Mapping pledges

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are exporting pledge data and re-importing it in order to bulk update it, make sure you include the LGL Constituent ID and the LGL Gift ID (the gift ID for the pledge) in your export. When re-importing, ensure that you set up mappings for these fields (map the LGL Gift ID [for the pledge] to the LGL Gift ID field) so that the bulk change you are making will occur in the correct constituent and pledge records.

Important information about pledges in LGL

Pledges in Little Green Light are designed for use as a formal commitment made by a donor in which they have promised a certain level of philanthropy over a certain amount of time with multiple gifts ("payments") being made by that same donor (not by another party) in fulfillment of the commitment. It is typically best not to use a pledge for a small, one-time commitment that may be delayed a short while.

NOTE: If the pledge was made earlier than when the first payment will take place, you will need two date fields:

The "Gift date" for the date on which the pledge was made, and
The "Pledge start date" for the first payment date

If these dates are the same, you can use just the "Pledge start date" field. If you need to do this, you will also either need to set a default telling the Flex Importer that all of the records being imported are pledges or include a "Gift Type" column and be sure these gifts are labeled "Pledge" in that column.

Required fields

As with gifts (a pledge is a type of gift record in LGL), required fields are Amount and Gift Date. Pledge Amount must be a numerical value and cannot contain text. The date must have a 4-digit year, and the best format to use for them in your import spreadsheets is YYYY-MM-DD; for example, 2019-02-26.

Special fields

The Flex Importer features a special field relating to pledges: “Auto-generate installments?” This field can, and should only, be used in combination with telling the Flex Importer a) how much the first payment will be (Payment amount); b) what the frequency of installments will be (Payment interval); and c) the date of the first payment (Pledge start date). For example, if Donor X has pledged $5,000 over 5 years with yearly installments and their first payment will be for $1,000 in Dec. 2018, the Flex Importer can generate the next four installments for $1,000 in Dec. 2019; Dec. 2020; Dec. 2021; Dec. 2022.

Example

Import file

Field mapping

You can set a default rule to auto-generate the installments.

Record Preview

Uploading gifts as payments against pledges

You can upload gifts as payments against pledges by using the "Parent Gift ID" to identify the pledge that you want the gift associated with.

Excerpt from the Data Dictionary

Use one of those parent gift IDs to identify the pledge when importing the payment. Each row below represents a pledge and then a payment against the pledge. The value in the LGL Parent Gift ID field (i.e., 904857 in the first row) is the exact same value as the regular LGL Gift ID for the associated pledge.

The result in LGL shows the two gifts, indicates that they are pledge payments, and shows the Source (parent gift) information:

If you want to upload pledges and payments, you'll want to make sure the pledges are processed by the Flex Importer prior to the payments. You can ensure that by listing the pledges in rows above the payments in your spreadsheet.

NOTE: It is not possible to upload pledge payments to Installments.