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Run the Donation Summary Report

Goal: Produce the headline numbers — total raised, donor count, average gift size — for any time period, segmented in the ways you need for board reporting, grant applications, and internal management.

What the report covers​

The donation summary surfaces:

  • Total raised in the date range
  • Number of gifts
  • Number of unique donors
  • Average gift size
  • Largest gift
  • Smallest gift
  • Daily / weekly / monthly progression

Filter by:

  • Date range
  • Fund
  • Campaign
  • Donor type (Individual, Corporate, Foundation, Government)
  • Group by month, week, donor type, or campaign

Common reporting jobs​

  • Annual report figures — calendar year total raised, total donors, year-over-year comparison
  • Grant applications — total raised in a specific time period for a specific designation
  • Board reports — quarterly summary
  • Year-end audit prep — full-year revenue by fund matched against the GL
  • Stewardship segmentation — gifts by donor type to inform appeal strategy

Running the report​

From the Reports section, choose Donation Summary. Set your date range and any filters, then run.

The report displays interactively (filterable, sortable). Export to CSV or PDF for sharing.

Approved vs. unapproved gifts​

The report counts donations recorded in the system regardless of whether they've been approved (since approval workflow doesn't apply to donations as it does to volunteer hours). It does account for:

  • Refunded gifts — excluded from net totals
  • Pending payments — gifts where payment hasn't completed (e.g., ACH still settling) appear in the report but are flagged so you can see what's still settling

Reading the segmentation​

When you group by donor type:

  • See where revenue is concentrated (often individual giving dominates, but a heavy corporate-foundation skew has implications for diversification)
  • Spot revenue concentration risk (one or two donors making up too much of the total)

When you group by campaign:

  • See which appeals delivered
  • Identify campaigns that underperformed (and decide whether they're worth repeating)

When you group by month:

  • See seasonality in your giving (December skews are normal but how strong is yours?)
  • Spot unusual months that may need explanation

Reconciling against the GL​

A clean reconciliation between the donation summary and your general ledger should match:

  • Donation summary total raised, by fund, in a period
  • GL revenue (donations / contributions) account, in the same period

Differences usually come from:

  • Pending payments — counted in donation summary but not yet posted to GL
  • Refunds — adjustments not yet posted on GL side
  • Pledge payments and sponsorship payments routed through different accounts

Run the reconciliation monthly. The longer differences accumulate, the harder they are to chase down.

Limitations to know​

  • The summary aggregates donation records — it doesn't include in-kind donations (those are tracked separately under in-kind reports)
  • Sponsorship payments are included where they create a Donation record, which is most cases
  • Pledge payments are included once they generate a Donation record (which they do automatically)

Saving and re-running​

Common report shapes can be saved and re-run on a schedule. Set up:

  • "Monthly board summary" — runs on the 1st, emails to executive director
  • "Quarterly fund-by-fund" — runs end of quarter for the finance team
  • "Annual giving recap" — runs once at year-end for the audited financials package

See the schedule a report flow for setup.