You are the treasurer of a charity or run a community donations group, and you want to know how much came in, how much went out and on what, and what is left, and to show it to the board and donors without revealing a donor's or beneficiary's name. The free charity donations and disbursements tracker gives you that from three logs you type, plus a one-page monthly report.
The problem it solves
Questions about a charity's money usually start from a lack of order: donations in a notebook, transfers in messages, spending with no clear item, and beneficiary names passed around. When someone asks for an account it is assembled late and differs every time. You need one place for day-by-day records, a report that looks the same every month, and as little sensitive data as possible.
How the sheet works, step by step
- In Settings write the charity's name and the year, pick the report month, enter the balance you started with, and rename donation types, spending items and beneficiary groups if you want.
- In Donations log each donation: date, donor code (blank for an anonymous donor), type, amount and payment method.
- In Beneficiaries give each one a code such as B001 with group, area and household size. There is no name, phone or national ID field; keep those in your own private records.
- In Disbursements log each amount that goes out: date, beneficiary code (blank for an administrative cost or a general project), item and amount.
- Open Transparency report and the chosen month is calculated. Year summary shows the twelve months side by side.
What the sheets add
- Beneficiaries counts disbursements per code and shows a status: not yet received, received this month, or received earlier.
- Disbursements shows the group from the code, with a red "check the code" warning for an unregistered code.
- The report adds shares, an "unclassified" line, balances, beneficiaries by group and signature boxes.
A walk-through with the sheet's numbers
These figures come from the sample data inside the sheet, for an imaginary charity. The opening balance is 20,000 pounds and the chosen month is October 2026.
- Donations 13,550 pounds across 9 donations: zakat 6,000 (44.3%), designated project 3,500 (25.8%), general 2,500, sadaqat 1,050, orphan sponsorship 500.
- Spending 11,000 pounds across 11 transactions: charity projects 3,000 (27.3%), cash aid 2,700 (24.5%), education 1,900 (17.3%), medical 1,500, food 1,400, administrative 500 (4.5%).
- Balance: 26,800 at the start, net 2,550, 29,350 at the end.
- Beneficiaries: seven received a disbursement (three households, two orphans, one patient, one student), about 1,029 pounds on average, counting only registered beneficiaries.
- One warning: a disbursement written with the unregistered code B099 shows "check the code" so it can be fixed before the report is presented. And B008 is registered but has received nothing, so it shows in the warning colour.
Why it matters
- Clarity: the same layout every month makes it easy for the board and donors to compare.
- Privacy: the report shows totals only and the sheet works with codes, so it holds no personal data on donors or beneficiaries.
- Accuracy: the "unclassified" line and the code warning expose mismatches before they vanish into a total.
- Works in Excel 2016 and later, Google Sheets and LibreOffice, free, with room for 2000 donations, 2000 disbursements and 500 beneficiaries.
Using the online version
The sheet page opens straight on this example. Type in the white cells and the grey ones update, add records with a form, and pick the month in Settings to see its report. You can import your own xlsx made from this sheet, export to xlsx, or download the original file. Your data stays in your browser and is not sent to the server. Open the sheet page or the templates list.
Who it suits
It suits the treasurer of a small or mid-sized charity, or a committee collecting donations for a project, who wants a clear account without a complicated program. For the same monthly-report idea for a building or compound see the owners' association transparency report, and for a simple daily money book see the cash book.
FAQ
Does the sheet hold names? No, only codes. Names stay in your own records.
How is the balance calculated? Closing = opening + donations - spending, and the opening balance counts everything recorded before the month.
What if I use an item that is not in the list? It appears in the "unclassified" line and stays in the total.
Can I add a seventh donation type? The sheet holds six. Merge the least used into "other" or rename them in Settings.