Pledges: Add Pledge Part II - Add Pledge Online
- This tutorial will cover how users make a pledge via your website (rather than your staff adding a pledge directly inside our CRM).
- To allow online pledges you must first configure your donation funds and ask arrays within CRM and you must have configured your Payment Gateway settings (turned on the ability to take credit cards with Stripe). Then you must integrate your website with CRM using either Pages or our WordPress Plugin. After these steps are completed, your online users will be able to make a pledge online.
- Please Note: online pledges are different from other online transactions in that they will NOT trigger the "On Cart Checkout" email (invoice/payment receipt) to the user/donor and/or your internal ccs. Additionally, pledges CANNOT be added to the online shopping cart/combined with other online purchases (direct check out only) and MUST be paid (via credit card) at the time they are made online (Pay Later is not an option for online pledges) - if this is a recurring pledge/if payments for the pledge will be spread out, then the first payment will charge at the time the pledge is created (even if the pledge start date is in the future) and all subsequent payments will automatically charge to the donor's credit card at the scheduled time(s).
- Users can complete a pledge transaction online as a logged in user (if you have public profiles/the log-in menu turned on) or as a guest (non-logged in check out). If the user wishes to complete check out as a logged in user, they can log-in to their public profile first and then go to the pledge page on your website (screen shots below of the log-in screens - the exact location of the log-in button on your site will vary according to your settings/configurations) or they can log-in when prompted to after selecting their pledge amount and adding it to the cart. Creating a public profile and logging in to make a pledge offers the advantages of having billing address and credit card information pre-populate based on the information saved on file. Additionally, if you are using a dynamic ask array, the ask amounts will be customized for the donor based on their past giving history. For those clients using our WordPress Plug-Ins, there is the option to turn off guest check out and require users to log-in while checking out (Pages does not have this option). Please Note: If you want more information in how to turn on/off guest check-out in plug ins, refer to this tutorial. If you want more information about to turn on/off public profiles in Pages, refer to this tutorial.
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- To make a pledge online, the user should navigate to the pledge page on your website (with or without logging in first) - generally this will be done from the Main Menu on your site or a "Donate Now" link/button. The exact placement will, of course, depend on your website. Additionally, you may have just one pledge page or you may have several. In the screen shot below, taken from our Pages demo site, we have configured several sub-pages on our Pledges menu and the user can opt to go to the main pledge page or a particular sub-page right from the main menu.
- Once on the online pledge page, the user should begin by indicating the total amount they wish to pledge.
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- Next, they should indicate the Start Date of the pledge and the # of Installments/payments they with to make (the "installment" amount will be the total amount pledged divided by the # of installments. For example, if they pledge to pay $100 total, divided into 4 payments/installments, they will be charged $25 each time/payment/installment). Please Note: the first pledge payment will be charged right away/immediately upon checking out regardless of the pledge start date. Subsequent payments, if any, will be charged on the date specified in the pledge start date field.
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- The donor should then indicate how frequently they wish payments to be made: Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.
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- If the user wishes to make a tribute gift (in memory of, on behalf of, or in honor of someone), they can click the Dedicate To box and then fill out the tributee information in the fields that appear.
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- If the user wishes to add a note, they can add it in the Gift Memo field.
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- After completing the pledge details, the user should then complete the payer information section (please note: this section will only be visible if the user has NOT logged in). They will start by selecting if they are checking out as an Individual or as an Organization.
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- The user should then complete the email and mailing address fields. If they are filling out the payer details as an individual, they can indicate if their mailing address is also their home address.
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- Please Note: if the user selects checking out as an Organization and then enters the name of an organization that already has a record in your system/selects a name from the drop down list, then the email and mailing address fields will disappear/no longer be visible (and no changes can be made to the data in those fields from the pledge form); if the organization needs to update either the mailing address and/or the email on record, they will need to contact you to do so.
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- Please Note: if the user selects checking out as an Organization and then enters the name of an organization that already has a record in your system/selects a name from the drop down list, then the email and mailing address fields will disappear/no longer be visible (and no changes can be made to the data in those fields from the pledge form); if the organization needs to update either the mailing address and/or the email on record, they will need to contact you to do so.
- Finally, the user should fill out the payment (credit card) details (bottom of the page in Plug-Ins / on the right in Pages).
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- The payer name will pre-fill in the credit card fields based on the payer details provided earlier in the check out flow (when the user selects if they are checking out as an individual/organization and provided their name and email).
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- If the user has logged in and their payment information is on file, the credit card information will also pre-fill (pages) (in plug-ins, the credit card details fields are hidden and user can select from saved cards or add new card)
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- If user is using a browser that has the digital wallet feature (Chrome, Edge, or Safari) and has enabled Digital Wallet, the Digital Wallet (Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Microsoft Wallet/Pay) will show as a payment option as well as direct credit card entry.
Please Note: To present Apple Pay as payment option, first you have to enable it. To know how to enable Apply Pay as payment option, please read the tutorial How to enable Apple Pay as Payment option.
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- The user can check the Add This Card on file and Set as Default checkbox to save their credit card information on file to be used for future payments/transactions (so they don't have to enter it again in future). Please Note: no credit card information is saved inside our CRM. We save only a randomly assigned unique identifier; all credit card numbers are stored in Stripe, which is encrypted, so your users should feel confident saving their credit card number on file.
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- The payer name will pre-fill in the credit card fields based on the payer details provided earlier in the check out flow (when the user selects if they are checking out as an individual/organization and provided their name and email).
- When the user has finished filling in all of the required information, they should click the Checkout Button (Plug-Ins) / Captcha and then Add Pledge (Pages) button to complete the transaction. Please Note: in plug-ins, if you have Captcha turned on, the user will also have to enter Captcha information. Additionally, if you have the newsletter sign-up plug in, they will be given the option to sign up for your newsletter list(s).
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- If the user entered mode of payment as Credit Card and the card issuer requires "Strong Customer Authentication" (referred to as SCA or PSD2 authentication), a box will pop up asking the user to initiate the authentication process. SCA is a new requirement for credit cards issued by European banks or for credit card transactions taking place on European websites for the card holder to authenticate an online purchase by indicating they are the ones who has initiated/authorized the transaction (see this explanation of SCA from Stripe for more information).
- The user will need to click the Complete Authenticate button and then completes the validation process. Once they do (and authentication is completed successfully), the transaction will finish saving automatically.
- If the card holder fails to authenticate the transaction within the specified time frame or denies the transaction, a authentication failed message will appear on the screen. User will need to try to process payment again or make the donation using some other form of payment.
- After the transaction has finished being processed, the user will see a confirmation page. In the Plug-Ins, you can customize this thank you screen; in Pages you cannot.
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