. Your pledge receivable reports, and finance’s reconciliation, depend on that write-off existing as its own transaction. Agree with finance in advance on when a pledge is considered uncollectible so staff aren’t deciding case by case.
Before you click save
- Is anything applied to this pledge? Check the payments first.
- Has it been posted? If so, loop in finance before you change it.
- Does the new total or schedule still match what the donor agreed to in writing?
- Do acknowledgments, reminders, or recognition levels depend on the old amount?
- Did you leave a note on the record explaining the change?
Keep an eye on it afterward
A simple revenue query listing open pledges with their balance, next installment date, and last-changed date is worth saving. Run it monthly. It catches edited pledges whose schedules no longer add up, and it gives finance a quick list to reconcile against receivables.
Quick answers
Can I delete a pledge instead of editing it?
Only when it was entered in error and has no applied payments and nothing posted. Otherwise, use a write-off or an adjustment so the history stays intact.
Why won’t Altru let me lower the pledge amount?
Most often the new amount is below what’s already been paid, or the pledge has been posted and your security role can’t change posted revenue. Check both before assuming it’s a bug.
Does changing installment dates affect reporting?
It can shift what shows up as due in a given month on receivable and aging reports, so tell finance about large schedule changes near month-end or year-end.
