A pledge is a commitment to give a total amount over time — "$1,200 over four quarters." The pledge itself isn't a gift; each installment is recorded as its own gift, linked back to the pledge.
Before you start
Venue Admin with canViewDonors, or Super Admin.
Creating a pledge
Go to AdminVenuesFundraisingPledges and click New pledge.
Search for the Donor, or add a new one inline.
Enter the Total commitment ($) and choose a Fund.
Pick a Schedule: One-time, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual, or Custom schedule. For Monthly/Quarterly/Annual, set the # of installments; for One-time or Custom, that field is hidden.
Set the First payment due date, and optionally an Appeal and Notes.
Click Create pledge.
Building a custom schedule
Choosing Custom schedule opens a row-by-row installment builder instead of an installment count:
Click + Add installment for each payment, entering a date and amount, or click Split evenly to divide the total commitment evenly across the rows you've already added.
Watch the running total — "Scheduled $X / $Y" turns red until the rows add up to the full commitment (within a penny).
Tracking a pledge

The pledge detail page shows four header stats — Total commitment, Paid, Balance, Status — and a schedule table of each installment's due date, amount, and status (scheduled, past due, or paid).
When a payment arrives, click Record payment on the pledge — it's one button at the pledge level, not a separate action per installment. Noctern applies it against the schedule and links the resulting gift back to the pledge.
If a pledge needs to end early, click Cancel / write off, then choose Write off (uncollectible — closes the pledge) or Cancel pledge (the donor is no longer committing) from the confirmation dialog.
Pledge reports
AdminVenuesFundraisingPledges → Reports has four tabs — Expected income, Aging, Open pledges, and Fulfillment — each exportable as CSV or XLSX. The Aging tab lists overdue installments with a running Total overdue.
Watch out
A pledge is a receivable, not revenue — it's never synced to QuickBooks itself. Only the individual payments (gifts) sync, same as any other gift.
- Open the demo venue's Pledges list and open the pledge that has a past-due installment.
- Check the header stats against the schedule table.
- Start a new pledge with a Custom schedule and try Split evenly across three rows.