Gift pyramids

What a gift pyramid is

A gift pyramid — also called a gift range chart or gift table — lists how many gifts of each size it takes to reach a goal, largest first, and how many prospects you need to ask to close each one. Campaign teams use it to test whether a goal is realistic before announcing it: if nobody could plausibly make the gifts at the top, no number of small gifts will make up for it.

In TruePyramids a gift pyramid needs only a goal. Add your giving history — an uploaded file or a CRM connection — and we also count, for every level, the constituents whose past giving or capacity rating suggests they could make that gift. How that counting works is in Prospects and prospect rules.

When to use one

• You're planning a capital, endowment or major-gift campaign and need to set or test the goal.
• You want to check a goal against your own donors before a feasibility study or a public announcement.
• Your board or campaign committee needs to see what the goal takes, level by level.
• A consultant gave you a gift chart and you want to check it against your file — bring it in with From my spreadsheet….

Raising for several things at once, like a building and an endowment? Give each its own gift pyramid inside a campaign — see Campaign priorities. Want to see where your current donors sit instead? That's a Donor pyramid. Not sure? Which pyramid answers which question.

Creating a gift pyramid

There are two ways in, and both make the same kind of gift pyramid. Anything you choose while creating it can be changed on the pyramid afterwards.

• Your organization's first gift pyramid opens the guided setup at /app/gift-pyramids/guide.
• Every gift pyramid after that opens Start with your goal. If you open the guide's address once your organization has a gift pyramid, you're taken there instead.

You can start from the Pyramids page (Build a gift pyramid when you have no pyramids yet, otherwise New pyramid › Gift pyramid › Continue with Gift pyramid), or from an imported upload's page with Build a gift pyramid from it, which picks that file for you.

The guided setup

The guide has five steps, shown across the top. Back and Next move between them, and pressing Enter in a box means Next. If an earlier step needs fixing, Next stops there and says what to fix.

1. What it is — three rules of thumb: start at the top (the lead gift is usually at least 20% of the goal), a few gifts carry most of it (about 10 gifts often make up half the goal), and ask more people than you need.
2. Goal — the Pyramid name (required, up to 200 characters) and the Goal, as a dollar amount like 2,500,000. A dollar sign and commas are fine; cents are rounded to whole dollars. As you type, it shows the lead gift the standard chart would give you: “Your lead gift would be about $500,000.” If your organization has campaigns, Part of a campaign? lets you add the pyramid to one as a priority.
3. Giving history — optional. Pick one of your gift files (up to the 10 most recent that are imported, being read or waiting for your review; the newest imported one is picked to start with), Upload my transactions once the pyramid is built (offered when you have no files yet), or None for now. Then choose who counts as a prospect for a level:
   • Rated at or above the level's gift, or gave at least 10% of it over the last 5 years — recommended.
   • Gave at least 10% of the level's gift over the last 5 years — giving history only.
   • Rated at or above the level's gift — only useful if your file has capacity ratings.
   You can add conditions such as a fund or recent giving later with Edit rule (see the prospect rule). For a campaign priority you also pick the funds it's seeded from.
4. Shape — where the levels come from: Standard capital campaign, Shaped by your giving (needs an imported gifts file chosen in step 3), I'll set my own levels (starts from the standard levels and opens Edit levels as soon as the pyramid opens) or From my spreadsheet… (drag in your chart and review it right there). Then Prospects per gift — Each level's own, or one ratio from 2:1 for every level to 5:1 for every level — and the Concentration target: 90% from the top 10%, 80% from the top 20% or Custom (two whole numbers from 1 to 100). Your organization's defaults are picked to start with and marked “(organization default)”.
5. Review — each choice with a Change button, and the levels as a table with the prospects each needs. Choose Build my gift pyramid.

After you build it, the pyramid opens. If you chose to upload next, the upload page opens instead; with I'll set my own levels, the pyramid opens with Edit levels. A file that's still being read is linked to the pyramid once its import succeeds.

Tip: Skip, I'll set it up myself at the top of the guide goes straight to Start with your goal, keeping an imported file you'd picked.

Start with your goal

This is the quick way to make every gift pyramid after your first. Fill in Name and Campaign goal and choose Build the pyramid. The pyramid starts with the standard capital campaign chart for that goal, with your organization's prospects per gift and concentration target from pyramid defaults. If you arrived from an upload, the page says “Prospects will be counted from” that file, and counting starts as soon as the pyramid is built.

Every new pyramid has one scenario, named “Current”.

Your organization's pyramid defaults

Settings › Pyramid defaults holds the starting values for every new gift pyramid and campaign priority. The owner can change them; everyone else sees them. Changing a default doesn't touch pyramids you already have.

• Prospects per gift — “Standard chart's own (2:1 to 4:1)”, or one ratio from 2:1 to 5:1 for every level. With one ratio, a new pyramid's standard levels are saved as its own, so its template reads Custom levels and the levels don't resize when you change the goal.
• Concentration target — 90/10, 80/20 or custom. See Concentration target.

If your organization has imported an asks file, this section also says what your history suggests, like “Your asks history suggests about 3:1”, with Use as default for the owner. See ratio suggestions.

The goal

The Campaign goal box at the top of the pyramid holds the goal for the scenario you're on. Type a new amount and it saves on its own about a second after you stop typing, or straight away when you press Enter or leave the box. The page then reloads with the new numbers. An empty box, zero or something that isn't a number is ignored and the goal stays as it was.

• With the Standard capital campaign template, every level is a share of the goal, so all the levels resize.
• With Shaped by your giving, Custom levels or levels from a spreadsheet, the levels are fixed amounts and stay put. The “many” row grows or shrinks to cover the difference. To refit them, pick the template again or use Edit levels.
• With giving history, a new goal starts a recount.

Templates: where the levels come from

The Template list beside the goal sets this scenario's levels. The line beside it says which template is in use.

• Standard capital campaign — the classic chart, scaled to your goal.
• Shaped by your giving — levels fitted to the largest gifts, ratings and depth in your file.
• Custom levels — levels you set yourself. Choosing it opens Edit levels; nothing changes until you save.
• From my spreadsheet… — opens a page where you bring in a gift chart you already use.

Careful: Choosing Standard capital campaign or Shaped by your giving replaces this scenario's levels straight away. To keep the levels you have, choose + New scenario first and switch the template there.

Standard capital campaign

One lead gift of 20% of the goal, then 2, 4 and 8 gifts at the next levels, and smaller levels below. The eight levels add up to 95% of the goal, give or take a few dollars of rounding; the “many” row covers the last 5%. That's 90 named gifts needing 297 prospects, whatever the goal.

Amounts are rounded to whole dollars, not to round numbers, so an uneven goal gives uneven gifts: a $1,234,567 goal has a lead gift of $246,913. Standard levels aren't stored; they're worked out from the goal each time, which is why they follow the goal. The worked examples below show the whole chart for $2.5 million and $750,000.

Shaped by your giving

This template fits the levels to your own donors. It needs an imported gifts file; if the pyramid has none, choosing it shows “Shaped by your giving” needs your transactions, with Upload transactions.

• The top gift is anchored to the largest “reach” in your file — the larger of a constituent's capacity rating and 10 times what they gave over the prospect rule's look-back window (5 years by default) — rounded to two significant digits, and kept between about 5% and 25% of the goal.
• Each level below is a fixed fraction of the top gift: ½, ¼, 1/10, 1/20, 1/50, 1/100 and 1/200, again rounded to two significant digits. That's up to eight levels.
• The number of gifts at each level follows how your donors give: no more than the constituents who could give that much divided by the level's ratio, no more than twice the standard chart's count for that level, and no more than what's left of 95% of the goal. Every level has at least one gift, and levels stop once 95% of the goal is reached.
• Ratios are x2 for the top two levels, x3 for the middle levels and x4 for the eighth.

The line beside the template says how far your file reaches, for example “(up to $437,000)”. Shaped levels are saved as amounts, so they don't resize when the goal changes; pick Shaped by your giving again to refit them. For a campaign priority, only its pool — donors to its funds and anyone with a capacity rating — shapes it. The exact steps, with a worked example, are in Advanced.

Custom levels

Your own levels: any number of gifts, any amounts, any ratio from x1 to x10. You get them by saving Edit levels, by choosing I'll set my own levels in the guide, by using a spreadsheet, or by setting one prospect ratio for every level. The line beside the template reads “Custom levels: 8 levels you set. The “many” row covers whatever is left of the goal.” See Edit levels.

From my spreadsheet…

Bring the gift chart you already use, yours or a consultant's. We read its levels, show them next to the sheet, and change nothing until you choose to use them.

1. In the Template list, choose From my spreadsheet… (in the guide, it's an option on the Shape step).
2. Drag your .xlsx or .csv gift chart onto the page, or choose Choose file (Choose a spreadsheet in the guide). Files can be up to 10 MB.
3. Check the review: Your spreadsheet, as read and Levels we'll use side by side. Fix any column that was picked up wrongly with its Used as list.
4. Under Put these levels in, choose A new scenario (named after your file, for example “Hartwell gift chart 2026”) or The … scenario, replacing its levels — the scenario you were on, keeping its goal, prospect rule and typed prospect counts. A new scenario copies the current one's goal, concentration target and prospect rule, so the two compare level for level.
5. If the sheet has a total, Set the goal to the sheet's total sets the goal to what its levels add up to. It's ticked for you when the sheet adds up to more than your goal.
6. Choose Use these levels, or Cancel to leave everything as it was.

Spreadsheet levels are saved as custom levels, so you can edit them like any others.

How columns are found, and “Used as”

We look for a number-of-gifts column and a gift-amount column, and use a prospects-needed or ratio column if there is one. Headers like these are recognized:

• Number of gifts: “# of gifts”, “Number of gifts”, “No. of gifts”, “Gifts”, “Gift count”, “Gifts needed”.
• Amount of each gift: “Gift amount”, “Amount”, “Amount of each gift”, “Gift size”, “Gift level”, “Gift range”.
• Prospects needed: “Prospects needed”, “Prospects”, “# Prospects”, “Number of prospects”.
• Ratio (prospects per gift): “Ratio”, “Multiplier”, “Prospect ratio”, “Prospect multiplier”.

Consultants' sheets often have a title above the column names, so we look up to ten rows down for them. In a workbook, if the first sheet isn't a gift chart we try the others. Only columns that hold numbers are kept; text columns such as names, level labels and notes are dropped as the file is read. Each kept column gets a Used as list: Number of gifts, Amount of each gift, Prospects needed, Ratio (prospects per gift) or Ignore. Change one and the levels are read again straight away.

When a sheet has both a ratio and a prospects column, the ratio wins and the prospects column is set to Ignore; you can't use both. Without either, every level uses x3. Anything that stops the levels being used is listed under “Before we can use these levels:”, for example “Choose the column that holds the number of gifts.”

Reviewing the levels side by side

Your spreadsheet, as read shows each row of the sheet, with “Skipped” beside rows we didn't use. Levels we'll use shows each level — Gifts, Each, Ratio, Needed — largest first, with a note wherever we adjusted something:

• Total and goal rows (a cell starting “Total”, “Grand total”, “Subtotal”, “Goal” or “Campaign goal”) and blank rows are skipped. A last row with no label is also treated as a total when its amount equals the levels above it added up.
• Rows without both a number of gifts and an amount are skipped. The line under the columns sums it up, for example “Skipped: the “Total” row and 2 blank rows.”
• A fractional number of gifts is rounded: “Sheet has 2.5 gifts; rounded to 3.”
• An amount written as a range uses its lower end: “Sheet has a range, $100,000 to $249,999; we used $100,000.” Amounts like “$1,000,000+” or “$50,000 and up” are read as the number.
• Ratios can be written x3, 3x, 3, 3:1, 1:3 or 3 to 1. Prospects needed is divided by the number of gifts. Either way the result is rounded to a whole multiplier from x1 to x10: “Sheet has 5 prospects for 2 gifts (2.5 each); rounded to x3.” A “3:1” that Excel turned into the time 3:01 is read back as x3.
• On a pyramid with giving history, a level larger than anything in your file is flagged: “Above your largest gift or rating ($437,000).”

If the sheet's levels add up to more than the goal, you'll see “The sheet's levels add up to $X, more than this pyramid's $Y goal.” Keep the goal and trim levels afterwards, or tick Set the goal to the sheet's total.

Note: We keep the levels, not the file. The spreadsheet is deleted once it's read, and its text — names, notes, labels — is never stored.

Levels and the table

The table is the pyramid. Each row is a level; the rows are grouped into three bands, and the totals sit at the bottom.

What each column means

Number of gifts

How many gifts of this size the plan needs.

Amount of each gift

The size of each gift at this level.

Amount of level

Number of gifts × amount of each gift.

Cumulative amount

The running total from the top level down to this one.

% of total

The cumulative amount as a share of the goal, so it climbs toward 100% as you go down. It isn't the level's own share.

Prospect multiplier

How many prospects you plan to ask for every gift, shown as x2, x3 and so on. See Prospect ratio.

Prospects needed

Number of gifts × prospect multiplier.

Prospects identified

How many prospects you have for this level: counted from your giving history (marked “From file”, with View records) or typed by you (marked “Edited”, with Reset). Without giving history, it's whatever you type. See Prospects identified.

Planned

Only shown when your giving history is counted and planned gifts are kept separate: constituents who reach this level only with their planned gifts. See planned gifts.

Gap

“Short 3” when prospects identified is below prospects needed, “Covered” when it isn't, and a dash when the level has no count.

The Total row shows the goal, 100%, the prospects needed across all levels, the prospects identified across all levels and, when shown, the planned total.

The “many” row

Below the named levels, the “many” row stands for all the smaller gifts that make up whatever the levels leave of the goal. Its amount reads “< $2,500” — less than your smallest level — and its amount of level is the goal minus the levels' cumulative total. It has no count and no prospect ratio, because those gifts come from your annual giving rather than one-on-one asks. If your levels add up to the goal or more, the “many” row is $0.

Lead, major and community gifts

The table and the Shape of this campaign card group the levels into three bands, each with its number of gifts, total and share of the goal:

• Lead gifts — the first four levels.
• Major gifts — the next three.
• Community gifts — every level after that, plus the “many” row. Its gift count ends in “+” because the “many” gifts aren't counted.

The bands go by position, not by amount, so with custom levels the first four are always the lead gifts.

Edit levels

Choose Edit levels beside the template to change this scenario's levels in a side panel.

1. Each row is a level: # of gifts, Gift amount ($) (with its share of the goal underneath, like “4.0% of goal each”) and Multiplier, from x1 to x10.
2. Add level adds a row of 10 gifts of $1,000 at x3 for you to change. Remove takes a row out; the last row can't be removed.
3. The line at the bottom keeps a running total: “These levels add up to $2,375,000 (95% of the goal). The “many” row covers the remaining $125,000.” If they add up to more than the goal, it says so.
4. If your organization has imported an asks file, each level shows what your history suggests, with a Use x4 button. See ratio suggestions.
5. Choose Save levels. Levels are sorted largest gift first, saved as this scenario's own (Custom levels), and recounted if the pyramid has giving history.

Back to the standard template replaces the levels with the standard chart for the current goal. Cancel or Esc closes the panel without saving. Draft with AI Plus puts an AI-drafted set of levels in a new scenario instead of changing this one — see AI draft scenarios.

Careful: Saving levels, or going back to the standard template, clears the prospect counts you typed for this scenario, because they no longer line up with the levels.

Tip: Type the number of gifts as a plain whole number, like 1000. Amounts can have a dollar sign and commas; they're rounded to whole dollars. A row with no amount, or $0, is dropped when you save. Gift counts are kept between 1 and 100,000.

Prospect ratio (multiplier)

The prospect multiplier — also called the prospect ratio or prospects per gift — is how many prospects you plan to ask for every gift you need. At x3, a level of 4 gifts needs 12 prospects. It's a planning assumption: not everyone you ask says yes, and the people you ask may give at a different level.

Where the ratios come from

• Standard capital campaign: x2 for the top two levels, x3 for the next five, x4 for the 30 smallest gifts. The assumptions note calls this “standard template ratios, x2 to x4”.
• Your organization's default in Settings › Pyramid defaults: one ratio from 2:1 to 5:1 for every level of new pyramids.
• The guide's Prospects per gift: Each level's own keeps the template's or spreadsheet's ratios; a single ratio replaces them all.
• A spreadsheet: its ratio column, or prospects needed ÷ number of gifts, rounded; x3 when it has neither.
• Shaped by your giving: x2 for the top two levels, x3 for the middle ones, x4 for the eighth.

Changing the ratio for one level

Open Edit levels, pick a new Multiplier for that level, and Save levels. Ratios are whole numbers from x1 to x10. Once saved, the levels are your own and the assumptions note says “Prospects per gift: set per level”.

If you track solicitations, an asks file lets TruePyramids suggest a ratio for each level from your own close rates. See Ratio suggestions from your asks.

Prospects you already have

With giving history, each level's Prospects identified is counted for you. The box above the table, Prospects from your file, shows the rule in a sentence — by default, “Count constituents who are rated at or above the level's gift, or gave at least 10% of it over the last 5 years.” — with Edit rule to change it. Each constituent counts once, at the highest level they qualify for, and you can type in any count to override it.

Everything about counting — the rule and its conditions, capacity ratings, planned gifts, typed counts, and where the constituent IDs go — is in Prospects and prospect rules.

Concentration target and rule-of-thumb checks

The concentration target is a rule of thumb about how top-heavy a campaign is: a small share of the gifts usually brings in most of the money. The default is 90% of the goal from the top 10% of gifts; 80% from the top 20% is a common, gentler target.

Set it in the Rule-of-thumb checks card under Concentration target:

• 90% from the top 10% or 80% from the top 20% — saved as soon as you pick it.
• Custom — two boxes appear: “% of the goal from the top” and “% of gifts”, each a whole number from 1 to 100. Choose Apply.

Your organization's default is marked “(organization default)”. The target belongs to the scenario. It doesn't change your levels; it only sets what the concentration check looks for.

The check shows what your levels actually do, for example “Actual: 86% from the top 34 of about 340 gifts.” To get there we count the named gifts plus an estimate of the “many” gifts (each about a fifth of your smallest level), take the top 10% of that count, add up the largest gifts until we have that many, and divide by the goal. The full method is in Advanced.

The rule-of-thumb checks

Each check shows a check mark when it passes, or a purple “!” to review it, with the numbers underneath.

Note: The $25,000 line is the same for every goal, so in a smaller campaign most levels fall under it and that check often asks for review. Treat it as a prompt to think, not a rule.

Short and unfillable levels

Once a level has a prospects identified count, its Gap shows “Short” and the number missing, or “Covered”. Two notices draw your eye to the levels that matter most:

• The top of the pyramid is short on prospects. Appears when any of the top three levels is short, and names them: “The $500,000 and $250,000 levels need more prospects. Find more before going public with this goal, or lower it.”
• Can't fill this level from your file. Appears under a level when its gift is larger than anything anyone in your file could reach on rating or giving, the file gives it no prospects, and you haven't typed a count: “No one in your file has given or is rated near $1,000,000. The largest is $437,000. Lower the goal, change this level, or type in prospects you know about.” How the largest reach is worked out is in Prospects.

To close a gap you can find more prospects (and type them in, or add a capacity column and upload again), loosen the prospect rule, lower the ratio for that level, change the levels, or lower the goal. Try the alternatives as scenarios so you can compare them.

Scenarios

A scenario is one version of the pyramid with its own goal, template and levels, prospect ratios, concentration target, prospect rule and typed prospect counts. Use them to try a higher goal, a consultant's chart, a stricter prospect rule or fewer lead gifts without losing what you have.

• Tabs across the top switch between scenarios. The scenario you pick is saved with the pyramid, so it's also what your teammates see when they open it, and it's the one that prints and exports.
• + New scenario copies the scenario you're on — goal, template, levels, ratios, concentration target and prospect rule — names it “Scenario 2”, “Scenario 3” and so on, and opens it.
• ⋯ on the open tab shows its options: Scenario name with Rename (up to 100 characters), Duplicate (a copy named “… copy”) and Delete (only when there's more than one).

Typed prospect counts aren't copied to a new or duplicated scenario. With giving history, every scenario is counted with its own levels and rule, and adding one starts a recount.

Careful: Delete removes the open scenario immediately — there's no confirmation and no undo. The first remaining tab opens.

AI draft scenarios Plus

Draft with AI in Edit levels or in the prospect rule panel never changes the scenario you're on. It copies it into a new scenario named “AI draft” (then “AI draft 2”, and so on), puts the drafted levels or rule there, and opens it. The tab has an “AI” tag and a note: “AI draft. … Nothing in your other scenarios changed. Compare it before you use it.” Delete draft removes it. If you replace a draft scenario's levels with a spreadsheet's, it stops being marked as a draft. More in AI assistant.

Comparing scenarios side by side

With two or more scenarios, Compare scenarios appears beside the tabs. It opens a page that puts two scenarios next to each other; comparing doesn't change either one.

1. Pick the scenarios in the two lists at the top. The scenario you were on starts on the left, and the first of the others on the right.
2. Read the summary. Each row shows both values and Right vs left: “Same”, or the difference, like “−$500,000”, “+12” or “+7 points”.
3. Scroll down for each scenario's levels — Gifts, Each, Ratio, Needed, Identified, Gap — with a shaded background on levels that differ from the other scenario's level in the same position.

To go with one scenario, choose Back to the pyramid and open its tab.

Saving and recounting

The pyramid shows “Saved automatically” beside its name: there's no Save button for the page.

Recounting only happens when the pyramid has giving history. Everyone in your organization works on the same pyramid, so a teammate's change shows the next time you load the page.

Watching prospects being counted

While prospects are counted, a notice reads “Counting prospects…” with a percentage — how many of the pyramid's scenarios are done. The page updates itself when counting finishes; you don't need to stay on it. Until then, the numbers you see may still be from the last count.

If counting fails you'll see “Counting prospects didn't finish.” with the reason, such as “Counting prospects failed. Try again, or upload the file again.” Any change that recounts, like saving the rule, starts a new count.

Adding giving history to a goal-only pyramid

A pyramid built from just a goal shows Check your prospects against your giving history. To add it:

1. Choose Upload transactions. The upload page opens, already linked to this pyramid.
2. Upload a CSV, Excel or ZIP file of your gifts, or choose to connect your CRM there instead. See Uploading gift files and Connecting your CRM.
3. While the file is read, or waits for you to review it, the pyramid says so, with See it or Review it: “Prospects will be counted once it's imported.”
4. Once it's imported, the pyramid uses it and counts prospects for every scenario.

Counts you typed before the file arrived stay, marked “Edited”, and still win over the counted numbers. Choose Reset beside a level to use the count from the file.

To switch to another file later, choose Use a different file above the prospect rule. The current file stays in use until the new one is imported. A campaign priority shares its campaign's file, so its button reads Choose the campaign's file and files are changed on the campaign.

Printing, Excel and the assumptions note

Print

Print opens your browser's print dialog for the scenario on screen. The site header, the buttons along the top, the scenario tabs, the side panels and the rating card are left off; the goal, the table, the bands and checks, and the assumptions note print. The assumptions note names the scenario. To print another scenario, open its tab first.

Excel export

Export Excel downloads the scenario on screen as a workbook named after the pyramid and scenario, like “New warehouse - Current.xlsx”. One file holds one scenario; to export another, open its tab and export again.

The chart keeps live formulas. Shaded cells are inputs — the goal, and each level's number of gifts, gift amount, multiplier and prospects identified. Change one and the rest recalculates in Excel or Google Sheets:

• Amount of level = number of gifts × amount of each gift; cumulative amount is a running sum; % of total = cumulative ÷ goal.
• Prospects needed = number of gifts × multiplier; Gap = prospects needed − prospects identified, never below 0, and blank when prospects identified is blank.
• The “many” row reads “Less than” the smallest level's amount, and its amount is the goal minus the levels' total, never below 0.
• On Prospects by level, the level column points at the level's amount on the chart, so it follows your edits.

Calculated values are saved in the file too, so previews that don't calculate (in email or on a phone) still show the numbers. The rows down to the column headers stay put as you scroll, and the chart prints landscape, one page wide.

The assumptions note

Under the pyramid, Assumptions behind these numbers spells out what the numbers rest on. Printouts and Excel exports include it, so a chart never travels without its fine print. It lists, in order:

• The scenario and the template.
• Prospects per gift: “standard template ratios, x2 to x4”, or “set per level”.
• With giving history: the prospect rule as a sentence with its as-of date, whether planned gifts count toward levels, and which gifts count (“one-time, recurring, pledge payments and in-kind; open pledges don't count”). Without it: “Prospects identified: typed in by you”.
• The concentration target, and the size the “many” gifts are counted at.
• The data: the file name and the date it runs through, or “none uploaded”.

More on the page

Prospect plan

Prospect plan at the top opens this pyramid's prospect plan, where your team assigns constituents to gift officers level by level and tracks each one's stage. With giving history it suggests constituents for each level from your file using this pyramid's prospect rule. See Prospect plans.

History Plus

The History tab beside Pyramid is part of Plus. Plus saves a snapshot of the pyramid every month and after each CRM sync; the History tab charts prospects identified over time and compares any two snapshots, level by level. See Pyramid history.

Refresh from your CRM

When the pyramid's giving history came from a CRM, a Refresh from button with your CRM's name pulls new gifts and recounts. The pyramid keeps its current numbers until the new gifts are in. See refreshing from your CRM.

AI features Plus

Four buttons use the AI assistant: Ask AI (questions about this pyramid), Write summary (a Summary for leadership you can edit, copy and include in Print and Excel), and Draft with AI in Edit levels and in the prospect rule panel (each makes an AI draft scenario). They work with Plus or your organization's own AI key; otherwise they're marked Plus and explain how to turn them on. The assistant sees the pyramid's totals and settings, never constituent IDs or gift records. See AI assistant, leadership summaries and using your own API key.

Rating your pyramid

Until you rate a gift pyramid, a card asks “Your gift pyramid is saved. How did it go?” One tap on the stars rates it. Under five stars, an optional box asks “What would have made it 5 stars?” — Send to the TruePyramids team sends your note to us only, never to the home page. Not now hides the card in this browser.

Show my rating anonymously on the TruePyramids home page is ticked to start with. If you leave it on, the home page may show a line like “A user just created a Gift Pyramid for a $2.5M goal” — or “with about 38,000 records” when the pyramid has giving history, rounded to two significant digits — with your stars. When we can tell your region from your connection, it may read “User from Illinois” instead; we keep the region's name, never your IP address. Untick the box to keep your rating private.

Campaign priorities

A campaign with several priorities — a new building, an endowment, a program fund — gives each priority its own gift pyramid. On the pyramid, the label reads “Campaign priority” and the breadcrumb leads back to the campaign. It works like any gift pyramid, with three differences:

• Its prospects come from donors to the funds it's seeded from, plus anyone with a capacity rating. With no funds, they come from the whole file.
• A donor counted in another priority isn't counted here too.
• All the campaign's priorities share one file, chosen on the campaign.

Priorities are added with Add priority on the campaign's page. When the guide runs for your organization's first gift pyramid and you already have a campaign, Part of a campaign? adds the new pyramid to it as a priority. See Campaigns and priorities and data coverage.

Deleting a gift pyramid

Delete a gift pyramid from Settings › Data. You can delete the pyramids you added; the owner can delete any. Deleting can't be undone. Deleting the upload a pyramid was built from also deletes that pyramid — the button says so. See Deleting uploads, pyramids or everything.

Worked examples

A $2.5 million capital campaign

A $750,000 campaign

Advanced: the exact math

This section is for anyone who wants to reproduce the numbers by hand or in a spreadsheet.

Standard template amounts

For goal G, level i has n_i gifts of round(G × s_i) at multiplier m_i, with (n, s, m) = (1, 0.20, 2), (2, 0.10, 2), (4, 0.04, 3), (8, 0.02, 3), (10, 0.01, 3), (15, 0.004, 3), (20, 0.002, 3), (30, 0.001, 4). Rounding is to the whole dollar, and an exact half-dollar goes to the even dollar (so a $2,500,005 goal has a second level of $250,000, not $250,001). The named levels total 0.95 × G before rounding.

The “many” row

• Amount: max(0, G − C_last), where C_last is the cumulative amount of the last named level.
• Cumulative amount: max(G, C_last); % of total is that ÷ G.
• Estimated gift size: the smallest level's amount ÷ 5, rounded to the whole dollar (at least $1).
• Estimated gift count: the “many” amount ÷ the estimated size, rounded up. It's used only by the concentration check; the row itself never shows a count.

Amount of level, cumulative and % of total

Amount of level is n_i × a_i. Cumulative is the sum of the amounts of level from the top through row i. % of total is cumulative ÷ goal × 100, rounded to a whole percent (an exact half goes to the even number). Band shares use the same rounding. In Edit levels, each gift's share of the goal is shown to one decimal place. Pass or fail for every check uses the exact values, not the rounded ones, so a share shown as “50%” can still fail a 50% test if it's really 49.5%.

How ratios combine

Ratios never blend. Each level's prospects needed is n_i × m_i, total prospects needed is the sum over the named levels, and the “many” row has none. Each level's gap is max(0, needed_i − identified_i), using the typed count where there is one. “Enough prospects identified overall” compares the sum of identified with the sum of needed, including levels that have no count yet. A single ratio — your organization's default or the guide's Prospects per gift — simply sets every level's m_i. The overall ratio from an asks file is decided asks ÷ wins; per-level suggestions are covered in Prospects › Advanced.

How the concentration share is computed

1. Gift count N = all named gifts + the “many” row's estimated gift count.
2. Top count k = N × top% ÷ 100, rounded up, and at least 1.
3. Top sum S: take gifts from the largest level down, whole levels at a time, until you have k; if the named levels run out first, add the remaining gifts from the “many” row at its estimated size, never more than the “many” amount.
4. Actual = S ÷ goal × 100, rounded to a whole percent. The check passes when actual ≥ your target share.

The check's line reads “Actual: actual% from the top k of about N gifts.”

The other checks

• Lead gift: the first level's amount ÷ goal ≥ 0.20. Levels are always sorted largest first, so the first level is the largest.
• Top 10 gifts: the 10 largest named gifts, taken from the largest level down, ≥ 50% of the goal. The “many” row isn't included.
• Gifts of $25,000 or less: the amounts of every level whose gift is $25,000 or less, plus the “many” amount, < 30% of the goal.
• Enough prospects identified overall: only shown once a level has a count; passes when total identified ≥ total needed.

How “Shaped by your giving” builds levels

1. For each constituent in the file (for a campaign priority, only its pool), reach = the larger of their capacity rating and 10 × the money they gave over the prospect rule's look-back window (the longest one if the rule has several; 5 years when it has no giving condition). The multiplier is 10 whatever percentage the rule uses.
2. Top gift = nice(min(25% × G, max(largest reach, 5% × G))), where nice rounds to two significant digits (437,500 becomes 440,000; 2,499 becomes 2,500).
3. Level i's amount = nice(top × f_i) with f = 1, ½, ¼, 1/10, 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200.
4. Multiplier: x2 for the first two levels, x4 for the eighth, x3 otherwise.
5. Gifts = the smallest of: (constituents whose reach is at least the amount) ÷ multiplier, rounded down but at least 1; twice the standard chart's count for that position (2, 4, 8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 60); and what's left of 95% of the goal ÷ the amount, rounded down but at least 1.
6. Subtract the level's total from what's left and stop when nothing is left or after eight levels.

Bands

Bands are positional: Lead gifts = levels 1–4, Major gifts = levels 5–7, Community gifts = level 8 onward plus the “many” amount. Each band shows its named gifts (with “+” on Community gifts), the sum of its amounts of level, and that sum ÷ goal.

How a spreadsheet is read

• Headers are matched ignoring case, spaces and punctuation other than “#”; each use goes to the first column that fits it. If row 1 doesn't have both a gifts and an amount header, rows 2 to 11 are tried as the header row.
• A column is kept only if at least one of its cells reads as a number (an amount, a count or a ratio); up to 20 such columns are kept. Cells that aren't numbers are dropped.
• A row is a total when a text cell starts with “Total”, “Totals”, “Grand total”, “Subtotal”, “Goal” or “Campaign goal”, or — after at least two levels — when its amount equals the running total of the levels above and its count is blank or (on the last numbered row) equals the gifts above.
• Gift counts are rounded half away from zero; a row is skipped if the count is under 1 or over 10,000, or the amount is $0 or over $10 billion.
• Multipliers: prospects needed ÷ gifts, or the ratio as written (for “a:b”, the larger ÷ the smaller), rounded half away from zero and kept between 1 and 10.
• The sheet's total is the sum of gifts × amount over the levels used. Levels are sorted largest first.

Limits

Questions

Why is my lead gift so big?

The standard template sets the lead gift at 20% of the goal, the long-standing rule of thumb for capital campaigns. If no one in your file could give that much, try Shaped by your giving, which anchors the top gift to your largest gifts and ratings (and never above 25% of the goal), set your own levels in Edit levels, or test a lower goal in a new scenario.

I changed the goal. Why didn't my levels change?

Only the Standard capital campaign template follows the goal. Shaped, custom and spreadsheet levels — and standard levels saved with a single prospect ratio — are fixed amounts; the “many” row absorbs the change. Pick a template again, or use Edit levels.

Why does the standard chart fail the 90/10 check?

Its top 10% of gifts bring in about 86% of the goal, just under 90%. That's a reminder that the standard chart is a starting point. Choose 80% from the top 20% if that fits your campaign better (the standard chart reaches 93%), or reshape the levels.

Why does “Gifts of $25,000 or less” fail for my smaller campaign?

The $25,000 line doesn't scale with your goal. In a $750,000 campaign, every level from $15,000 down falls under it, so 44% of the goal is in gifts of $25,000 or less. It's a prompt to plan for those gifts, not an error.

Where did the prospect counts I typed go?

Save levels and Back to the standard template clear the counts you typed for that scenario, because they no longer line up with the levels. New and duplicated scenarios also start without them. Counts typed in other scenarios aren't affected.

How do I print or export a different scenario?

Open its tab, then choose Print or Export Excel. Both always use the scenario on screen, and each Excel file holds one scenario.

Can I change the numbers in the Excel file?

Yes. The shaded cells — goal, number of gifts, gift amount, multiplier and prospects identified — are inputs, and everything else is a formula, so the chart recalculates. Changes in the file don't come back into TruePyramids.

Can I get back a scenario I deleted?

No. Delete removes the scenario immediately, with no confirmation. Before an experiment you might regret, Duplicate the scenario first.

What if my levels add up to more than the goal?

Edit levels warns you (“That's more than the goal — lower some levels.”) but still lets you save. The “many” row becomes $0, the cumulative amount and % of total run past the goal, and the Total row still shows the goal.

Do I have to upload our giving history?

No. A gift pyramid needs only a goal; you can type the prospects you've identified for each level. Giving history adds counted prospects, View records, Shaped by your giving and the unfillable-level flags. You can add it any time with Upload transactions.

Can my teammates change my gift pyramid?

Yes. Everyone in your organization can open and change every gift pyramid, and the scenario tab you leave open is the one they see. Deleting a pyramid is limited to whoever added it and the owner. See what owners and members can do.

Why didn't you find the right columns in my spreadsheet?

We match common header names, like “# of gifts” and “Gift amount”, and only keep columns that hold numbers. If yours are named differently, set each column's Used as list on the review — the levels are read again straight away. If a sheet has more than 200 rows, it isn't read as a gift chart.

Do you keep the spreadsheet I bring in?

No. We keep the levels, not the file. It's deleted as soon as it's read, and only its number columns are carried through the review; names and notes are dropped as it's read.

Can I use the guided setup again?

The guide is for your organization's first gift pyramid; after that, new gift pyramids start from Start with your goal. Everything the guide offers is on the pyramid itself: the template list, Edit levels, Edit rule, the concentration target and Upload transactions.

Can I use a ratio like 2.5, or more than 10?

No. Multipliers are whole numbers from x1 to x10. Ratios read from a spreadsheet are rounded (2.5 becomes x3) and kept within that range, with a note on the level.