So, when a donor is setting up a new pledge online, the ONLY way they can create a pledge schedule is to pay via credit or debit card.

So if Sally wants to make a pledge of $100,000, over 5 years, paying via check or Donor Advised Fund, the ONLY way she can do that is to create a pledge online for $100,000.  That pledge goes onto her record as a Single Installment of $100,000 due the day the pledge was created.

THEN, someone from our office has to contact Sally and understand how she wants her pledge to be scheduled.  Hopefully we can get in touch with her and not annoy her too much and get her pledged scheduled before we send pledge reminders.  

If we send the reminders, without verifying her schedule, she is going to get a reminder for the full $100k.  Not sure about you, but that would irritate the hell out of me and make me wonder "why couldn't I set it up online to pay $20k every year? If my charity can't get this basic piece right, how can I trust them to use my donation properly?"

I don't understand why pledge installments are NOT available for ALL pledges.  I understand that Blackbaud wants to get the credit card fees off of transactions.  We want donors to move to credit cards too, fewer pledge reminders to send .  . but let's face it, there are now and will always be donors, who don't want to use credit cards to pay pledges.