A pledge tracking spreadsheet that keeps pledges and payments apart

A pledge is a promise to give; a payment is money received. They arrive at different times, in different amounts, sometimes in several installments, and occasionally never. A tracker that stores them in the same column cannot answer the two questions a board asks: how much was promised, and how much of it has come in.

The accounting treats them differently too. Under US GAAP for nonprofits, an unconditional promise to give is recognized as contribution revenue when the promise is received, not when the cash arrives, with pledges due in more than a year measured at present value. A promise becomes conditional under ASU 2018-08 when it has both a barrier the organization must overcome and a right of return or release; conditional pledges are not recognized until the condition is met. Your spreadsheet is a working record, not your books, but record enough (the date, the amount, any conditions in the donor's words) for your accountant to classify each pledge.

Receipts follow payments. The IRS requires a written acknowledgment for a contribution of $250 or more, stating the amount and whether goods or services were given in return. Send it when the money arrives, and word the pledge form's closing message as a thank-you for the promise, not a receipt.

Any form that writes rows to a sheet works. With Zunoform, start from the Donation Pledge template, which asks for name or organization, intended amount, currency, preferred designation, intended giving date, whether the team may get in touch, and an email that is only asked if the answer is yes. It tells donors not to enter card or bank details, and its closing message says the pledge is an intention, not a payment.

Save the form, open Integrations and authorize Google Sheets; Zunoform creates a spreadsheet named after the form with a Responses tab. The integration is on the free plan and sends new completed responses from the moment it is enabled. Each row begins with Timestamp and Response ID, then one column per question. Values are written as plain text, so amounts and dates must be converted before any total, which the formulas below do.

There are two useful versions. By amount: capped received divided by pledged, for active pledges in one currency. By count: the number of active pledges with no balance left divided by all active pledges. The first tells you how much money is missing; the second tells you how many donors to follow up.

=SUMIFS(Pledges!H:H, Pledges!D:D, "USD", Pledges!K:K, "Active") / SUMIFS(Pledges!C:C, Pledges!D:D, "USD", Pledges!K:K, "Active")

=COUNTIFS(Pledges!D:D, "USD", Pledges!K:K, "Active", Pledges!I:I, 0) / COUNTIFS(Pledges!D:D, "USD", Pledges!K:K, "Active")

Report cancelled and written-off pledges on their own line rather than dropping them silently, and repeat both formulas for each currency. Never add USD and GBP pledges together unless you have agreed a conversion rate and date and say so in the report. Fundraising software vendors often quote typical fulfillment rates, but we could not find one traced to a published study, so measure your own over two or three campaigns.

For a pledge paid in parts, add two typed columns: M, the installment amount, and N, the number of months between installments, and treat E as the first due date. Then calculate what should have arrived by today and compare it with what has. These are per-row formulas; put them in row 2 and fill down:

P2 Expected to date: =IF(E2="",0,IF(TODAY()<E2,0,IF(M2="",C2,MIN(C2,(INT(DATEDIF(E2,TODAY(),"M")/N2)+1)*M2))))

Q2 Arrears: =MAX(0,P2-H2)

As an illustration, a 1,200 pledge at 100 a month starting 15 January 2026 has nine installments due by 28 September 2026, so 900 expected. If 800 has arrived, arrears are 100, while the balance is still 400. Remind on arrears, not balance, for installment pledges; asking for the full balance early is a quick way to lose a regular donor.

Add a conditional formatting rule to the Pledges tab (Format, Conditional formatting, custom formula) such as =AND($K2="Active",$I2>0,$E2<>"",$E2<TODAY()) to shade overdue rows, and filter on the Reminder column once a week. A good reminder names the pledge amount, what has been received, what is due and when, how to pay, and one sentence on what the gift will do. It should thank before it asks.

Respect the contact answer. If a donor said no to follow-up, the reminder column stays blank for them; their pledge stays in the report but no one emails them about it. The sheet flags who is due; sending is up to you, from your own email or donor CRM. Neither Google Sheets nor Zunoform sends pledge reminders on a schedule for you.

Then you need a payment form rather than a pledge form. Google Forms has no native payment field. Zunoform has one on the Pro and Business plans: you connect your own Stripe or PayPal account, the money goes straight to it, and Zunoform adds no transaction fee (your processor's own fees still apply). It supports USD, EUR, GBP and INR, and charges either a fixed amount or an amount tied to options the donor chooses, such as preset gift levels.

It takes one-time payments only. There is no recurring or installment billing, so for monthly giving use your processor's own subscription tools or a donation platform, and keep this tracker for pledges that are paid later by other means.

For a campaign that collects pledges and pays out later, a free Zunoform pledge form and Google Sheets integration give you clean intake with contact consent built in; Free includes 500 responses a month. If you want donors to pay on the spot, the payment field needs Pro.

For a capital campaign with hundreds of multi-year pledges, restricted gifts and board reporting, dedicated donor management software that records pledges, schedules and receipts in one system will be more reliable than any spreadsheet, and several vendors in that category offer pledge reminders built in.