Picture a donor who makes a capital campaign pledge payable in quarterly installments. The first payment arrives on time. The second slips by a few weeks because nobody reminded them it was due, and by the time anyone notices, someone on the development team is making an awkward phone call. A short note a month before each installment would have avoided it.
Altru tracks pledges and their installment schedules well. Getting it to tell donors “your next payment is coming up” takes more setup, and most organizations end up putting the process together themselves. This guide covers how to build that process so it runs on a schedule and doesn’t depend on someone remembering.
Start with what Altru already knows
When you record a pledge in Altru with an installment schedule, each installment has a due date and an amount, and the pledge’s outstanding balance goes down as payments are applied to it. That’s essentially everything a reminder needs. The hard part is turning that data into a message on a predictable cadence.
As far as we know, Altru doesn’t have a built-in setting that automatically emails a donor a set number of days before an installment is due. Its tools for pledges are mostly about recording them, applying payments, and reporting on what’s outstanding. Versions and configurations vary, though, so before you build anything, check your own system: look through your revenue and communications options in a sandbox, or ask Blackbaud support whether anything in your setup handles upcoming-installment notices. If it does, use it.
Build the “coming due” query
Every reminder process starts with a query that answers one question: which installments are due in the next window, and still unpaid? Build it in Altru’s query tool from the revenue data (look for the source that exposes individual installments, not just the pledge as a whole), and include:
- Installment due date, filtered to a relative date range (for example, roughly a month out) rather than fixed calendar dates, so the same query works every time you run it.
- Unpaid installment balance greater than zero, so donors who already paid early drop off the list.
- Constituent name, preferred email, and mailing address, using the primary contact fields your team trusts.
- Installment amount, pledge total, and remaining pledge balance, so the message can be specific.
- Designation or campaign, so you can thank them for the right thing.
- Any solicit codes or communication preferences you honor, so a donor who has opted out of email isn’t emailed.
Run it once by hand and check the results against a few pledges you know well. An easy mistake to make is filtering on a pledge-level date instead of each installment’s own due date, which gives you one row per pledge rather than one per payment.
Pick the timing deliberately
One reminder about 30 days out works well for most installment pledges. It gives donors time to move money or plan around a payroll cycle, and it isn’t so early that they forget. Some organizations add a second, shorter note about a week before the due date for larger gifts. Past-due follow-up is a separate conversation and usually belongs to a person, not an automated message.
Whatever you pick, match the width of the date window to how often you run the query. A seven-day window run once a week catches each installment once without overlap; if you run it daily, narrow the window to a single day. Check which relative date options your Altru query filters offer before settling on a cadence, and test the window against a few known installments so nothing falls through the gap between runs.
Decide how the message goes out
Mail or letter
For donors who prefer paper, or for very large commitments, export the query results and merge them into a letter template. Include the installment amount, due date, and remaining balance, and give a clear way to pay. This works, but it’s manual every cycle.
Email from an export
Many teams export the query to a spreadsheet and upload it to their email platform. It’s flexible, but it’s also the step that gets skipped during a busy month, and the export goes stale the moment a donor pays.
Personal outreach
For major-gift pledges, the query can simply become a weekly task list for the gift officer. A call or a personal email often does more for the relationship than any template.
What a good reminder says
- Thanks first, and names what the gift supports.
- States the amount and due date plainly, plus how much of the pledge remains.
- Gives one clear way to pay, and says who to contact to change the schedule.
- Skips the guilt. This is a courtesy note, not a collections letter.
Keep payments and reminders in step
Reminders only work if payments are applied to the right installments promptly. If a donor pays and the payment is sitting in an open batch, or was entered as a new gift instead of being applied to the pledge, they’ll get a reminder for something they already paid. Make applying payments to the pledge part of your gift-entry checklist, and commit open revenue batches before the reminder query runs.
Automating the email step
If the weekly export-and-upload step is the part that keeps slipping, Email Designer from Social Good sends automated, branded emails from Altru queries without manual exports, so your “coming due” query can drive the reminder directly. Pledges and payments stay in Altru.
Quick answers
Should reminders go to donors who pay by automatic recurring charge?
Usually not. If the installment will be charged automatically, filter those pledges out of the query, or send a different “heads up, your scheduled payment is coming” note instead.
What if a donor wants to change their schedule?
Update the installment schedule on the pledge in Altru first. The next query run will pick up the new dates on its own.
