Quarterly progress report to a donor
Who wrote it
Safha runs a mobile library that visits villages in Akkar, in north Lebanon. Three months into a one-year grant, it reports to its donor.
The writer and every detail about them are fictional.
What went into the template
- Project and reporting period
- Safha mobile library for children in Akkar, first quarter: January to March 2026
- Planned against achieved
- Villages visited weekly: 12 planned, 12 done
Children registered: 600 planned, 512
Reading sessions: 144 planned, 131
Books lent: 3,000 planned, 3,460
Volunteer readers trained: 20 planned, 14 - Challenges, and how you handled them
- Snow closed roads for nine days in February: 13 sessions cancelled, 8 made up in March with a second weekly visit where roads allowed
Registration lower in the three most remote villages: parents could not bring children to the van; from April the van stops at the village schools
Six trained volunteers were students who had exams in March; their training moves to April - Plans for the next period
- April to June: stops at schools in the three remote villages; train 10 more volunteers; reach 600 registered children; start a summer reading challenge
- Budget spent
- $14,800 of $52,000 (28%) at the end of month 3 of 12
The writer’s facts, as typed into the template’s form. The example uses nothing else.
The example
Donor progress report: Donor report
Numbered notes in the margin explain each choice.
Summary
In its first quarter, the Safha mobile library visited all 12 villages every week and lent 3,460 books, more than planned1. Registration and volunteer training are behind schedule2, mainly because of snow in February and the distance to the van in three remote villages; both have a plan to catch up in the next quarter.
Two-sentence summary
Note 1: Good news first, but in the same sentence as the facts. No adjectives are needed.
Note 2: The shortfalls appear in the summary too. A donor should never discover them in a table.
Planned and achieved
- Villages visited every week: 12 of 12 planned
- Children registered: 512 of 600 planned3
- Reading sessions: 131 of 144 planned
- Books lent: 3,460 against 3,000 planned
- Volunteer readers trained: 14 of 20 planned
Planned against achieved
Note 3: Both numbers, unrounded. Writing “about 600” would be easy and dishonest.
Challenges and what we did
Snow closed the roads to the upper villages for nine days in February, and 13 reading sessions were cancelled. We made up eight of them in March4 by adding a second weekly visit where roads allowed. Registration is lower than planned in the three most remote villages, because parents there could not bring their children to the van; from April, the van will stop at the village schools instead5. Six of the volunteers we planned to train were university students with exams in March, and their training has moved to April.
Challenges, honestly
Note 4: Every challenge comes with what was done about it, and the result of that action.
Note 5: The fix addresses the real cause, so the donor can expect the number to recover.
Next quarter
From April to June we will move the stops in the three remote villages to their schools, train ten more volunteers, aim to reach the 600 registered children planned for the year, and start a summer reading challenge.
Next quarter
Budget
By the end of March, the project had spent $14,800 of its $52,000 budget, or 28%, at the end of the third of twelve months6.
Spending
Note 6: Spending is set against time elapsed, so the donor sees it is on track without doing the maths.
Structure
How it is built
Each part in order, with its share of the words.
Checklist
Before you send
Go through your own draft line by line.
Before and after
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Lines like these turn up in many drafts by Arabic speakers. Each fix keeps the meaning and changes only the English.
The project achieved great success and all the activities were implemented.
Registration and volunteer training are behind schedule, mainly because of snow in February and the distance to the van in three remote villages.
We registered around 600 children.
Children registered: 512 of 600 planned.
Due to the bad weather conditions, some activities were not done.
Snow closed the roads to the upper villages for nine days in February, and 13 reading sessions were cancelled. We made up eight of them in March.
Questions people ask
Should a donor report mention problems?
Yes. Reviewers trust reports that name challenges and show what was done about them. A report with no problems reads as a report that hides them.
How do I present planned against achieved?
For each indicator, give both numbers side by side, unrounded, in a short list or table. Explain any gap in the challenges section, not inside the list.
What if we overspent or underspent?
Say so with the figures and the reason, and say what you will do: move a budget line with the donor’s approval, or catch up on activities. Never adjust numbers to look on track.
Every writer in this library is fictional, and so is every detail about them. Universities and companies appear only as places someone applies to; the professors, papers and facts mentioned around them are invented for teaching. Use the examples to learn the moves, never as text to copy: committees notice, and your own facts are stronger.