Just as a successful fundraiser requires planning, so does successful financial reporting. When fundraising and finance teams work together from the start, reporting becomes smoother, faster, and more accurate.

Here are three tips from your friendly accounting team to keep fundraiser reporting on track:

  • Shared Language, Goals and Expectations
  • Final Report Timeline
  • Expense Review Process

1. Shared Language, Goals and Expectations

Have a prep meeting between the development team and the finance team to get a shared understanding of language, goals and expectations. This isn’t just about how much you are planning to raise. You want to make sure that there is a united front and shared understanding when reporting out about what has actually been raised.

Ask questions to make sure you understand:

  • Will you be accepting pledges? If so, how will those promises be documented? Who will be responsible for following up on payment? How will you make sure that the pledge payment isn’t counted as a new gift?

  • Is there any money that has been donated or pledged already that is being leveraged to secure new gifts? The reason behind this is to make sure that the same money isn’t counted twice (or more) when reporting out on goals.

2. Final Report Timeline

This may be due to my own personal bias 🙂, but determine when the development team will send the final report of revenue to the accounting team. The accounting team will use this report to determine if they have recorded all the revenue from the fundraiser. Ahead of time, decide what types items can be resolved via email or a shared document and what should just be done in a meeting. This will reduce the frustration of endless emails and documents going back and forth.

After the development team completes its final count, has shared the report with the finance teams and the information has been reconciled with the finance team’s record, be sure to confirm that you all are still using the same language (or at least understand one another) so that when those not as close to the process ask questions about the numbers, the two teams have a reasonable explanation for any variances.

3. Expense Review Process

Confirm who will be reviewing the expenses for the event. The goal is to see if your target profit from the event will hold. We recommend that you spend no more than 25% of what your organization makes on the event. Ultimately, the goal of the event is to raise funds for the organization and if you spend it all on putting the event on, you could have just skipped having it.

Once all the expenses have been recorded for the event, we further recommend evaluating the effectiveness of the fundraiser. This would be the time to determine what went well and what didn’t; what was worth the cost and what wasn’t. Doing this evaluation closer to the event end and not pushing it off to budget season makes sure that things are fresh in your minds and that time hasn’t dulled the significance of items.

Bonus Tip

A bonus tip is if your organization can track the fundraiser income and expenses in its own class (QuickBooks language) or department (available in most other accounting software) that is a great way to see the net effect of things. That way you are not parceling through multiple accounts trying to account what’s from which fundraisers. Furthermore, it’ll make it easier for reporting in the annual audited financial statement and/or IRS Form 990 filing.

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Special thanks to Chyla Graham, President of CNRG Accounting Advisory. CNRG work with nonprofits, first understanding their long-range plans then identifying the barriers to their financial goals - systems, training, processes, procedures, staff, emotions. As with flying trapeze, they start with the big picture “trick” and work on the smaller actionable steps needed to be implemented to keep their business running smoothly. By starting with the end in mind, CNRG ensures that the financial decisions you make today drive your mission forward.