Ashfield Community Library appeal

Fundraising progress slide with five funds against targets

A fundraising slide has to show progress and shortfall in the same glance, because the fund that is furthest behind is the one the committee has to talk about. This one covers five funds inside a single appeal at Ashfield Community Library, a fictional library, eight months in.

Create a presentation with OneCraftOne 1920 × 1080 slide on the Metrics: 5 Progress Bars layout

Appeal Progress

Five funds inside the one appeal, at the end of the eighth month.

Children’s Wing

$320,000 of $500,000, with the council grant still to be decided

64%

Technology

$47,000 of $100,000 for 40 laptops and the public wifi upgrade

47%

Garden Restoration

$91,000 of a $100,000 target, finished by a single bequest

91%

Endowment

$115,000 of $500,000, the fund that pays for staff after 2030

23%

General Fund

$246,000 of $300,000, from 1,840 donors giving $134 on average

82%

The finished slide as it renders, built on the Metrics: 5 Progress Bars layout.

What is on the slide

Headline: Appeal Progress, with the line noting five funds inside the one appeal at the end of the eighth month.
Children's wing: $320,000 of $500,000, 64%, with the council grant still to be decided.
Technology: $47,000 of $100,000, 47%, for 40 laptops and the public wifi upgrade.
Garden restoration: $91,000 of a $100,000 target, 91%, finished by a single bequest.
Endowment: $115,000 of $500,000, 23%, the fund that pays for staff after 2030.
General fund: $246,000 of $300,000, 82%, from 1,840 donors giving $134 on average.

When this is the right slide

Five rows suit a campaign update where each fund has its own target and the committee needs to see completion and shortfall side by side.

What to swap it for

Metrics: Single Hero Number. Swap to a single hero number when only the appeal total matters to the audience and the fund level detail belongs in the written report.

What this slide shows

A headline reads Appeal Progress with one line underneath noting five funds inside a single appeal at the end of the eighth month. Five rows follow, each on a tinted band. Every row has the fund name and a short description on the left, a horizontal rail across the middle, and the percentage complete at display size on the right. The rows read children's wing at 64% with $320,000 of $500,000 and the council grant still to be decided, technology at 47% with $47,000 of $100,000 for laptops and wifi, garden restoration at 91% with $91,000 of a $100,000 target finished by a bequest, endowment at 23% with $115,000 of $500,000 for staffing after 2030, and general fund at 82% with $246,000 of $300,000 from 1,840 donors. The rail is a fixed part of the layout rather than a data bar, so the percentage on the right is the measurement and the rail is the visual structure that keeps five rows from reading as a list.

Who this slide is for and when to use it

A fundraising committee, a board of a small charity, or a briefing for major donors who have asked how the campaign is going. Five funds is the number a volunteer committee can discuss in one meeting, and the mixture of nearly finished and barely started is typical of real appeals. The slide does not suit a public audience, where an endowment at 23% invites a reading of failure that the eight month timeline does not support. For that audience, a single total with the appeal target is both simpler and fairer. It also does not suit a campaign with fifteen named funds, where the honest approach is to group them and give the three that need attention their own slide.

How to adapt it

First, put the shortfall in the description line as well as the raised figure, because a committee acts on the gap rather than on the total. Second, treat the percentage as the measurement and use the description to carry the nuance, such as a pledge that has not yet been received or a grant still under decision. Third, decide what order serves the meeting: by completion when the point is progress, by size of gap when the point is where to work next, or by deadline when funds close at different dates. Whichever you choose, keep it consistent between updates so the committee learns to read the slide quickly. If the only thing the audience needs is the appeal total against its target, a single hero number says it better, and the fund detail belongs in the written report that follows the meeting.

What makes this slide work

Every row carries dollars as well as a percentage

Technology at 47% and endowment at 23% look similar as percentages and are nothing alike as amounts: one needs $53,000 and the other $385,000. Printing both figures in the description line is what stops a committee spending its meeting on the smallest gap on the slide.

Each row says where the money came from

The garden was finished by a single bequest, the general fund came from 1,840 donors giving $134 on average, and the children's wing still depends on a council grant. Those clauses turn five progress figures into five different fundraising situations, which is the information a committee actually plans against.

The printed percentage carries the measurement

The rail in each row is part of the layout and does not scale with the value, so the rows are not sorted to make the rails look like a chart. The percentage printed at display size on the right is the measurement, and the rows stay in the appeal's own fund order so the committee finds each fund in the same place every month.

Questions people ask

Should a fundraising slide show percentages or dollars?

Both, on every row. A percentage makes the funds comparable and dollars make the shortfall real. This slide prints the percentage large and the dollars in the description, so a reader sees that 47% of a small fund is a much smaller job than 23% of a large one, which percentages alone would obscure.

How should the rows be ordered?

By whatever the meeting is for. Completion order tells a story of momentum, gap order directs effort, and deadline order suits a campaign with staggered closing dates. Pick one and keep it between updates, because a committee that has learned to read the slide top down will misread it if the order changes each month.

Do the bars measure the percentages?

No. The rails are part of the layout and do not scale with the value, which is why the percentage is printed at the end of each row. If the audience will read bar length as data, use a bar chart instead, where the axis and the bar lengths carry the measurement and can be compared directly.

How many funds fit on one slide?

Five, on this layout. A campaign with more should group the small ones or split across two slides by theme, such as capital funds and operating funds. Cramming eight rows into five slots by merging funds hides exactly the kind of detail a committee is meant to be governing.

Should a slide show a fund that is barely moving?

Yes, with its reason. The endowment here sits at 23% because it is the hardest ask in the appeal, and hiding it would leave the committee believing the campaign is further along than it is. A row that carries its explanation turns an uncomfortable number into an agenda item.

Is it worth showing the timeline on the slide?

One phrase is enough, and this slide uses at the end of the eighth month. Without it, 64% could be ahead of schedule or badly behind. If funds have different end dates, put each date in the row description rather than adding a column, since the layout carries a name, a description and a value per row.

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 29 September 2026.