A donor commits $15,000 to your new education wing, payable $5,000 a year for three years. Development wants the full commitment visible today. Finance wants to know what will actually arrive this fiscal year. The board wants the donor recognized at the $15,000 level. All three are reasonable, and all three depend on how that gift goes into Altru on day one.
This guide covers how to record a multi-year pledge in Altru so the commitment, the payments, and the reporting stay consistent across several fiscal years. It also covers the places where you will probably need a written process alongside the software.
Start with the pledge, not the payment
The most common mistake is recording only the first payment as a donation and planning to “add the rest later.” That hides the commitment from every report, and nobody remembers to follow up in year two.
Instead, record the entire commitment as a pledge on the donor’s constituent record, with an installment schedule underneath it. Payments are then applied against that pledge as they arrive. Altru’s revenue area supports pledges with installments, so this is the normal path rather than a workaround.
When you enter the pledge, the decisions that matter are:
- Total amount. The full commitment, not the first year’s share.
- Installment frequency and count. Annual installments over three years, for example, or quarterly over two. Match what the donor actually agreed to in the pledge letter.
- First installment date. This sets the rhythm for every later due date, so confirm it against the signed agreement.
- Designation and appeal. Put these on the pledge so every payment inherits the same coding. Mismatched designations between the pledge and its payments are what make campaign reports disagree later.
Before you enter a real gift, try the exact schedule in a sandbox or test database. Confirm that the installment dates and amounts come out the way you expect, especially for uneven schedules (a larger first-year payment, for instance). If the schedule your donor agreed to doesn’t fit the options you see, ask Blackbaud support how they recommend recording it rather than forcing the dates by hand.
Applying payments in later years
When the year-two check arrives, it has to be applied to the existing pledge, not entered as a new donation. If it’s entered as a new gift, the pledge still shows a balance due, the donor looks like they gave twice, and acknowledgment letters go out with the wrong language.
Two habits prevent most of this:
- Look up the constituent before entering any gift and check for an open pledge balance. Make this part of your gift entry checklist, including for batches.
- Write the pledge reference on the payment when it comes in by mail, so whoever does data entry knows where it belongs.
Payments made online are trickier. If a pledged donor gives through a general donation form, the money usually lands as a new gift. Check your own setup to see whether online payments can be applied to pledges, and if not, plan a monthly review to find and reapply them.
Reminders across fiscal years
A three-year pledge spends most of its life with nothing happening. That’s when it gets forgotten. Build a query of pledges with installments coming due in the next 60 days, and run it on a fixed schedule. That list drives your reminder letters or calls and gives finance an early view of expected cash.
A second query is worth keeping too: installments that are past due. Decide in advance how long you wait, who contacts the donor, and when a pledge balance gets written off. Write-offs affect your reported totals, so agree on the rule with finance before the first one happens.
Reporting: commitment versus cash
Multi-year pledges are where development and finance numbers drift apart, and usually both are right. Development counts the full commitment in the year it was made. Finance, depending on your accounting practices, may book the pledge receivable in the year of the commitment and track the cash as it arrives. Before campaign reporting starts, agree on:
- Which report is the official “raised to date” number for the campaign.
- Whether board and annual-report totals show commitments, cash received, or both.
- How recognition levels are assigned: on the full pledge amount, or on what has been paid.
Your auditor or finance lead should make the accounting call. The Altru side of the job is keeping the pledge, installments, and payments clean so either view can be pulled.
Things to confirm in your own database
Some behavior depends on your configuration and version, so test rather than assume:
- How acknowledgment letters treat a pledge versus a pledge payment, and whether your templates have separate wording for each.
- Whether any membership benefits or recognition tied to giving levels count pledges or only payments.
- How a pledge appears on the donor’s giving history and in your standard revenue reports.
- What happens to the remaining installments if a donor pays the full balance early.
Quick answers
Should I enter the pledge even if the donor hasn’t signed anything?
Most organizations only record a pledge once there’s a written commitment, even a short email. Verbal intentions are better tracked as a note or a prospect plan until they’re confirmed.
Can I change the installment schedule after the pledge is entered?
Donors do ask to shift dates. Test editing an installment schedule in a sandbox first, and note on the record what changed and why, so year-three staff understand the history.
Do pledges need a different appeal than one-time gifts?
Not necessarily. Use the appeal that brought the commitment in, and keep it on the pledge so every payment rolls up to the same campaign.
