In Raiser’s Edge NXT Web View, users cannot reliably add a pledge payment using the “Add Gift” workflow without losing the original pledge’s data. When the system displays the warning message and the user selects “Apply this gift”, the pledge’s gift information (campaign, fund, appeal, custom fields) does not copy over to the pledge payment. This behavior is inconsistent with the “Add Payment” action accessed directly from the pledge and significantly increases data entry errors.

Current Behavior

Currently, the only way to ensure pledge data copies correctly to a payment is by:

1. Navigating to the constituent’s record

2. Opening Giving History

3. Selecting Work with Gifts

4. Finding and opening the original pledge

5. Clicking Add Payment from within the pledge

Only this method reliably carries over the pledge’s gift attributes to the payment.

When a user instead selects the Add Gift function and links the new gift to an existing pledge, the system does not copy the pledge data, requiring manual re-entry.

Impact on Users and Data Quality

This limitation creates introduces significant risk to data integrity:

• Increased data entry errors

  • Users must either rely on memory to manually re-enter campaign, fund, appeal, and other fields (“garbage in, garbage out”), OR

  • Realize that the gift data is not being applied and abandon the Add Gift workflow entirely and navigate through multiple screens to locate the pledge and add a payment correctly.

• Inefficient workflows

  • What should be a simple, fast task becomes a multi-step process that interrupts productivity and increases training overhead.

• Inconsistent user experience

  • Two different workflows for adding pledge payments behave differently, which is confusing and counterintuitive.

Proposed Solutions

When adding a gift and applying it to a pledge, the resulting payment inherits the pledge’s campaign, fund, appeal, and other relevant gift attributes
OR
Users receive a clear, actionable warning directing them to add payments directly from the pledge record

• Option 1: Copy Pledge Data When Applying a Gift
  When a user selects “Apply this gift” in the Add Gift warning message, automatically copy all relevant gift data from the pledge to the payment—mirroring the behavior of Add Payment from within the pledge.
  OR

• Option 2: Guided Warning Message
  If copying data is not feasible in the Add Gift workflow, display a clear warning such as:
  “To ensure pledge data copies correctly, pledge payments must be entered directly from the pledge record using ‘Add Payment.’”
  This would prevent silent data issues and guide users to the correct workflow.

Benefits of Addressing This

• Improves data accuracy and consistency

• Reduces user error and rework

• Streamlines daily gift entry workflows

• Aligns system behavior with user expectations

• Lowers training and support burden

Copilot assisted in organizing and clarifying the challenges described in the above idea.