How to Process Pledges

How to Process Pledges

In your Sumac console, expand Fundraising, and choose Pledges.



Search to find the pledges that you want to process. You might do this by searching for payments on a specific date or by searching to find all the pledges that are due this month.

Note the three search criteria that are preceded by three asterisks. These criteria represent searches that must be done monthly and followed up with an appropriate action.



“***Due this month” finds pledges that have payments due in the current month. This search is normally done at the beginning or middle of each month when preparing to process those pledges.
“***Last Payment Soon” finds pledges whose last payment date is approaching. This search helps you identify pledges that are going to expire soon so you can contact the donors to request a renewal.
“***Credit Card Expires Soon” finds pledges with credit cards that will expire soon so that you can contact the donors in advance and update their credit card details.

In this example, we'll process all the pledges due this month that have not already been processed.



Click Search, and Sumac finds all the pledges due this month that have not already been processed.
To ensure that you're only processing pledges that have payments due today, sort this list by the “Day of Month” column.




Select all the pledges that have payments due today.  Then expand Special Editing and click Process Pledges.




Click to indicate that you want to process only the selected pledges. 



Choose the date that Sumac should use for the donation and payment records.



Sumac opens a new window to confirm it will:
• Create donation records
• Create payment records
• And will automatically process the payments.



Click OK, and Sumac will process all the selected pledges.

Once done, Sumac presents a summary window that confirms what has occurred for each pledge you processed. This window lists:

• the donors' names
• the payment type used
• confirms that the payment was recorded
• confirms the donation was recorded
• and that the payment was processed successfully.



Notice that in the “Payment Processed” column, Sumac has a “Yes” indicated for each of these pledges. This means that the payments for all of these pledges were processed successfully!

However, if any of these payments were not processed successfully, Sumac will say “NO” in this column, and will include the error message it receives from your payment processor. If this occurs, you should review the error message to determine why the payment was not processed, make the necessary corrections, and try processing that payment again.

Since all of these payments were successfully processed, we can close this window now.

If you want to see the donations that are linked to any of these pledges, select the pledge you're interested in and click the Show Donations button. You will be able to see the donations you've received and the donations you are expected to receive towards this pledge.





    • Related Articles

    • How to enter a new Pledge

      In your Sumac console, expand Fundraising, and choose Pledges. Click New to open a new pledge record. Once the new pledge record opens, select the contact who is making this pledge by clicking the contact icon. The Commitment Date for this pledge is ...
    • How to Process Receipts in Silent Partner Cloud

      Before processing receipts in Silent Partner Cloud, you would need to receipt donations in Silent Partner Desktop and run a Cloud sync. In Silent Partner Cloud, along the left side panel, hover over Communications, then click Receipting. This opens ...
    • Societ Academy - Sumac Donations

      This series of six short webinars will teach you everything you'll need to know about using Sumac Donations. We've kept each segment short so you can work these sessions into your schedule. You can register for all 6 below! Sumac Donations Part I - ...
    • Receipt template service for Partner DMS Cloud

      In order to process receipts in Partner DMS Cloud, you need to set up 6 receipt forms: Official Print Unofficial Print Gift in Kind Print Official Email Unofficial Email Gift in Kind Email. Setting up templates is finicky and can require HTML ...
    • Receipt template service - let us set up your receipts!

      Setting up your receipt templates is the key to making sure your organization is ready to handle the donation fulfillment process for your donors, but it can be tricky and time-consuming, especially if you are new to using Sumac Donations, or haven’t ...
    Societ Academy

    Learn what you need to know, any time. Free!



    • High quality training on demand - sessions are available every day, so you can access training that fits into your schedule.
    • Training sessions that are easy to follow - helpful tips throughout each session, and access to training moderators ensure your questions get answered.
    • A certificate of completion - you can request a certificate of completion for every session you attend.