How to prepare a nonprofit donation and sponsorship report

Why a donor spreadsheet rarely tells the whole story

A nonprofit that supports one person may receive bank transfers, online donations, company sponsorships, fundraising-event proceeds or cash contributions where permitted. Information is often divided across bank statements, fundraising platforms, sponsorship agreements, email and the organization's own records. When someone asks how much a particular campaign raised, the answer needs to connect actual income to the right purpose and evidence.

A simple list of donor names and amounts can omit anonymous transfers or contributions whose contact was not linked. A sponsor might contribute in two currencies. A grant can increase the organization's income without being an individual donation. The income total, identified donor contributions and bank balance therefore answer different questions, and your report should keep them distinct.

What you will have at the end

Before you start: decide what you are reporting

Are you reviewing all contributions to the organization, a single therapy campaign, one fund with a designated purpose or the history of a particular sponsor? In single-beneficiary mode, TidyOne already uses the primary beneficiary as the default context. For an organization-wide report, leave All projects and All funds selected; choosing a specific project or fund narrows the report.

Have your bank statements, fundraising-platform payout records, permitted cash records and sponsorship agreements ready. If a donation platform pays out the collected amount minus a fee, retain its breakdown. Gross funds raised, fees and actual bank receipts may require separate treatment in your official accounts.

Prepare your donation and sponsorship report, step by step

Step 1 — Record each received contribution in Finance

Open the Association workspace, go to Finance and use + Income / donation. Enter the received amount, original currency, date, appropriate category, description and any project or fund to which the contribution belongs. An agreed or promised sponsorship is not automatically cash received: use the supporting agreement and payment record to decide which transactions belong in the period you are reporting.

If another TidyOne workflow has already created an income transaction, find it before entering a new one. Recording one bank transfer twice can overstate your campaign income and distort both the donor table and the project report.

Step 2 — Create or link the relevant contact

In the transaction form, choose an existing donor or sponsor contact. If it is missing, create the contact and complete its details in Donors & Contacts when appropriate. Use the Donor type for an individual supporter and Sponsor for a company where that describes the relationship. Verify the name and organization before associating an incoming payment; similar names can refer to different people.

Do not fabricate a contact for anonymous donations. Record the payment against its actual source and preserve the supporting records separately. TidyOne can include an income transaction in overall totals without an associated contact, but the current Donors and sponsors table will not include that payment as an identified donor.

Step 3 — Respect the purpose of the contribution

A single-beneficiary nonprofit may run separate projects for surgery, therapy, travel and equipment. If the donor or contract specifies a purpose, link the contribution to the appropriate project or fund. Keep unrestricted contributions distinct from purpose-designated income. Do not guess the intended purpose from a donor's past contributions or from a document category.

Later, selecting only the Therapy project in Reports will show transactions assigned to that project. Before sharing project-specific figures, check the organization-wide report for general or unassigned income that might otherwise be overlooked.

Step 4 — Preserve supporting evidence without oversharing

Depending on the transaction and local requirements, supporting evidence may include a transfer confirmation, fundraising-platform record, sponsorship agreement, relevant correspondence or another acceptable accounting document. You can attach evidence to the transaction or use Add → Choose file/PDF or Take a photo to add a document. If the file is already in your archive, confirm that it is linked to the correct transaction where applicable.

Public supporters' updates rarely need full names, addresses, bank account details, email addresses or copies of signed agreements. Keep internal evidence separate from the version you publish. Review any personal or sensitive beneficiary information before sharing it with an outside party.

Step 5 — Build the report for the right date range

Navigate to Association → Reports, set Report type to Accounting report and choose Current year, Previous year or Custom in the Period control. To review a three-month fundraising campaign, use Custom and enter the actual dates in the From and To fields. Keep All projects / All funds for the complete organization or select the relevant project and fund for a focused view.

Click Update report after changing the filters. The donor table and the summary metrics reflect the transactions in the current report selection, not automatically the nonprofit's entire donation history.

Step 6 — Interpret income, people and the donor table correctly

Income totals every recorded incoming transaction in your selection, separated by currency. That may include grants or other income as well as gifts. The Income by category section helps you inspect how transactions were classified. Check whether any incoming contribution has been assigned an inappropriate category before you call a total “donations raised”.

The Donors / sponsors in period metric counts distinct linked contacts whose type is Donor or Sponsor and who have at least one income transaction in the report selection. The Donors and sponsors table groups the amounts by contact and currency and displays only the first 20 contact–currency rows. A company contributing in EUR and RON can have two table rows but still counts as one distinct contact. If the underlying list is longer than 20 rows, use transaction review and, where available, a CSV export; the visible summary is not a complete donor register.

Step 7 — Reconcile the numbers and prepare what you share

Compare the TidyOne entries against bank statements, platform payouts and other original records. Check income without linked contacts, non-donation categories, platform fees, date mistakes and payments attributed to the wrong project. To review an individual relationship, use Donors & Contacts, which can show linked donation history, latest donation and contacts worth following up with.

Once the data is checked, PDF / Print, Transaction CSV and Accounting ZIP are available according to your subscription; complete exports require Association PRO. Generate AI draft can produce narrative text from the calculated summary, but it still needs editorial and financial review. The current Reports page does not independently reconcile bank balances or automatically send personalized reports to every sponsor.

Where AI helps—and where a person must verify

In AI Coach, you can ask questions about your TidyOne information and, when explicitly requested, about relevant uploaded files. In Reports, the AI narrative draft uses the application's calculated overview. It can help you explain the period in plain language, but donor identities, agreement terms, money sources and legal classifications still need checking against your original evidence.

Worked example: one month's rehabilitation fundraiser

Suppose a small association receives the following five recorded inflows in one month. All names and figures are entirely fictional and exist only to explain how the report works:

If there are no other incoming transactions in the selection, TidyOne's Income metric will show 2,400 RON and 250 EUR. The Donors / sponsors indicator should show three distinct contacts, not five payments. The anonymous 400 RON still contributes to total income but has no identified donor table row. Ana is grouped at 500 RON, Example Company at 1,500 RON and the overseas supporter at 250 EUR.

If the association also records a 3,000 RON grant in the same interval, overall Income rises, but the grant needs its own classification before being described as a donation or sponsorship. And if an identified supporter has asked to remain anonymous, do not publish the name merely because it appears in the internal contact database.

Checklist before sharing the report

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Reporting total income as if it were all donations

Income may also include grants or other receipts. Review Income by category and the underlying transactions before publishing a donation-only headline.

A donor does not appear even though their money was recorded

Check whether the transaction is linked to the correct contact and whether its contact type is Donor or Sponsor. Unlinked income can contribute to the overall numbers without appearing in the identified donor table.

Treating the first 20 donor rows as the full register

The donor summary is capped at 20 contact–currency pairs. For a complete review, inspect the underlying transactions and use the CSV export if your plan includes it.

Adding EUR and RON into one unsupported total

TidyOne reports currencies separately. If an external report requires conversion, use the documented method and relevant exchange rate required by your accountant or funder, rather than an unsupported automatic estimate.

Publishing donor names or company logos without checking permissions

Distinguish the internal report from a public update. Check applicable agreements and privacy rules before publishing identities, contact details or sensitive documents.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a separate “Donation and sponsorship report” button?

Not in the version described here. Use Accounting report, the income categories and the Donors and sponsors section, then verify the source data before sharing it.

How do I inspect contributions from one sponsor?

Open Donors & Contacts and find the organization. You can review linked donation history there; Finance provides the individual underlying transactions.

Can anonymous donations be included?

Yes, when recorded correctly. They contribute to income, but will not appear in the identified donor table without a linked donor/sponsor contact.

Why can the same sponsor appear twice?

The table groups by contact and currency. One sponsor contributing in RON and EUR can have two table rows while counting as one distinct contact.

Does this report prove all the money is currently in our bank account?

No. It summarizes recorded transactions in the selected period. Reconcile the actual bank balance, pending movements and fees separately.

Can TidyOne automatically email a personal report to each supporter?

You can prepare a narrative and export reports according to your plan, but this page is not an automatic individual donor-report mailing system.

Are exports available on the FREE plan?

You can view the basic report in FREE. Full PDF/CSV/ZIP report export requires Association PRO, subject to your active entitlement.

Does this replace a statutory annual charity return?

No. It is an operational reporting aid. Applicable laws, agreements and professional accounting requirements determine the official report.

Continue with related guides

Note: Examples are fictional. Personal-data processing, sponsorship agreements and financial records must follow the rules applicable in your country. TidyOne supports operational organization and reporting; it is not a substitute for qualified accounting or legal advice.