Pledges vs. Recurring Gifts

A pledge and a recurring gift can look similar at first glance — both represent a donor's ongoing commitment to give over time — but they work differently in Humanitru and fit different situations. A pledge is a formal, tracked commitment: a total amount, a payment schedule, and a status for each installment until it's fulfilled. A recurring gift is an open-ended arrangement the donor sets up directly with a payment processor or donation page (a monthly credit card charge, for example) — there's no total, no end date, and no schedule to manage.

• Created with a total amount and a defined payment schedule
• Installments start Unverified (future-dated) or Verified (past/present-dated), and move to Verified as payments come in
• Has a Fulfillment status — Pending, Partial, or Fulfilled — calculated live against the schedule
• Best fit when a donor makes a specific, time-bound commitment (e.g., a $5,000 pledge paid over 5 years)

• Set up by the donor directly with a payment processor or donation page — there's no pledge object, schedule, or total amount to configure in Humanitru
• Best fit when a donor wants an open-ended, ongoing gift (e.g., "$25 a month") with no fixed end date or total

Each time the processor runs a scheduled charge, that payment syncs into Humanitru as its own Donation Action, arriving already Verified — just like any other integration-sourced gift.

Humanitru automatically recognizes and labels a Donation Action as recurring when it comes in through one of these integrations:

• Pinecone: recognized through the Campaign applied to the donation (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly Donation)
• PayPal: recognized through the subscription payment details PayPal sends with the Action
• ActBlue: recognized through the Campaign applied to the donation

If a recurring gift comes from a different source — including donation pages built on Fundraise Up or GoFundMe Pro — its individual payments will still land in Humanitru as regular Donation Actions and build the donor's giving history normally. They just won't carry the automatic recurring label described above. If your organization relies heavily on one of these sources for recurring gifts, it's worth reviewing what data that integration passes along on each Action (such as a note or Campaign) so you can apply a consistent Campaign of your own to those gifts — giving you the same grouping and reporting visibility that Pinecone, PayPal, and ActBlue gifts get automatically.

Don't confuse "recurring gift" with "repeat donor." A repeat donor is any constituent who has made more than one verified donation, ever — a donor-level count that has nothing to do with whether any individual gift is labeled recurring. A donor can be a repeat donor without ever making a recurring gift (two separate one-time gifts), and a recurring gift can come from a donor who's only given once so far.

Recurring gifts don't have a dedicated grouping object the way pledges do, so the constituent record is the best place to see the full pattern: all of a donor's Donation Actions in order, showing charges landing on their regular cadence. Where the automatic recognition above applies, those Actions also carry the recurring label in reporting.

• Want to segment or report on recurring donors beyond what's auto-recognized — including gifts from Fundraise Up, GoFundMe Pro, or any other source? A consistent Campaign applied to those Actions gives you the same grouping and reporting power.
• Stewardship Automation can recognize an ongoing giving pattern directly — using Count or Total/Sum on Donations (e.g., "3rd gift this year") — which is a great way to acknowledge a loyal donor's support without depending on the recurring label at all.
• Because recurring gifts sync in already Verified, they never show up in Unverified-donation digests and never need Mass Verify — that workflow is specific to pledges.