Use this article to charge your paddle raise pledges from the Pledge payments page in your dashboard. When donors pledge with a saved card or bank account, you can charge all of their pledges in one click after your paddle raise campaign ends — no checkout links or follow-up texts needed.
Who can do this: Organization admins with the Donations permission
Which pledges you can charge from the Pledge payments page
The Pledge payments page only shows paddle raise pledges where the donor entered a payment method when they pledged. Donors must be signed in to their BetterWorld account to pledge, and they choose a saved card or bank account (or add a new one) in the pledge window. Nothing is charged at that moment — the pledge waits until you charge it.
The following paddle raise pledges don’t appear on the Pledge payments page:
Pledges without a payment method, including pledges an admin added offline. These donors pay at checkout instead: they open the checkout link BetterWorld sends them by email and text (or use their checkout code) and pay for their pledge with a card or bank account. To learn more, see How do donors check out for the pledge they made on a paddle raise campaign.
Pledges on an open invoice. If you delete the invoice, the pledge goes back to the Ready to charge list.
Pledges that are already paid, whether they were charged, marked as paid, paid at checkout, or paid through an invoice.
Please Note: Live auction bid pledges aren’t part of the Pledge payments page. Bidders still pay for live auction items at checkout.
How to charge paddle raise pledges
To charge paddle raise pledges, your paddle raise campaign must have ended first. Then follow these steps:
From your dashboard, open your paddle raise campaign.
Click Pledge payments in the sidebar.
Review the Ready to charge list, and use the toggle to move any pledges you don’t want to charge to Don’t charge yet.
Click Charge now.
[CONFIRM: whether a confirmation dialog appears, and the exact button name to confirm.]
Wait while the charges run in the background. The page shows “Your pledges are currently being charged,” and you can’t take any other actions on the Pledge payments page until the charges finish.
When the charges finish, review the payments table to see the status of each pledge payment. Done!
Please Note: Each paddle raise pledge is charged only once. If you double-click Charge now, or two admins click it at the same time, no donor is charged twice.
What happens after you charge paddle raise pledges
After you charge paddle raise pledges from the Pledge payments page, each pledge becomes its own charge on the payment method the donor chose. If a donor made three pledges, they see three separate charges and get three separate receipts, even though all three were charged at the same time.
When a paddle raise pledge charge goes through:
It shows as its own donation in your paddle raise campaign’s donations.
It counts toward your campaign totals.
The donor gets a payment receipt by email. For bank (ACH) payments, the receipt is sent only after the payment clears.
Please Note: Your paddle raise thermometer counts a pledge as soon as the donor makes it, not when you charge it.
What each pledge payment status means
The payments table on the Pledge payments page lists every charge attempt with its amount, transaction cost, net amount, payment method, and status. This table explains what each paddle raise pledge payment status means:
Status | What it means |
Successful | The charge went through. |
Pending | Usually a bank (ACH) payment that hasn’t cleared yet. It changes to Successful or Failed once the bank reports the result, which can take up to 6–7 days. |
Failed | The charge didn’t go through. The pledge is still unpaid, and the donor can retry the payment. |
Marked as paid | The charge failed, and an admin later marked the pledge as paid. |
Paid via invoice | The charge failed, and the pledge was later paid through an invoice. |
Can you charge a failed paddle raise pledge again?
No, you can’t charge a failed paddle raise pledge again from the Pledge payments page. A charge usually fails because the payment method has a problem, so clicking Charge now later only charges new pledges or pledges you moved back to Ready to charge. It doesn’t retry pledges that already failed.
When a paddle raise pledge payment fails, BetterWorld emails the donor so they can retry with a different payment method. You can also collect the payment another way by marking the pledge as paid or adding it to an invoice. For the full steps, see the article “How to handle a donor’s failed paddle raise pledge payment.”
Troubleshooting the Pledge payments page
You don’t see Pledge payments in the sidebar
If the Pledge payments link is missing from your paddle raise campaign’s sidebar, check that the campaign is a paddle raise and that you have the Donations permission.
A paddle raise pledge isn’t in either list
If a paddle raise pledge isn’t in Ready to charge or Don’t charge yet, the pledge has no payment method (so the donor pays at checkout), it’s on an open invoice, or it’s already paid.
The page still says your pledges are being charged
Charging paddle raise pledges runs in the background, so the page shows “Your pledges are currently being charged” until every charge finishes. If the message doesn’t go away, contact our support team at [email protected].
A pledge payment has been Pending for days
Bank (ACH) paddle raise pledge payments can stay Pending for up to 6–7 days while they clear. If a card payment is Pending, or a bank payment stays Pending longer than 7 days, contact our support team before you collect the pledge another way, so the donor isn’t charged twice.