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So you’ve heard gift tables are an essential fundraising planning tool…but they require MATH?! You ask yourself: are they really that useful? Yes! A gift table that’s properly set up will show you everything you need to know about your campaign at a glance.
And while there may be more math involved in building the table than in anything you’ve done since high school, it’s a surprisingly simple process—half an hour in any spreadsheet software will get you most of the way there.
Before you get intimidated by gift table math and logic, take a look at two resources our team developed: a guide to creating gift tables and an Excel workbook with gift table examples.
Download the guide and Excel workbook.
After reviewing these resources, you will be able to create a basic gift table using Excel, and you’ll feel more comfortable creating the “complex” version with some additional practice.
In the guide, we use a manageable $20 million campaign goal, but the formulas will work whether you are planning for $5 million or $500 million. It’s also important to note that, while we’re using the word “campaign,” the gift table will work for any time-limited, restricted fundraising initiative.
If you’re including your annual fund in your campaign or accounting for a baseline (fundraising revenue below a certain threshold), check out our fundraising software Beam Insights that accounts for comprehensive campaigns—and does the math for you!
Watch our gift table webinar and check out our gift table blog series for more on this subject:
