What's New: Cancel, forgive, or lower a Pledge

Hey Fans! Plans change. A Member who made a multi-year Pledge might lose a job, move away, or just need to scale back. Until now, the only clean way to handle that in MemberDrive was to stop a scheduled payment and leave an unpaid balance hanging on the Pledge forever. This week we shipped a proper way to cancel or reduce a Pledge, with a Manager in the loop.

Members can ask to cancel a Pledge

On an open Pledge, a Member can now request to cancel it. Nothing changes right away. The request waits for a Manager to approve or decline it, and the Member can withdraw it while it's waiting.

Managers approve or decline

When a request is waiting, a Cancellation requests item shows up under Payments in your dashboard. It only appears while there's something to review, so it won't clutter your menu. Open the Pledge and you'll see Approve and Decline.

Approve keeps every dollar already collected, cancels the upcoming installments, and marks the Pledge canceled. The money that came in stays in your Campaign's raised total, and the forgiven remainder drops out of it. Decline leaves the Pledge and its payment schedule exactly as they were.

Forgive a balance or lower a Pledge yourself

Sometimes the conversation happens over coffee, not in the app. On the dashboard Pledge screen, the new Change total link lets a Manager forgive the whole remaining balance, or write the Pledge down to a new total. The new total can be anywhere between what's already been collected and the current promise. Forgive the full balance and the Pledge is settled and canceled. Lower it and the Pledge stays open, with upcoming installments adjusted to fit the new total.

A clear history on every Pledge

The Pledge screen now lists each change to the amount, including forgiveness, with times shown in your own time zone. The Member's Pledge page and statement show the original promise, the forgiven amount, and a canceled status when that applies, so everyone is looking at the same story.

Small things

Campaign, Membership, and dashboard pages have a new compact footer with Help, System status, Terms, and Privacy. Help sends Members to Member help and Managers to Campaign help.

Why it matters

A Pledge is a relationship, not just a payment schedule. When a supporter's circumstances change, you should be able to honor that gracefully and keep your totals honest. As always, if something feels off, reply and tell me.