Are "pledges" automatic recurring donations? Can you explain reminder emails?

[CiviTeacher.com]

Hi I'm a little confused about Pledges within CiviContribute and how they work.

The documentation I found on administering CiviContribute and Pledges provides little insight and at least one blank page:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Manage+Pledges

Could anyone help clarify?  I would be happy to fill out the Documenation pages myself once I am clear.

1) When someone selects to make a pledge, is their credit card automatically billed at the specified amount/interval?
   a) Does it depend on the payment processor?  For instance my site uses Authorize.net
   b) How can someone cancel a pledge?

2) Can you tell me more about reminder emails?
   a) Where can I configure the wording of the reminder emails or see what text is in the template?
   b) Do reminder emails have a link to "approve" the pledge payment?

None of these questions were answered in any documentation that I could find.  Help?

Thanks.

[ken]

Try looking at http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/CiviPledge and see if that sheds some light.

In (partial) answer to your questions ...
1. The payment is not automatic
1.a I don't think so. I'm out of my depth here but I think some payment processors support repeating contributions, which is a different beast to a pledge.
1.b See the documentation link
2. These are used since the payment is not automatic
2.a I think you need to find the appropriate template (don't know what that is off the top of my head)
2.b If the pledge is linked to an online contribution page, then the email contains a link to that and (I believe) the URL tells CiviCRM the pledge with which the payment is associated

If in doubt have a play in the sandbox!

Ken

[petednz]

Soob - think you need to differentiate between recurring payments which can happen in civicontribute depending on your payment processor - v civipledge which seems to be more of a way of reminding people who have said the will donate $x y times, to do so.

[CiviTeacher.com]

Peterd,

Thanks, I would love to differentiate between CiviPledge and automatic recurring payments, that is my goal!  So now that we know my goal, can please you help me understand.... how do I differentiate?

I want automatic recurring payments through CiviContribute.  I don't want optional Pledges or reminder emails.

Where are the docs for automatic recurring payments through CiviContribute?  I have been unable to locate.  I use Authorize.net


Ken,

Thanks for the response.  It is clear to me I do not want a Pledge.  I want an automatic monthly recurring contribution.  I have tried playing around in the sandbox and the path to my goal is still not clear.

[petednz]

I want automatic recurring payments through CiviContribute.

As I said above, recurring payments is an option with some Payment Processors, not others. Search forum and you will get insight in to which are already working.

I think there have been some posts on authorize.net - from memory (actually from Eileen's memory which is just across the room from mine) authorize.net does handle recurring but some work needs to be done at the civi end to enable it.

[jbertolacci]

Where does the person go to pay their pledged amount? Do they go back to the original contribution page?

[ken]

The reminder email contains a link to the contribution page, plus the Id of the Contact, the Id of the Pledge, plus a Checksum to prevent abuse of the link.

[prickeke]

Has this behavior changed at all in later versions of CiviCRM?  It would be great if Pledges could also be recurring contributions.  Is that possible?

Thanks,
--
Keith

[Donald Lobo]

no. but would make a great community contribution or sponsorship

lobo

[FatherShawn]

I've just blogged on the difference between recurring donations and pledges and added that info to the CiviPledge Roadmap.