Backed by Y CombinatorThree documents and four sheets that project net revenue by stream before the event, then compare actual net against it after.
Free download · No account needed
What you get
Pack of 7 files: 3 documents, 4 spreadsheets
Nonprofit Fundraising Event TemplateEvent Plan
[Date] · [Venue]
[One paragraph: the format, the registration fee if any, and what a registration includes.]
| Gross | Net | |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | — | — |
| Peer-to-peer | — | — |
| Sponsorship | — | — |
| Total | — | — |
[Sponsorship outreach opens __ weeks out. Registration opens __ weeks out. Reminder sequence runs through race day.]
Every fundraising event budget nets once, at the end, subtracting total expenses from total revenue. That single subtraction hides which decision drove the result. A comped sponsor seat, a peer-to-peer platform fee, and a walker's shirt and breakfast are three different costs caused by three different revenue streams. The IRS's own reporting form for a fundraising event keeps gross income and direct expenses on separate lines rather than one net figure. This pack keeps that same separation live from budget draft through final report, one figure per stream instead of one at the bottom.
Greenhollow Literacy Alliance, a fictional literacy nonprofit, projected its Turning Pages 5K Walk at $82,500 gross across three streams: 300 walkers at $35, a $32,000 peer-to-peer goal, and $40,000 in sponsorship. The Budget with Net Revenue Projection sheet attributes each stream's own cost: an $18.00 per-walker cost for registration, and Qgiv's own published rate of 4.95% plus $0.30 per gift for peer-to-peer. Comped seats and signage price out per tier in the Sponsorship Register. Net underneath that $82,500 goal: $66,703, an 80.9% margin, with registration alone netting only 48.6%.
The walk closed at $85,300 gross, 3.39% ahead of the published goal, the headline figure. Fully-loaded net closed at $67,763, only 1.59% ahead of projection, under half the rate. The whole gap traces to 80 extra walkers who paid the fee and never opened a fundraising page, plus $300 of extra staffing the bigger crowd required. A gala ticket sold at the same event still needs the substantiation rules a plain registration fee does not. Whatever the event collected still owes three-way reconciliation against the bank before any of these figures are final.
Budget ProjectionIllustrative, for a fictional literacy nonprofit called Greenhollow Literacy Alliance. Turning Pages 5K Walk, projected before the event.
| Stream | Gross | Attributable cost | Net | Margin | Cost basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registration | $10,500 | $5,400 | $5,100 | 48.6% | 300 walkers × $18.00 shirt, breakfast, bib |
| Peer-to-peer fundraising | $32,000 | $1,749 | $30,251 | 94.5% | Platform fee, 4.95% plus $0.30 per gift |
| Sponsorship | $40,000 | $2,698 | $37,302 | 93.3% | 56 comped walkers plus signage, per tier |
| Shared event costs | — | $5,950 | -$5,950 | — | Venue, permits, insurance, staffing |
| Total | $82,500 | $66,703 | 80.9% |
Registration nets barely half of what it grosses once its own per-walker cost comes out. Peer-to-peer and sponsorship both clear 93% or better, which is the gap that makes gross growth and net growth two different stories.
Sponsorship RegisterAll 13 sponsors this cycle. Gold and Silver sponsors within a tier carry identical economics, so one row stands for each tier's group.
| Sponsor | Tier | Price | Comped | Signage | Total cost | Net | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrowgate Financial Group | Presenting | $10,000 | 16 | $650 | $938 | $9,062 | 90.6% |
| Bellcastle Insurance | Gold | $5,000 | 8 | $220 | $364 | $4,636 | 92.7% |
| + 2 more Gold, same economics | |||||||
| Thistlewood Bakery | Silver | $2,500 | 4 | $95 | $167 | $2,333 | 93.3% |
| + 3 more Silver, same economics | |||||||
| Redbrook Coffee Roasters | Bronze | $1,000 | 0 | $0 | $0 | $1,000 | 100.0% |
| + 4 more Bronze, same economics | |||||||
| All 13 sponsors | $40,000 | 56 | $1,690 | $2,698 | $37,302 | 93.3% |
Bronze has no comps and no signage, so it is the highest-margin tier per dollar committed even though it is the smallest. Presenting's sixteen comped seats cost $288 in per-walker expense before a single banner is printed.
Post-event AnalysisProjected versus actual, stream by stream, closed out after the walk.
| Stream | Projected net | Actual net | Net variance | Gross variance | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registration | $5,100 | $6,460 | +$1,360 (26.7%) | +26.7% | 80 more walkers than budgeted; none opened a page |
| Peer-to-peer fundraising | $30,251 | $30,251 | $0 (0.0%) | 0.0% | 550 gifts across 160 pages, exactly on plan |
| Sponsorship | $37,302 | $37,302 | $0 (0.0%) | 0.0% | Same 13 sponsors, no tier mix shift |
| Shared event costs | -$5,950 | -$6,250 | -$300 (-5.0%) | — | Staffing ran over for the bigger crowd |
| Total | $66,703 | $67,763 | +$1,060 (1.59%) | +3.39% |
Gross beat the goal by 3.39%. Fully-loaded net beat its own projection by only 1.59%, under half the rate, because the entire gross gain landed in the thinnest-margin stream while a real cost grew right along with it.
The concept and the target: what the walk charges, what a registration includes, and the gross and net goal every later decision measures against.
The four tiers, their price and comped seat count, and the pitch copy for each, so outreach starts from a real offer, not a blank page.
A five-message reminder sequence timed against the event date, aimed at moving a registrant from paid-the-fee into opened-a-fundraising-page.
Registration, peer-to-peer, and sponsorship, each with its own gross, attributable cost, net, and margin, plus shared costs held apart from all three.
Every sponsor's comped seats and signage priced individually, so a tier's net contribution is computed rather than assumed from its sticker price.
Who registered, who is comped under which sponsor, and who actually opened a personal page, the same split lapsed-donor analysis runs on any donor file.
Projected against actual, stream by stream, plus the isolation of what one driver, like extra walkers, explains on its own.
The date, venue, and shape: a registration fee, peer-to-peer fundraising pages, sponsorships, or some mix, plus a rough headcount target.
Registration's per-walker cost, peer-to-peer's platform fee, and sponsorship's comped seats and signage, each priced and netted against its own stream before outreach starts.
As registrations and comped seats land, the tracking sheet flags who paid the fee alone against who also opened a page, the same distinction CRM cleanup needs once those gifts land as donor records.
Close the books stream by stream once the event ends, and see whether the gross win and the fully-loaded net win actually tell the same story.
No. The platform, Classy, Qgiv, GoFundMe Charity, or similar, is still where pledges are collected and where the final peer-to-peer total comes from. This pack takes that total, along with registration and sponsorship, and nets each stream against its own cost so the number reaching the board is real.
Because the event still pays for that person's shirt, breakfast, and bib whether money changed hands for the seat or not. A tier that comps sixteen seats is buying sixteen real per-participant costs, and leaving them out of that tier's attributable cost overstates its net by exactly that amount.
The Budget sheet still works with only the streams that apply. A ticketed dinner with no fundraising pages nets on registration and sponsorship alone, and the peer-to-peer row stays at zero rather than getting forced into a total it never contributed to.
Yes, in spirit. Form 990's Schedule G reports gross income and direct expenses on separate lines for each significant fundraising event, then computes net income by subtracting one from the other, rather than starting from an already-netted total. This pack's per-stream projection produces exactly that shape, months before the return is due.
It opens this pack as your own private space and builds the Budget with Net Revenue Projection first, using your event's real numbers, before touching the sponsorship tiers or the reminder sequence. Nothing is generic. Every figure is either yours or explicitly marked as a placeholder to fill in.
Word documents (.docx) for the Event Plan, Sponsorship Materials, and Participant Communications, and spreadsheets (.csv) for all four sheets. Both formats open natively in Word, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers, or Sheets, and need no conversion before you can start filling them in.
In the moves management register, not here. This space prices what a sponsorship costs the event to fulfill. The relationship behind a $10,000 Presenting sponsorship, including any major-gift potential, belongs in that prospect's own record, not in an event budget. A sponsor asking for a year-round partnership instead of one event belongs in the corporate and foundation partnership pack, priced by its own benefit costing.
Written by
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Send the event concept and a rough headcount. The first thing back is a net projection for registration, peer-to-peer, and sponsorship, separately.
Edit with AI