Turn one set of monitoring data into each funder's report

Each funder wants a different format. Keeping one monitoring summary and reshaping it for each saves days. Because every report draws on the same anonymised, checked figures, the numbers you give one funder match the numbers you give the next.

A free AI chat tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude)

Steps

1. Keep monitoring data in one sheet: activities delivered, people reached, outcomes and how you measured them, and the period covered. Use counts and anonymised notes only, with nothing that could identify a beneficiary.
2. Copy the funder’s report questions and word limits from their form or grant agreement, and note what you promised in the original application.
3. Example (made up, for illustration only): a small youth charity keeps one summary sheet for the year. For one funder’s three-question form it uses attendance figures and one outcome; for another funder’s longer narrative it uses the same figures plus a short note on what did not go to plan.
4. Run the prompt below, one funder at a time.
5. Check every number against the sheet, compare the report with what you promised, and say plainly where something was not delivered.
6. Add any beneficiary quotes yourself, only with the person’s agreement, and ask a trustee or the project lead to read the report before it goes.

The exact prompt

Draft a report for [FUNDER] answering their questions, in their order:
[PASTE QUESTIONS WITH WORD LIMITS].
What we promised in the application: [PASTE].
Use ONLY this anonymised monitoring summary: [PASTE FIGURES AND NOTES]. Where the summary has no data for a question, write [DATA NEEDED].
Say plainly where an activity or target was not met, using my notes.
Do not invent outcomes, figures, quotes or case studies, and do not round or recalculate any number.
Plain English, within each word limit.