How to track a nonprofit fundraising campaign, from goal to final report

The problem: a public fundraising page, but scattered back-office records

A nonprofit created to help one child or adult may receive support through bank transfers, fundraising platforms, direct gifts and corporate sponsorships. The public appeal shows a goal and its progress, but the supporting evidence lives in bank statements, platform exports, sponsorship agreements, receipts, invoices, messages and separate spreadsheets. When a supporter asks “How much has been raised, and what is still needed?”, the answer should not require reconstructing several conflicting files.

The numbers become harder to explain when a platform retains fees, a supplier issues an invoice before payment, a sponsor promises a sum but has not transferred it, or donations are explicitly restricted to a particular treatment. The fundraising target, gross donations, cash actually received, recorded expenses and operational balance are different measures. TidyOne gives you a workflow for tracking them, not a replacement for your accountant, your bank or a funder's conditions.

What you will achieve

Before you start: define precisely what the appeal covers

Write the campaign's purpose in one sentence, for example “Funding the procedure and pre-operative examinations”. Preserve the underlying estimate, quote, contract or care plan, as appropriate, and the date it was issued. Separate confirmed costs from provisional estimates. Decide whether travel, accommodation, platform fees and ongoing therapy are inside or outside the target. For a campaign involving sensitive personal circumstances, share only information about the beneficiary that you have a proper basis to publish.

Decide outside TidyOne where contributions will be collected, who reconciles incoming payments and what happens if the appeal raises less or more than the target, or if the original need changes. Money donated for a specific purpose should not be silently moved to another project because the other need is urgent. As a useful example of established practice, the UK Fundraising Regulator's Code covers honest claims about restricted purposes and telling donors what happens if a restricted appeal misses or exceeds its target. UK rules are not a substitute for the requirements in your own European country.

Run the campaign in TidyOne, step by step

Step 1 — Set up the single-beneficiary nonprofit workspace

During Association onboarding, choose one beneficiary and complete the main beneficiary's profile. TidyOne uses that person as the default context, so you do not need to select the same person every time. Do not create a new beneficiary for each need: a procedure, therapy, transport and equipment can be tracked through projects and, when needed, funds.

Step 2 — Create the project and financial target

Open Projects & Funds and choose New project (the button may currently appear in Romanian if your app language is Romanian). Provide the project name, currency, financial target, start date and estimated end date if known. Use a name that still makes sense months later, such as “Procedure 2027”. Add a short description of what the target covers and where the estimate comes from. A project represents the purpose you are tracking; each donation does not need its own project.

The target measures fundraising progress, not the bank balance. If you have a 20,000 RON target and have confirmed 14,000 RON of contributions attributable to that project, you have raised 70% of your gross target, regardless of spending already made. Where donors give in multiple currencies, do not assume there is a single automatic, documented conversion rate.

Step 3 — Add funds only when separate purposes matter

Choose New fund if you need to distinguish “Investigations”, “Procedure”, “Transport” or “General support” within or alongside the project. The fund form allows a project, fund type (restricted or general), currency, target and purpose. You do not need one fund for every project; use them when the reporting or the conditions of a donation call for it.

Keep an internal organizational label separate from a donor-imposed condition. Preserve the wording of the public appeal and any donor or grant agreement. For example, do not charge travel or platform fees to a fund explicitly restricted to investigations until you know that those costs are permitted.

Step 4 — Record confirmed donations and sponsorships

Open Finance in the Association workspace and choose + Income. Enter the real amount, currency, receipt date and category, then select the correct project and fund. If it is appropriate to retain the donor or sponsor's details, select an existing contact or create a new one. For an anonymous contribution, do not invent a contact just to fill a field. When recording identifiable donors, share access and details only where needed.

A pledge, signed interest form or friendly message from a sponsor is not the same thing as cleared money. Keep commitments separate in your operating notes until the contribution is actually received and verified. Check the source—bank, platform or supporting cash records—and avoid recording a platform donation twice when its net proceeds later reach your bank account.

Step 5 — Understand platform fees and net payouts

Some fundraising platforms collect donations and settle a smaller amount after deducting fees. Preserve the platform statement showing gross contributions, fees and the net amount transferred. Your accounting treatment should follow the platform documentation and your accountant's guidance. If you record gross donations as income and the platform fee as a separate expense, the later net transfer must not become a second donation.

Other services make individual payouts or use different timing and fee structures. Rather than forcing every service into one model, make sure the money can be reconciled among the platform statement, your operational records and the bank. Keep platform charges separately visible when they are material to your public progress figures.

Step 6 — Upload invoices, review AI and track actual payments

When an invoice arrives, choose Add → Choose file/PDF or Take a photo. TidyOne AI can propose the supplier, total, category and possible project association. Check the original document, correct the proposal where needed and confirm it only after review. The main beneficiary remains the default beneficiary context in single-person mode.

Track whether the invoice has actually been paid. Receiving an invoice does not establish that money has left the bank. If AI confirmation already created an expense entry, check for it before entering anything manually so that you do not double count the amount. For an unpaid invoice, preserve the document and due date; do not present a recorded expense as a completed bank payment without evidence. For details, see the Invoice → AI → Expense → Project guide.

Step 7 — Review campaign records each week

Compare three sources: TidyOne, your fundraising platform's reports and your bank statements. Look for duplicate income, gifts without the expected project allocation, missing invoice links, spending allocated to the wrong fund and amounts in other currencies. Use Donors & Contacts to maintain relevant relationships, but do not mistake the number of contacts for the number of gifts.

When you publish progress, state the reporting period and exactly what the headline number means: gross contributions, actual receipts or the remaining distance to the gross fundraising target. Do not describe TidyOne's income-minus-expense figure as a reconciled bank balance unless you have independently verified it.

Step 8 — Generate the project report and close the appeal

Go to Reports → Report type → Project / funder report. Choose the project, the complete campaign period and, if relevant, the fund. Select Update report. Review the target, income, expenses, funds, donor information and supporting documents. If you choose only the current month, the report's figures will not automatically represent the campaign's lifetime totals; the selected period controls the data.

You can use Generate AI draft to help draft a narrative from the current report, but read every claim and remove personal or sensitive information before sharing it. At closure, keep the purpose statement, target history, receipt evidence, platform fees, agreements, invoices, proof of payment and an explanation of any reconciliation differences. If the appeal falls short, exceeds its target or becomes impossible to carry out, follow the conditions previously communicated to donors and the applicable legal requirements.

Worked example: a 20,000 RON campaign

This fictional example uses only RON to keep the arithmetic clear. The nonprofit creates a “Therapy 2027” project with a 20,000 RON target. It receives 8,000 RON by bank transfer, raises 4,000 RON gross through a platform and receives 2,000 RON in paid corporate sponsorship. The platform retains 120 RON and transfers 3,880 RON. The nonprofit pays a 4,500 RON therapy invoice and receives another invoice for 1,500 RON that is still unpaid.

For this illustration, net receipts less the invoice actually paid leave an illustrative cash difference of 9,380 RON (13,880 − 4,500), assuming no other movements and that all receipts belong to the project. If you already recognized the unpaid 1,500 RON invoice as an expense in TidyOne, the application's recorded income-minus-expense result could be 1,500 RON lower than the cash movement. Check the accounting recognition with your accountant. The 6,000 RON gap to the gross target is a fundraising-progress figure, not a claim about cash missing from the bank.

Present progress without ambiguous totals

A public update can keep four lines separate: Target: 20,000 RON; Confirmed gross contributions: 14,000 RON; Documented paid expenses: 4,500 RON; Documented platform fees: 120 RON. Add the dates covered and the last reconciliation date. If you also publish an “available” figure, explain how you calculated it, what commitments it excludes and whether it has been reconciled with the bank. Avoid publishing donor names or the beneficiary's sensitive records without a valid basis.

A grant funder or sponsor may require a different format and scope from a public fundraising update. For EU-funded grant projects, the European Commission advises beneficiaries to keep supporting records and follow the reporting conditions in their grant agreement. Requirements for other donors, programmes and jurisdictions will differ.

Use TidyOne AI without outsourcing verification

You can ask AI Coach: “Which donations are associated with Therapy 2027?”, “Which expenses have no linked evidence?” or “Find the 4,500 RON invoice and tell me the amount stated in it.” When you request details from an uploaded file, AI Coach can consult a limited number of relevant documents; check the list of files actually consulted. For final figures, rely on the correctly filtered report, original documents and bank records. AI can help draft a readable update, but it cannot certify that every transaction exists or that a cost is legally eligible.

Campaign closeout checklist

Common mistakes to avoid

Counting platform gifts and their bank settlement as separate income

Match transaction references, the platform's statement and the bank payout. One underlying flow should not be duplicated simply because it appears in more than one place.

Publishing an “available” number without stating the period

A current-month report is not a lifetime campaign report. Select the whole campaign period or clearly label the shorter interval you are reporting.

Using purpose-restricted gifts for a different need

Check the appeal language, donor terms and applicable agreements. If conditions change, obtain advice appropriate to your country's rules instead of silently changing an allocation.

Including donor identities or medical details unnecessarily

Provide meaningful transparency without exposing personal or sensitive records. Keep complete operational detail within the restricted-access internal archive.

Frequently asked questions

Does TidyOne take donations directly?

Not in this workflow. Contributions are collected through your organization's existing bank accounts and external platforms, then recorded and tracked in TidyOne.

Do I need a separate fund for every campaign?

No. A clear project may be sufficient. Add funds when separate purposes, conditions, currencies or reporting requirements justify them.

Can a campaign accept both EUR and RON?

Yes, record each transaction in its actual currency. If you publish one converted headline figure, apply a documented, consistent approach agreed with your accountant.

What happens when we raise more than the target?

Apply the conditions communicated to donors and the relevant legal requirements. TidyOne can track project and fund allocations, but its internal labels do not authorize the redirection of restricted gifts.

Is TidyOne's project report an official statutory report?

No. It is an operational report built from the data you enter. Statutory financial reporting and funder-specific submissions have separate requirements.

Continue with related guides

External reference material: European Commission — grants, reporting and supporting records and UK Fundraising Regulator — donor-purpose claims and target shortfalls or surpluses (UK good practice, not Europe-wide law).