Fundraising Goal Tracker

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• January 3, 2022 Updated
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How much money are you trying to raise? What percentage of your full support are you at? Which month was your most profitable? When you are seeking to raise support, these questions can help you build effective campaigns and reach 100% of your goal more quickly.

In order to answer these questions, however, you need a simple but effective way to track your fundraising metrics, such as your:

• Goals,
• Monthly targets,
• Remaining percentages,
• Donations by month, and
• Largest donation.

You also need a way to track key elements of each donation, including the:

• Date,
• Amount, and
• Donor Name.

A fundraising goal tracker can help you document each of these items, so you always know how your efforts are paying off. You can see at a glance if you are reaching goals or if you need to adjust what you are doing.

Template Contents

What is included with this printable goal tracker template? Designed to help you be a more effective fundraiser, the fundraising goal tracker template has two worksheets:

1. Fundraising Details
2. Charts

Fundraising Details

This worksheet is where you enter all of your fundraising information. It has seven main sections:

1. Organization Name
2. Campaign Name
3. Fundraising Goals
4. Status
5. Largest Single Donation
6. Donation Ledger
7. Donations by Month

Charts

The information you include on the fundraising details worksheet is used to generate two charts in the second worksheet.

With the included charts, you can get a visual representation of your fundraising efforts. There is a simple line graph to show donations per month. There is also a simple thermometer chart.

The line graph helps you to look for patterns in donor behavior. You can look for months that performed well and use that information in the future to help target campaigns for that month.

You can also see which months weren’t as strong. By looking at what you did during these months, you can brainstorm new fundraising ideas to try next year during this time.

The second chart begins as a blank thermometer. When you enter your fundraising goal on the first worksheet, it will generate the number in the bulb section. Then, each time you record a donation, the green will slowly rise.

Related: You can download free printable fundraising thermometer templates here.

Thermometer Goal Tracker

The thermometer goal tracker is a simple way to report and track your progress. It also provides motivation to continue, so you can fill the thermometer all the way.

To help spread the word that you are trying to collect donations, you can share an image of this goal chart on social media. It can be a fun way to engage your donors, celebrate fundraising successes, and raise more funds. You can follow the directions in this post to help:

Create a picture from cells, a chart, or an object in Excel

You may even consider printing out this thermometer to display at your table.

According to Fundraiser Insight, “When people donate to a campaign, it's important to make them feel like they are donating to a cause that others stand behind.” A fundraising thermometer is a tested and proven tool to encourage donations that can help you raise more money.

If you’d prefer a larger one on display, you can create one out of butcher paper. Then you can check the numbers in this Excel file to see how much you need to color in.

How to Customize and Use

After you download the template, you can begin customizing the first worksheet of the Fundraising Goal Tracker. The information you put in here will automatically change the charts. You do not need to do anything to the charts page except open it up to track progress.

On the fundraising goal tracker, you will need to enter some specific information about your company and fundraising campaign.

1. Organization Name

At the very top of the worksheet, there is a space to enter your organization name. You could also decide to add your company logo.

To enter a logo, follow the directions in this post:

How to Enter a Logo in Excel

2. Campaign Name

Why are you raising money? Enter your campaign name here to help ensure your paperwork is organized.

3. Fundraising Goals

Fundraising goals help you design your campaign. When you are very clear on what you want to achieve, you can begin to break your goal down into smaller pieces that seem more manageable.

There are six different parts to this section:

1. Start
2. End
3. Our 100% Goal
4. Target %
5. Adjusted Goal
6. Monthly Target

You will need to input information into the first four. The final two are calculated automatically.

Start

This is the start date of your fundraising goal tracker. When are you going to begin entering data? Put that date here.

End

This goal tracker can be used for a period of time up to 365 days. In this space, you will enter an end date. This can either be a year from your start date, or any other date before that, when you are hoping to be finished raising support.

Our 100% Goal

What does a fully funded goal look like? Are you trying to raise $50,000? Or $1,000,000? Whatever the number, enter it here. You want a specific goal so you know what you are aiming at.

Target %

If you are planning on achieving full support between your start and end date, leave this number as 100%. That means you want to earn 100% of your support funds before the end date.

But, if you are working on a long-term fundraising effort, that might not be realistic. Perhaps you plan to generate 50% support this first year. In that case, you’d put 50% in this cell.

Adjusted Goal

The formula in this cell begins by looking at your target number. If this number is 100%, your goal doesn’t need adjusted. In this case, it is simply your 100% goal.

But, if your target goal is lower, the adjusted goal multiplies your 100% goal by the percentage you want to achieve. This is your adjusted goal for the duration of the tracker.

Monthly Target

How much money do you need to raise each month to reach your goal on time? This cell tells you. It simply takes your adjusted goal and divides it by 12. Now you have a target to hit for each month.

4. Status

Do you know the status of your fundraising efforts? How much money have you raised as of today?

In this section, you simply need to enter today’s date in the Status Date cell. Then, you can see how much you have achieved so far. You can also discover:

• What percentage of your adjusted goal you reached,
• How much money remains to meet your goal,
• What percentage remains to reach 100% of your goal, and
• How you are performing overall, or how far away from 100% you are.

If you need a quick form to show donors how you are sitting, you can print out this worksheet. They can use the Status section to see important pieces of data at a glance.

5. Largest Single Donation From

Who is your most generous donor? This cell automatically enters the name of the donor who gave the largest single donation. You can use this as a personal reminder to send a thank you note.

Depending on your organization, there may be other steps you take to recognize the generosity of this person.

6. Donation Ledger

This is the heart of your fundraising tracker. It is where you record information about funds. Anytime you receive a donation, you can document the:

• Date,
• Donor, and
• Donation amount.

When you enter the date, the month and year are automatically populated. These numbers are important for the donations by month section.

By keeping track of your donor names, you can see who donates. This information can help you stay in touch with your donors. You can send them progress updates, or let them know about new giving opportunities.

In the donation ledger, there are only 13 rows at first. However, you can add more throughout the duration of your tracking. Simply insert a row above where it says, “Insert additional lines above this row.”

As you add lines, you will need to update the formula in the subtotal row. You will need to:

• Click on the dollar amount for the subtotal,
• Go to the formula bar, and then
• Change the final number to match the row number you entered.

Here is an example:

In this example, two rows were added to the donation ledger, rows 29 and 30. However, up in the formula bar, you can see that the subtotal formula only includes through row 28.

You need to delete the 28 and enter 30. Do not make any other changes. Then hit enter.

Now your subtotal will show the donations from the entire donation ledger, and not just the first eight rows.

7. Donation by Month

What month is your most profitable? Which months did you fall short of your monthly target? This section can help you easily answer questions like these.

You do not need to enter any information in this part of the worksheet. As you enter the donations in the ledger, this information automatically populates.

For each month of the year, you can see:

• Donation Total,
• Monthly Target, and
• The Delta (Difference).

The donation total is the sum of all the donations from that month and year in your ledger. The worksheet is simply adding them up and recording that number.

The target is your monthly target from the Fundraising Goals section.

The Delta shows you the difference between the donation amount and the target amount. If you have not yet reached your target fund amount, the Delta will be in red font. If you have reached (or surpassed) this number, it will be in black.

This section helps you track your progress across months. You can also analyze the data to help you understand your donors’ behavior. This knowledge can help you be a more effective fundraiser.

When Fundraising, Knowledge Is Power

The more you know about your fundraising efforts, the better you will be at raising support. You can see what is working, what is not, and work to achieve a positive return on investment for your fundraising campaigns.

In order to meet your specific goal, you need data. So download this spreadsheet and start tracking your fundraising metrics!