The pre-launch checklist

Launch day is the worst possible time to discover a broken team link or a match pool that never activates. Run this checklist in your final week — ideally twice: a full pass five days out (leaving time to fix things) and a quick pass the night before. Put each item into Planning → Tasks with an owner, so nothing depends on memory.

Plan note: several tools in this checklist are tier-gated by default — Planning, Matching, the Email/SMS/Robocall channels, Historical Intelligence, and the Live Screen come with Pledgix Pro and Political; giving tiers and public team signup come with Pledgix One and above. The Pledgix team can adjust access per campaign — skip any item for a tool your plan doesn't include.

The money path

Nothing else matters if donations don't work.

• [ ] Make a real test donation — smallest sensible amount, on your live page, on a phone. Complete checkout end to end, then confirm the gift appears in your Recent Donations feed and the receipt email arrives and reads correctly (organization name, amounts, wording).
• [ ] Test through a team link, and confirm the donation credits the right team in the All Teams table.
• [ ] Check your goal and bonus goal in Campaign Settings → Fundraising (Financial Goals section) — right numbers, right currency. If you accept foreign-currency gifts, spot-check that the currency options you expect are offered at checkout.
• [ ] Review your giving levels in Zechusim & Tiers — names, amounts, descriptions, and any limited quantities on dedication opportunities.
• [ ] If donors will give by phone or text, dial and text the number yourself and confirm the flow (with your campaign PIN, if you're on the shared line). Note: Pledgix Go campaigns need their own purchased dedicated number — there's no shared line on Go — and political campaigns can't use the phone channel at all.

Teams and captains

• [ ] Every team exists in the Teams tab with the right leader, goal, and Team Code.
• [ ] Click Create Links and confirm no "missing links" banner remains — on Pledgix One and above, the Active Links KPI on your Overview tab should equal your team count.
• [ ] Open five team pages at random. Right name, right goal, working donate button.
• [ ] Captains have accepted their portal invitations and can see their teams.
• [ ] Captains have their templates and know the exact send times (see Recruiting captains who actually raise).

Matching

• [ ] Every sponsor commitment is entered in Donations → Matching — check each pool's Multiplier and Pool Capacity against what the sponsor agreed in writing.
• [ ] Activation Thresholds and Active From / Active Until windows match your plan. Watch timezone on time-boxed pools.
• [ ] Each pool's status badge is what it should be right now — Active if it should be matching at launch, Locked if waiting on a threshold, Inactive if you're saving it for later.
• [ ] Public Display Name on each pool is what the sponsor approved.

The page itself

• [ ] Read your story aloud once — you'll catch what silent proofreading misses.
• [ ] Check images on both a large screen and a phone.
• [ ] If your story runs in multiple languages, read every version via the language pills above the story (and switch the header dropdown for the page chrome). Machine-drafted translations especially.
• [ ] If you're on your own domain, load the page from that exact address and confirm it resolves securely.

Timeline and phases

• [ ] In Timeline & Scheduling, verify your Phased Timeline dates: Countdown Start, Campaign Live, Campaign End — and the timezone.
• [ ] Use the live preview banner in settings to confirm what phase your page resolves to right now — if you expect visitors to see a countdown today, make sure they actually do.
• [ ] Decide on Enable Campaign Extension now, not at midnight on the final day.
• [ ] If you ran a Coming Soon page with public team signup enabled (both are Pledgix One+ options — Go campaigns go straight to a timeline or live), confirm those early team signups have been approved and folded into your launch outreach.

Outreach, scheduled and loaded

• [ ] Launch emails drafted in Email Studio and proofed — send yourself a test of each and click every link. Email Studio sends immediately rather than on a schedule, so decide now who presses send and when.
• [ ] SMS messages loaded in the SMS Center; recipient lists verified (a message to last year's list with this year's link is a classic launch-morning disaster).
• [ ] Robocalls recorded and scheduled if you use them.
• [ ] Prior-year donors uploaded via the Historical Intelligence tab, with your LYBUNT list segmented for its own dedicated appeal.

People and access

• [ ] The right people hold the right roles — who can edit settings, who can send messages, who is read-only.
• [ ] At least two people can access the campaign dashboard on launch day. One phone in a drawer shouldn't be able to stall your campaign.
• [ ] If you're running an event, the Live Screen has been tested on the actual venue computer (see Running a live event with the Live Screen).

Tip: The night-before pass should take 30 minutes, not three hours. If it's taking three hours, you found real problems — which is exactly why the first full pass happens five days out.