Pledge Reminder Procedure

Pledge Reminder Procedure

Purpose

The purpose of this procedure is to appropriately and centrally generate reminders to donors regarding outstanding pledges. This procedure defines the four types of pledges we receive at Lewis & Clark and provides clear guidelines when reviewing and writing off pledges.

Pledge Types

• Current operations pledges are defined as pledges received for the purpose of supporting current operations.

• Restricted pledges are defined as pledges received for the purpose of supporting temporarily or permanently restricted funds.

• Recurrent pledges are defined as fixed-amount pledges received with payment dates classified as monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly and semi-annually.

• Payroll pledges are defined as pledges received with payments to be applied via payroll deductions.

Pledge Entry

Following a donor’s commitment to donate, a pledge is established. The solicitor informs Advancement Services of the donor’s intent along with the proper documentation and the Gifts Technician enters the pledge into the alumni/donor database. A reminder is sent via mail (regardless of a donor’s mail rules specifications) to all current operations pledges.

Pledge Aging

All outstanding current operations and restricted pledges will be categorized by due dates. Recurrent and payroll pledges do not age. A current operations pledge will immediately fall into a “due” status, whereas a restricted pledge’s due date will be categorized either by the anticipated payment date, if there is one, or the original pledge date. If there is no payment schedule then it is assumed that the donor will be paying annually and, therefore, a reminder is generated in the anniversary month of the pledge. If there was a payment schedule and all the schedules are in the past, a reminder is generated in the same frequency (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually) as the original payment schedule.

Pledge Reminders

Pledge reminders will be sent once every month. A donor will begin receiving pledge reminders when their payment is considered “due” between one and thirty days prior to the current date and will receive subsequent reminders every thirty days.

Pledge reminders will be prepared by Advancement Services over the signature of the appropriate moves manager, dean or president. All signed reminders will be returned to Advancement Services and sent via mail.

Donors with recurrent or payroll pledges will not receive pledge reminders.

Reminder Cancellations

Pledge reminders will cease upon payment or when the donor responds in writing or via telephone that the pledge will not be paid.

Pledge Cancellations

For all current operations pledges, upon receipt the payment will be entered and receipted. If the payment amount is less than the pledge amount the payment will be applied to the pledge and the balance will be written-off unless otherwise instructed by the donor.

If a payment on a current operations pledge less than ,000 has not been received by the end of the fiscal year the commitment was made, the pledge will be written off by August 1st of the following fiscal year. All pledges of ,000 or greater will be reviewed and a determination made, in concert with the donor, as to whether the pledge should be written off and re-entered for the current fiscal year.

At the end of each fiscal year, Advancement Services will review all partially paid restricted pledges seven years old or older, for which payments should have been received beginning at least five years ago, and for which no payments have been received in more than four fiscal years. Advancement Services will also review unpaid restricted pledges three years old or older, and distribute a list of such pledges to the development directors across all three campuses, as well as the VP for Institutional Advancement and AVP for Development for their review. These staff members will have sixty days to contact the donors and submit updated payment schedules, after which point all pledges not updated will be written off.