How to calculate net proceeds from a ticketed fundraiser

The dinner is over, the auction went well, and someone wants the amount raised for tomorrow's thank-you post. You have a ticket sales total, a stack of pledge cards and a bank balance. Which number should you use?

Calculate fundraising event net proceeds by taking the money actually collected, allowing for refunds, then subtracting all the event costs you've agreed to include, including bills you haven't paid yet. Keep unpaid promises, donated goods and money restricted to a particular purpose visible separately. Before announcing the result, explain what your number includes and have the charity's finance lead check it.

That sounds straightforward until a sponsor pays a supplier directly, an auction winner hasn't paid, or the venue sends an extra charge after the event. The useful work is following each amount through those changes without counting it twice or quietly leaving a cost out. We'll use one fictional dinner to do that, then build a closing statement you can adapt for your own event.

Agree what you mean by net proceeds

Start with the promise you made to guests and the beneficiary. Did you say that all ticket revenue would go to the charity, that profits would be donated, or that a fixed amount from every ticket would support a named programme? Those arrangements produce different obligations. You can't choose whichever definition leaves the most convenient number after the suppliers have been paid.

For this guide, event cash proceeds means collected event receipts after refunds, less the complete cash cost of producing and fundraising through that event. It includes costs incurred but still awaiting payment. It excludes unpaid pledges and noncash support. This is a management calculation for understanding what the event leaves, rather than a template for a charity's tax return or statutory accounts.

Agree the reporting period as well. You might include admission sales before the dinner, the appeal on the night and related gifts received until an agreed closing date. A donation that arrives afterwards needs an agreed treatment. Record it as a later addition if it belongs to the campaign; don't keep changing an apparently final number without explaining why.

Then decide who owns the calculation. The producer can gather invoices and sales records. The charity can verify gifts, restrictions and transfers. A named finance reviewer should approve how those records become a result. When a commercial organiser produces the event for a charity, agree the organiser's fee and who pays each cost before selling admission.

In England and Wales, the Charity Commission's public guidance on raising money for charity says to tell donors from the outset about deductions for reasonable expenses and to explain what their support will fund. Your own jurisdiction and arrangement may have different requirements. Have the beneficiary approve the actual promise, including any costs deducted and what happens if a particular appeal cannot achieve its purpose.

Write the approved definition at the top of your closing worksheet. For example, you could state that the figure includes paid admission, cash sponsorship, received appeal gifts and paid auction purchases, less refunds and all agreed event cash costs. Specify whether existing salaried staff time and shared overhead are included. Anyone reading the final announcement should be able to find that explanation without having to ask the committee.

Separate receipts, promises and money available to spend

Your working records need to answer different questions. How much did people pay? How much have they promised but not paid? How much has reached the bank? How much is left after costs? A single running total cannot answer all of them, particularly while payments and supplier bills are still moving.

Use a receipt reference that follows the transaction through your records. A pledge later paid by card keeps its original pledge reference and gains a payment reference. It moves into received money and out of unpaid promises. It doesn't become a second gift. The same applies when an auction winner settles an invoice after the event.

For card payments, distinguish a successful customer payment awaiting payout from a failed or pending attempt. Your provider's verified records should establish the status. A screenshot from a donor's phone may help investigate a problem, but it shouldn't settle an unresolved payment on its own. Show successful payments awaiting payout separately when checking what the bank should contain.

A sponsor's signed agreement can support a forecast. It still doesn't provide money for a supplier payment until the relevant funds are available. Similarly, a generous pledge gives your team a collection task. Keep the amount, due date and responsible contact in the outstanding list without treating it as received proceeds.

There is a further distinction if an organiser holds money for the charity. Your own production fee, the charity's gifts and a refundable supplier deposit may all pass through accounts connected with the event. Their presence in the same account doesn't make them the same kind of money. Have finance identify ownership and permitted use before anyone authorises a transfer.

Keep funds unrelated to the campaign outside the calculation. An opening cash float is money provided to make change, not event income. A temporary advance from the organiser is funding that may need repaying, not a donation unless the parties actually agree that treatment. Returning a refundable deposit also isn't a new fundraising success. Follow each item back to its original purpose.

Our guide to displaying a live fundraising total covers what guests see during the appeal. The final proceeds statement needs the additional work of checking costs, refunds and settlement. You can thank a generous room immediately while allowing the finance team time to establish what the evening has actually left.

Work through a complete fundraiser example

Imagine the fictional Cedar Community Dinner, raising money for a charity's family support work. Every amount below is invented and in USD. The example assumes no sales tax, tax recovery or foreign currency conversion, and its charges aren't Loopyah prices. It illustrates the calculation, not a typical fundraiser's costs or an achievable fundraising target.

The event sells 180 dinner admissions at $120, collecting $21,600. Six admissions are subsequently refunded in full for $720, leaving $20,880 in admission receipts. The remaining 174 paying guests attend, alongside six complimentary guests. The caterer serves 180 meals at $45, costing $8,100. Refreshments for other workers are included in the production and labour charges below.

Cash sponsorship contributes $8,000, all received. The appeal has received $9,600, with another $2,400 pledged but unpaid. Auction buyers have paid $4,500, while winning bids worth $1,000 remain unpaid. For now, only the received appeal gifts and paid auction purchases enter the collected total. Nobody assumes the outstanding amounts will arrive simply because the evening felt successful.

Add the collected amounts before refunds and you get $43,700. Subtract the $720 admission refunds and collected receipts after refunds are $42,980. You can reach the same result by adding $20,880 of retained admission receipts, $8,000 sponsorship, $9,600 appeal gifts and $4,500 auction payments. The unpaid $3,400 remains outside both versions.

Now record the complete cash costs. Venue hire is $4,000. Catering is $8,100. Production and equipment cost $2,200. Paid event labour costs $2,400, comprising a $1,800 producer fee and $600 for event-day staff. Marketing costs $1,200, auction fulfilment costs $600, and insurance and administration cost $500. Together, those costs total $19,000 before payment charges.

Payment charges total another $1,480 across all channels. The example assigns $900 to admission payments, $320 to sponsorship, $180 to appeal gifts and $80 to auction purchases. These are invented final charges across the transactions, including any charges retained after refunds. We use them so every later calculation has a stated starting point.

Total cash costs are therefore $20,480. Take that from the $42,980 collected after refunds and event cash proceeds are $22,500. That is the result before the additional allocation of existing salaried time and shared overhead discussed later. It is also before any later collection of the outstanding pledges or auction balances.

Notice what we've already avoided. The six complimentary guests generated meal costs without admission income. Refunded places reduced receipts without changing the final catering bill. And the pledge cards didn't become money just because someone had totalled them. Those details are easy to miss when a committee starts with the largest number on a sales report.

Check admission receipts against the actual orders

Begin the admission check with what buyers paid for the event's tickets, then identify refunds, discounts and any separately collected amounts. Keep your report's definition clear. A ticket's displayed price, an order total and the amount paid out to the organiser may differ. Use the provider's transaction records to explain those differences instead of assuming every report uses the same basis.

Cedar's original 180 admissions at $120 produce $21,600 because we have assumed a single price and no discounts. Your event may have early prices, table packages, complimentary places and partial refunds. Reconcile the actual orders. Multiplying the number of people who attended by the headline price will usually miss the history of how those places were purchased.

A whole-table order needs particular care. The person paying might buy several admissions in one transaction, then supply guest names later. An unnamed guest isn't an unpaid seat if the table has already been paid for. Equally, a table host's promise to find guests isn't a paid order. Keep the booking and payment records connected without using the guest list as a substitute for either.

Loopyah's ticket checkout and ticket types let you sell admission through an event page and send buyers confirmation emails linking to QR tickets. That keeps the admission sale and ticket delivery connected. For the fundraiser's closing calculation, use the relevant verified payment records and reconcile them with finance; a ticket order alone doesn't establish the charity's complete proceeds.

Separate charges paid by buyers from charges absorbed by the event. When the provider retains a charge before paying you, don't count the reduced payout as gross receipts and then subtract the same charge again. Either start from the complete relevant receipts and deduct the event's charges, or use a clearly documented net starting point. The first approach is easier to follow across multiple channels.

At Cedar, the $20,880 admission amount is after refunds but before the $900 admission payment charges. Both appear once in the overall calculation. If a report instead shows $19,980 after those charges, you would add the $900 back when reconstructing receipts, then show it with the other costs. The event's result must stay the same whichever report supplies the starting point.

Keep complimentary guests visible in a separate count. Their places can be justified by the event's purpose or delivery commitments, but they still use meals and other resources. Our ticketed charity gala guide explains the earlier planning decisions. At settlement, your job is to check what was delivered and charged, including the guests who never appeared in paid sales.

Include the costs nobody has paid yet

Ask each supplier for its final account and compare it with the agreed order and any approved changes. A deposit is part of the total supplier cost, not a separate cost to add again. A final balance invoice may show the full contract value with the deposit deducted, so read the document before copying its largest figure into the worksheet.

Look for costs that depend on what actually happened. A longer programme can mean overtime. A changed meal guarantee can increase catering. Additional auction deliveries can create packing or courier charges. Record whether each amount is confirmed, estimated or disputed and who is resolving it. An unresolved invoice doesn't disappear because the public announcement has a deadline.

Of Cedar's $19,000 in costs before payment charges, $2,800 remains unpaid at the review date. That consists of $1,000 of venue charges, $1,500 of catering and $300 of event labour. All three amounts are already included in their complete cost lines. We subtract the full $19,000 when calculating proceeds, even though only $16,200 has left the event's funds so far.

Staff and volunteer expenses need a closing process too. Tell people how to submit approved claims, what evidence to provide and when finance will review them. Check directly with the people who bought supplies or arranged transport. If you haven't asked, a blank expense line tells you little about whether a claim is coming.

Keep a contingency allowance distinct from spending. Before the event, it helps you allow for uncertainty. Afterwards, replace it with actual costs and any specifically identified unresolved exposure. An unused allowance isn't automatically an expense. Conversely, releasing the allowance doesn't justify ignoring an overtime claim that is still being checked. Show the open item and the reason for any temporary holdback.

If a supplier returns a deposit, determine what the original payment represented. A security deposit held against damage usually affects the cash reconciliation without becoming a new expense or fundraising receipt in this management view. If part is retained for an agreed charge, record that charge once. Have finance confirm the treatment and preserve the supplier's explanation.

A useful closing forecast names uncertainty plainly. For example, a disputed cleaning charge can appear as a potential additional cost alongside the confirmed result. Don't silently choose zero to improve the headline. If the amount could materially change what reaches the charity, publish a provisional result or wait for resolution before describing the proceeds as final.

Treat sponsorship and donated support differently

Cash sponsorship belongs in the received calculation when payment has been verified. Record the agreed benefits and their delivery costs as well. Logo printing, guest meals or a sponsored reception may create costs even when the sponsor payment looks generous. The full event result needs both the receipt and the spending, with no assumption that sponsorship is automatically all surplus.

At Cedar, the six complimentary dinners are already included in the 180 meals, regardless of whether some guests attend through sponsorship. We don't add another meal allowance under sponsor fulfilment. If a sponsor receives extra benefits beyond the production and catering already recorded, their additional cost needs its own entry. Check the delivery record against the agreement before closing the sponsor account.

Loopyah's event sponsorship tools let brands choose priced packages on a private page and pay by card. Where approval is required, you can approve the application before the brand pays. That gives the sponsorship transaction a defined purchase process. Your proceeds calculation still needs to distinguish the payment from the cost of fulfilling the package and the charity's agreed entitlement.

Suppose Cedar's venue originally quoted $6,000 but agreed to charge $4,000 in support of the cause. The $2,000 reduction helps the dinner by reducing its cash cost. It doesn't provide another $2,000 to transfer. Our example records the final $4,000 venue bill and acknowledges the discount separately. Adding the discount to cash income would overstate the result.

The same principle applies to donated prizes and volunteer work in this cash calculation. A donated auction item may produce a real payment when sold. Count that received payment, then any actual fulfilment costs. The donor's estimate of the item's retail value isn't an additional bank receipt. Volunteer hours deserve recognition without being described as money available for the beneficiary.

A sponsor paying a supplier directly needs more explanation. Confirm who contracted for the service, who owes the bill, whether the payment satisfies a sponsorship commitment and what evidence proves settlement. Show the arrangement separately until finance decides its treatment. Don't record sponsor cash received by the event when the event never received it, then forget that a supplier liability has nevertheless been settled.

Your accounting records may recognise donated goods or support differently from this event closing statement. Keep the evidence your accountant needs rather than forcing every entry into one public total. Our guide to valuing in-kind event sponsorship develops the commercial comparison. For the closing statement here, the immediate question is which costs remain payable and which money can actually support the cause.

Keep unpaid pledges and auction bids out of received proceeds

After the dinner, make a separate list of amounts still to collect. Include the donor or buyer reference, amount, original commitment, agreed payment route and follow-up owner. Restrict access to people who need the information. The public result can show a combined outstanding amount without publishing individual names or anyone's payment problem.

Cedar has $2,400 in unpaid appeal pledges and $1,000 in unpaid auction purchases. Together they are $3,400 of outstanding commitments. They explain possible future receipts, but they don't increase the $22,500 event cash proceeds. Calling them received would obscure the collection work and risk committing money the charity may never obtain.

When a payment arrives, update the existing record. If a $500 pledge is settled, received appeal gifts increase by $500 and the unpaid pledge balance falls by $500. Record any charge incurred when collecting it. If the payment covers only part of the commitment, keep the remainder open with the correct balance rather than marking the whole pledge as paid.

For auction items, confirm whether the buyer has paid and whether the item has been handed over. A signed bid sheet isn't the same as an available payment. Agree the follow-up and collection arrangements with the charity and the item donor. Avoid treating an unsold or unpaid item as cash on the strength of its catalogue estimate.

The IRS's Publication 526 on charitable contributions explains that an excess payment for goods or services may qualify as a contribution when paid to a qualified organisation with charitable intent. It also gives a fundraising-auction example. That tax question differs from how much cash the auction collected. Keep the payment record, item value and any charitable acknowledgment distinct rather than using one amount for every purpose.

Don't include a potential matching donation until the agreement establishes what has been earned, and distinguish earned money awaiting payment from money received. A headline matching cap is a maximum opportunity. The actual entitlement can depend on qualifying gifts, timing and exclusions. Ask the charity to check the calculation and sponsor confirmation before including the amount in a forecast.

Set a review date for the outstanding list. A final event report can retain a clearly identified collection schedule while stating the received result at a particular date. When further money arrives, issue a dated addition. That is more useful than leaving the whole event indefinitely unfinished or repeatedly announcing the same pledge as though each reminder produced new support.

Reconcile the result to the bank

Now check whether the records explain the cash you can see. Start from collected receipts after refunds, subtract charges withheld by providers, then subtract supplier and other event payments already made. The remaining amount should agree with event funds held across the bank, verified pending payouts and any properly recorded cash awaiting banking, after accounting for other identified movements.

Cedar collected $42,980 after refunds. Providers retained the $1,480 payment charges, leaving $41,500 to reach the event's accounts. Costs already paid, excluding payment charges, are $16,200, so the event has $25,300 remaining across bank funds and verified payouts still to arrive. Assume all cash collections have been banked and there are no other movements in this example.

At the review date, $2,000 of successful payments is still awaiting provider payout. That leaves $23,300 in the event's bank funds and $2,000 with the provider. Together they explain the $25,300. Subtract the $2,800 in unpaid supplier costs and the proceeds remain $22,500. The pending payout changes where the money is, rather than creating another receipt.

This check can uncover two opposite errors. Announcing the whole $25,300 would ignore unpaid bills. Using only the $23,300 bank amount as proceeds would ignore the pending payout and still fail to explain the bills. Reconciliation means accounting for both timing differences until the cash position and the event result agree.

For England and Wales charities, the Charity Commission's internal financial controls guidance recommends splitting financial duties, reconciling transaction records with bank receipts and having a second person review reconciliations. It also describes controls for event cash collections. Apply your charity's approved procedures, including secure counting and prompt banking, rather than improvising a shortcut during the close.

Investigate differences individually. A payout might combine several events. A refund might settle in a later batch. A bank deposit might contain both donations and a returned float. Identify the transactions behind the difference and attach the evidence. A balancing adjustment called miscellaneous income makes the sheet add up while concealing the question you actually need to resolve.

Once the remaining $2,000 payout arrives and Cedar pays the $2,800 bills, its event bank funds will be $22,500, assuming nothing else changes. Until then, finance should decide the safe transfer amount and timing under the beneficiary agreement. Don't empty the account simply because the final amount is known while outstanding payments still need to be processed.

Show restricted gifts and the full cost of staff time

Some received money can support only a stated purpose. Identify those gifts before pooling the apparent surplus. A restriction may come from the appeal wording or the donor's terms. Confirm it with the charity and retain the relevant evidence. You cannot assume that every dollar raised during the same dinner is available to pay every dinner expense.

Suppose $6,000 of Cedar's $9,600 received appeal gifts is restricted to family equipment kits, with no event costs charged to those gifts under the approved arrangement. The other $36,980 of collected receipts after refunds covers the $20,480 event cash costs. That leaves $16,500 for the charity's general family support work, plus the protected $6,000 for kits, making $22,500 overall.

The total is unchanged, but its meaning is much clearer. The charity has not received $22,500 of unrestricted money. Nor has it collected an extra $6,000 on top of the proceeds. The restricted portion was already inside received gifts. Show both its inclusion in the total and its required use when handing over the result.

Next, ask what the event cost the organisation beyond new invoices. Cedar's paid producer and event-day staff are already in the $2,400 labour cost. Suppose the charity also assigns $1,600 of existing salaried staff time and $900 of shared overhead to producing the dinner. Those amounts are additional allocations for assessing the event's full cost, not new supplier payments to subtract again from the bank reconciliation.

The event cash proceeds of $22,500 then become a $20,000 contribution after those $2,500 additional allocations. Show both measures internally and label them. The cash statement explains the money generated after event cash costs. The full-cost view helps trustees decide whether the dinner used staff and organisational resources well. Neither number should appear publicly without its basis being clear.

US reporting also has definitions that need care. The IRS's Schedule G instructions separate fundraising-event receipts, contributions and direct expenses. Its net event income calculation therefore doesn't simply reproduce the all-receipts-less-costs management figure used here. Have the charity's preparer map the records to the required return; don't copy a management headline into a tax form because both use the word net.

The IRS's Form 990 instructions also distinguish direct event expenses from certain indirect fundraising expenses, including some advertising costs. That is a reason to retain the original detail. Your internal full-cost review can include relevant marketing and staff resources while the required reporting allocates them according to its own rules. Keep the reconciliation between those views available to finance.

Write an announcement the accounts can support

Before publishing, decide whether the result is final or provisional. If material refunds, supplier charges or payment disputes remain unresolved, say so and name the planned update date. You can thank attendees, sponsors and volunteers without putting an unsupported proceeds claim in the same message. A prompt acknowledgment and a checked financial statement can be separate communications.

For Cedar, an approved final statement could say that the dinner collected $42,980 after admission refunds and generated $22,500 after $20,480 in event cash costs. It should explain that $6,000 is for equipment kits and $16,500 supports the charity's general family work. It can state separately that $3,400 in pledges and auction balances remains unpaid and is excluded from that result.

If the organisation publishes the full-cost figure instead, it should explain the additional $2,500 allocation and the resulting $20,000. Don't switch measures halfway through a comparison with last year's event. If last year's announcement excluded shared staff time, either restate it on a comparable basis or show why the measures differ. Otherwise a change in presentation can masquerade as improved performance.

A donor's tax acknowledgment is another separate calculation. The IRS's quid pro quo contribution guidance explains US disclosure requirements when a payment combines a contribution with goods or services. The value of the donor's benefit matters. The event's catering cost or net proceeds doesn't automatically establish the deductible amount, so let the charity approve the acknowledgment rather than inventing one from the budget.

Avoid saying that every dollar went to the cause if the event deducted costs. If a sponsor funded those costs, explain the arrangement accurately. Costs still existed and the sponsor's money paid them. The appropriate wording depends on the actual transaction and appeal promise, not on a desire to make the evening sound free to produce.

Show who receives the proceeds and what happens next. If funds have been transferred, retain confirmation and obtain the beneficiary's acknowledgment. If payment is scheduled, describe it as scheduled. If the charity itself ran the event, explain the approved allocation within its funds. A presentation cheque can celebrate the result, but it doesn't establish that the money moved.

Handle a refund that arrives after the announcement

A result can be correct when approved and still need updating after a later transaction. Agree who monitors refunds and disputes after the production team finishes. If nobody owns that period, the charity may learn about a reduction only when it tries to spend the transferred money. Keep enough contact and payment information for authorised staff to investigate without circulating donors' private details.

Take a separate variation on Cedar's original closing result. Suppose one guest receives a $120 admission refund after attending because of a service complaint. Assume there is no recoverable catering cost and no additional payment charge. Collected receipts after refunds fall from $42,980 to $42,860, while event cash costs remain $20,480. Proceeds become $22,380, a reduction of $120.

Don't reduce the catering cost just because there is now one fewer retained admission payment. The meal was served and the supplier's invoice hasn't changed. Equally, don't subtract the refund twice by reducing admission receipts and adding the same amount as an expense. The refund explains a reduction in collected receipts. Any genuinely additional handling charge would be a separate cost.

This variation leaves the $6,000 equipment-kit restriction untouched because the refund concerns admission, not a restricted gift. Confirm the relevant treatment whenever the original transaction differs. If the charity has already received the earlier proceeds, agree how the event account will fund the refund and record the adjustment. A completed transfer doesn't remove an unresolved obligation to a buyer.

Record the revised statement with its approval date and tell the beneficiary about the adjustment. Your worksheet should show each change in date order, with one current result and an explanation of how it differs from the previous approved version. That lets someone answering a donor's question find the right figure without reconstructing the payment history.

Use a closing worksheet you can hand to finance

Your closing file should let someone reconstruct the result without interviewing every committee member. Keep the calculation with the transaction reports, refund evidence, supplier accounts and relevant agreements. Link records by reference and restrict access appropriately. A folder of screenshots with no explanation leaves the next reviewer to guess which amounts were included.

Use these headings as a practical starting point, then adapt them to the charity's records and reporting requirements:

• Event and campaign name, reporting dates, currency, beneficiary and approved proceeds definition.

• Received money by channel before refunds, with transaction or batch references and the refunds shown separately.

• Outstanding pledges, unpaid purchases and unpaid sponsorship, each with an owner and next review date.

• Complete event costs, amounts already paid, balances still owed and unresolved charges.

• Charges withheld before payout, successful payments awaiting payout and the bank reconciliation.

• Restricted gifts, donated support and the treatment of existing staff time and shared overhead.

• Provisional holdbacks where needed, the approved transfer, the public statement and the reviewer's sign-off.

At Cedar, the reviewer should be able to follow the $720 refund to six admission orders, the $8,100 catering cost to 180 meals and the $2,800 unpaid costs to named supplier balances. They should also be able to show why the $2,000 pending payout isn't unpaid donor money. Each connection answers a different potential question about the same result.

Record corrections with a reason. If an invoice changes after review, preserve the earlier statement, enter the difference and obtain the appropriate approval. Then decide whether the public update needs correcting. Quietly overwriting a number can leave the beneficiary, producer and sponsor holding different versions of what was supposedly final.

Decide what the result means for the next event

Once the close is complete, compare it with the forecast using the same definitions. Ask which changes actually affected proceeds. Lower ticket receipts may have come with lower meal costs, or a late guarantee may have removed that saving. More auction revenue may have required extra fulfilment spending. Explain the cause before recommending a larger or smaller event next time.

You can also calculate spending as a share of receipts, but choose a consistent basis. Cedar's $20,480 cash costs divided by $42,980 collected after refunds are about 47.65%. That describes this invented dinner only. It isn't a target, a charity-sector benchmark or evidence that the event was good value. Including the additional $2,500 staff and overhead allocation would change the measure.

Compare the result with what the charity needed and what else those resources could have achieved. A dinner may bring supporters together as well as raise money, but record those aims separately and look for evidence of their outcome. An encouraging conversation with a prospective donor doesn't repair a shortfall in received proceeds. The charity can value the relationship while keeping the financial report accurate.

Returning to Cedar's original $22,500 closing result, suppose $2,000 of the $3,400 outstanding commitments is later collected, with $60 in additional charges and no other changes. Event cash proceeds increase by $1,940 to $24,440. The remaining unpaid commitments fall to $1,400. Date that addition and preserve the original closing result.

For a future dinner, test the value of extra spending against what it can realistically add. A more expensive room doesn't become justified because gross receipts look impressive. Ask whether it helps collect enough additional usable money to cover its cost, and what evidence supports that expectation. Our event budget scenario guide can help you compare the alternatives before making another commitment.

Finish this event by asking the finance reviewer to explain the transfer from the underlying records. They should be able to identify the received money, the complete costs, any restrictions and the outstanding amounts excluded. When those pieces agree, you have a result the charity can use and a thank-you message you can publish with confidence.