Written Pledge 

The Office of Gift Accounting enters pledges into the GAIL database for written, documented pledges transmitted from the donor.  The amount of the pledge recorded represents only the amount the donor personally plans to contribute.  It does not include any anticipated matching gifts from the donor’s employer or any payments which will be made through a donor advised fund.  A donor cannot obligate a company to continue to match his/her gifts.  Therefore, any matching gift revenue that is received will be designated to the same fund(s) the donor has identified and will ‘count’ toward the donor’s support of that particular project or program but will not be applied as a pledge payment.

At the time the pledge is entered into the GAIL database, an installment schedule, based on the number of anticipated payments and the beginning and end date of the pledge, is established.  Installment information is used to generate pledge aging reports for the Office of Gift & Alumni Information Management use in monitoring the progress of pledges and for writing-off pledges as described in the next section. 

Phone PledgePhone pledges are electronically transferred from the phone-a-thon vendor to the Office of Gift Accounting and are recorded in the GAIL database.  These pledges are held active for approximately eight months.  If not fulfilled within that timeframe, phone pledges are automatically identified as historical.  

On-line PledgeOn-line pledges are recorded in Ascend based on the information provided on the UGA Foundation main giving page by the donor.  The donor must make their first payment on the pledge in conjunction with establishing their pledge.   The donor may choose to make payments monthly, quarterly, semiannually or annually.  Payments may be made via automated credit/debit card charges or bank draft (EFT).  The duration of the pledge may not extend beyond the expiration date on the card used or three years, whichever comes first.  The same rules apply to a pledge made on-line versus a written pledge with the exception of the donor signature and $1,000 minimum.  

Acknowledging Pledges The Office of Donor Relations and Stewardship will be notified of all new pledges of $10,000 or more and will send a written acknowledgement to the donor.

Pledge Reminders All donors with an active pledge(s) will receive a Pledge Reminder generated by the Office of Gift & Alumni Information Management in the month(s) indicated in their original commitment documentation.  The pledge reminder will include the following information relative to his/her commitment:

• Original Pledge Date
• Pledge designation
• Original Pledge Amount
• Current Pledge Balance
• Current Installment
• Overage or Shortage from previous payments
• Total Currently Due
• Current Constituent Based Director and contact information

The amount currently due is based on the original payment/reminder schedule that the donor requested when the pledge was established plus any overage or shortage from previous payments.  If payment is not received within three months of the first reminder, a second request reminder will be sent as follow-up. 

The Office of Gift Accounting will generate pledge reminders each month and perform a quick review in order to identify any anomalies that need to be brought to the attention of Development staff.   They will send an electronic file of each of the applicable reminders to the appropriate constituent based director (list maintained by Central Development Office).  Upon receipt of this file, the Development Officer will have 5 business days to review the correspondence which reflect their contact information for the donor.  They may:

• Elect to have the Office of Gift Accounting send the pledge reminder as-is; then no action is needed OR
• Elect to not send the pledge reminder at this time; then they must notify Office of Gift Accounting at gifts@uga.edu OR
• Elect to send all pledge reminders out from the unit; then they must notify Office of Gift Accounting at gifts@uga.edu and they will send a color PDF version of the document(s).

When the 5 day wait period has elapsed, Office of Gift Accounting will send out all pledge reminders for which no feedback has been received. 

Once a pledge has been fulfilled, the outstanding pledge is shown as paid in full.  Any additional contributions to that fund are recorded as outright gifts.

Payment reminders for Annual giving phone campaign pledges are generated by the phone-a-thon vendor; not the Office of Gift Accounting.  These are automatically managed on a 30-60-90 day cycle.

Last Updated on September 18, 2019