# The Art of Funder Reporting: How to Show Exactly Where Their Money Goes > When nonprofit funding is cut, funders keep the organizations they understand best. Here is what to put in grant reports, including details funders rarely ask for. Published: 2026-10-15 Author: Andrey (OpenCommunity Team) ## Key takeaways - When funders have less to give, they renew the organizations whose work they can see and explain to their own boards. - A headcount is the minimum. Repeat attendance, households reached, demand you could not meet, and earned revenue tell a funder far more. - Report attendance as participation, not as proof of impact, and keep your definitions the same from one report to the next. ## Why funder reporting matters more when funding is being cut Clear, detailed grant reporting is one of the best ways to protect the funding you still have. When budgets shrink, funders support fewer organizations, and they keep the ones whose work they understand. Federal departments face spending review targets of 7.5% for 2026-2027, rising to 15% by 2028-2029, and BC is looking for savings too. Many funders sit downstream of both. When a funder has to choose which grants to renew, the decision often comes down to which organizations they understand. A program officer who can explain to their own board what your centre does with the money, in specific terms, is a program officer who can argue for you. Good reporting is how you give them that. Fundraisers call this funder stewardship: keeping a funder informed and confident between applications. For most funders, your reports are the main way they get to know your work. ## What most funder reports show, and what they leave out Most reports answer the questions on the funder's template: how many people attended, how many sessions ran, perhaps an age breakdown. Those numbers matter, and you should get them right. Our guide to [unique participants versus total visits](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/unique-participants-vs-total-visits/index.md) covers the most common mistake. But a template is a floor. Two organizations can report the same 400 visits and be doing very different work. The details below tell a funder which kind of organization you are. ## Seven program insights funders rarely ask for but value None of these require new data collection if your sign-in and payment records are already in good shape. Pick the two or three that best show what makes your programs work. - **Repeat attendance.** How many people came back three or more times? A program families return to every week is doing something right, and a single attendance total hides it. - **New versus returning participants.** How many people came for the first time this period? This shows a funder you are still reaching new families, not only serving the same group. - **Households reached.** One parent and two children are three participants and one household. Funders focused on families often care more about the household number. - **Demand you could not meet.** Full sessions and waitlists show that the program is needed beyond what the current funding covers. That is a strong argument for renewal. - **When people come.** Attendance by day and time shows whether evening or weekend sessions reach people a weekday morning would miss. - **Cost per visit.** Divide the grant by the visits it funded. A clear, honest figure helps a funder compare value without guessing. - **Earned revenue alongside grants.** Show what [memberships, program fees](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/membership-renewal-audit-community-centre/index.md), and donations contributed. Funders feel safer when they are not your only source of support. > Note: Use aggregate numbers, and only from information you already collect for a clear reason. Do not start collecting new personal details just to make a report richer. Our [privacy basics](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/privacy-laws-community-organizations-pipeda/index.md) post covers what BC organizations should consider. ## How to keep funder reports accurate and consistent When the stakes are higher, it is tempting to present numbers in the best possible light. Resist it. A funder who later finds a number was overstated will trust every future report less. - **Keep definitions the same from report to report.** If "participant" meant registered last year, it should mean registered this year, or you should say clearly what changed. - **Say what attendance does and does not show.** Attendance is participation. It is not proof that a program changed anything. Our post on [outputs, outcomes, and impact](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/outputs-outcomes-impact-funders/index.md) explains the difference. - **Pair one number with one story.** A repeat attendance figure means more next to a short, consented account from a parent who has come every week since spring. - **Explain changes before the funder asks.** If attendance dropped because a room closed for repairs, say so. ## A one-page funder update you can send between reports You do not have to wait for the final report. A short update midway through a grant keeps your work in front of the funder while renewal decisions are still being made. 1. One sentence on what the program is and who it serves. 2. Unique participants and total visits so far, labelled clearly. 3. One or two of the insights above, such as repeat attendance or demand you could not meet. 4. One short story, shared with permission. 5. One honest challenge, and what you are doing about it. For the full end-of-grant report, our guide on [how to report program attendance to funders](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/how-to-report-program-attendance-to-funders/index.md) walks through building a report you can reuse. ## How OpenCommunity helps with funder reporting OpenCommunity is a participant, attendance, and program management platform for neighbourhood houses, family resource centres, community hubs, nonprofits, and publicly funded community organizations. It records attendance at sign-in and keeps participants, households, programs, and payments connected. The numbers above come from records your team already keeps during the day, instead of being rebuilt from separate sign-in sheets each month. - Unique participants, total visits, and households are counted from the same sign-in records. - Memberships, fees, and donations are recorded alongside attendance, so earned revenue is easy to show. - Exports for funder reports let you shape the same source information for each funder's template. ## Questions and answers ### How do nonprofits keep funders during funding cuts? Make your work easy to understand. Report accurately, keep definitions consistent, send a short update between reports, and include details that show how the money is used, such as repeat attendance, households reached, and demand you could not meet. ### What should a funder report include beyond attendance? Useful additions include unique participants, repeat attendance, new versus returning participants, households reached, waitlists or full sessions, cost per visit, and earned revenue. Choose the two or three most relevant to each funder. ### Does attendance show that a program is working? No. Attendance shows participation: how many people came and how often. It does not by itself prove outcomes or impact. Pair attendance numbers with outcome measures or participant stories when you can. ### Should we collect more data to make reports stronger? Only if you have a clear reason and participants understand why. Most useful insights come from information you already collect at sign-in and payment. Collecting extra personal details just for reporting adds privacy risk. ### What is funder stewardship? Funder stewardship means keeping a funder informed, confident, and connected to your work between grant applications. Accurate reports, short updates midway through a grant, and honest explanations of changes are its core. ### How do we calculate cost per visit? Divide the funding for a program by the total visits it funded in the same period. Report it alongside unique participants so a funder does not mistake visits for people. ## More from OpenCommunity - [All resources](https://opencommunity.ca/blog/index.md): Browse every published guide. - [OpenCommunity features](https://opencommunity.ca/features/index.md): Explore the platform.