Managing members with custom pledges

What is a custom pledge?

Members who want to give more than their tier amount or want to pay a creator who doesn't have paid membership tiers can pay a custom membership amount. New members won't have the option to make a custom pledge when they select a tier; however, there are ways that fans can create a custom pledge.

How fans can create a custom pledge:

Fans who want to join a custom pledge need to be on the desktop or mobile web, as this option is not available on the Patreon app.

There are two ways that fans can create a custom pledge:

• (Only available if the creator has more than 1 tier) Fans looking to create a custom pledge before they join a specific tier can do so by visiting the creator’s Patreon and scrolling down to their posts. At the bottom of the page, a banner will show up, and they’ll see a Join Now button — Clicking on this will take them to a page where they can find the Make a custom pledge option
• Fans can also access the creator’s Patreon through the URL: http://patreon.com/join/ [Insert creator name here], and they’ll find a Make a custom pledge option at the bottom of the page

Any existing members looking to edit their pledge amount, they can do so by visiting their active membership settings page. To read more on how members can do this in this article on Editing your Membership

What happens when a member has a custom pledge?

If a new member uses the Make a custom pledge option, they will not be automatically assigned any tier. That means no rewards will be attached.

If a member chooses to edit their pledge amount to be a higher custom pledge to their tier, they will not be automatically enrolled into the nearest tier.

Why is $1 the minimum?

Some fans may want to support a creator, but the tier minimum might be outside of their budget. The custom pledge, or “No tier” status, exists, so fans can still support creators even if they can’t join a tier. As the name suggests, there are no benefits or “tiers” associated with custom pledges — regardless of the amount given. Lastly, $1 is the minimum to ensure that we cover processing fees.

No reward members (custom pledge members) only have access to posts you publish for "All members"

• For example, a member with a custom pledge of $2 that is not in a $2 tier will not have access to the $2 tier post content. The member will only have access to posts you publish for “All members”.

If a members would like to edit their pledge and move to the correct tier, they can follow the steps in this help guide:  I’m locked out of posts I should find

Note: If you'd like your posts to be locked to members who are paying you outside of your tiers, you'll want to publish your posts for Select tiers. Learn more about posting for All members on this article.

Members who pay you with a custom pledge are not tied to a specific tier (if you’ve created tiers). These members can be found with the status “No tier” in your Relationship Manager because their payment is not tied to benefits offered within a tier.  Because they’re not part of a tier, they aren’t tracked for benefits and won’t have access to certain benefits, like Discord roles. 

How to filter no-reward pledges

Using your Relationship Manager filters, you can generate a list of all of your active no-reward members.

To get your list of members, set the following filters:

1. Active membership type
2. No reward
3. You can set any time period you'd like