Nonprofits often run on lean budgets and lean teams, which means a lot of donor tracking happens in spreadsheets. Done right, a Google Sheet can handle everything a small-to-mid-size organization needs: giving history, fund allocation, lapsed donor identification, and grant reporting — without paying for a CRM you'll only use 20% of.
This guide shows you how to build a donor contribution tracker that actually works.
Your Donation Log
Start with one flat table: one row per donation. Columns: donor ID, donor name, donation date, amount, fund (unrestricted, program-specific, endowment, etc.), payment method, and any campaign or appeal it came from.
Keep the fund names and campaign names consistent. Use data validation on both columns so spelling variations don't fragment your reports. Go to Data, Data validation, and set up a dropdown for each.
Total Giving by Donor
Add a donor summary sheet with one row per donor. Use SUMIF to pull their total giving:
=SUMIF(DonationLog!B:B, A2, DonationLog!D:D)
Where B is the donor name column in your log and D is the amount. Add a count of donations:
=COUNTIF(DonationLog!B:B, A2)
And their most recent donation date:
=MAXIFS(DonationLog!C:C, DonationLog!B:B, A2)
These three columns — total giving, gift count, and last gift date — are the foundation of any donor summary.
Identifying Lapsed Donors
A lapsed donor is someone who gave in a prior period but hasn't given recently. Add a Lapsed column to your donor summary:
=IF(AND(MAXIFS(DonationLog!C:C, DonationLog!B:B, A2)<DATE(2026,1,1), SUMIF(DonationLog!B:B, A2, DonationLog!D:D)>0), "Lapsed", "Active")
Adjust the date threshold to match your definition of lapsed (e.g., no gift in the last 12 months). Apply conditional formatting to highlight lapsed donors in red. This gives your development team an instant re-engagement list.
Giving by Fund
Build a pivot table from your donation log. Add Fund to Rows and add Amount to Values (set to SUM). This shows you how much has come in for each fund — useful for grant reporting and board presentations.
Add Date to Rows (grouped by month or quarter) above Fund to see a time-series view of giving by fund.
Year-over-Year Comparison
Use SUMIFS to compare giving in two different years:
=SUMIFS(DonationLog!D:D, DonationLog!C:C, ">="&DATE(2026,1,1), DonationLog!C:C, "<="&DATE(2026,12,31))
Copy this for the prior year by adjusting the dates. Add a variance column to see the dollar and percentage change. This is what you need for your annual appeal comparison and board reporting.
The Easy Way: Using SheetXAI in Google Sheets
Example 1: You have donation records already in the sheet.
"I have a donation log on Sheet 1 with columns for donor name, date, amount, and fund. Build a donor summary showing total giving, gift count, and last gift date per donor, flag lapsed donors who haven't given since January 2025, and add a fund breakdown pivot."
SheetXAI reads your data, builds the donor summary with all three metrics, applies the lapsed donor logic, and creates the fund breakdown.
Example 2: Your donation data lives in your CRM or donor management system.
"Pull donation records from our donor database and build a contribution tracker showing total giving by donor and fund, with lapsed donor identification."
SheetXAI connects to your system, pulls the records, and builds the full tracker.
Try SheetXAI free and see what it builds for you.
Published May 2026. See also: How to Build a Profit and Loss Report in Google Sheets, SUMIFS in Google Sheets, and Google Sheets AI Guide.
