Identify funds that may not be spending at a sustainable rate
Quickly identify funds that may be underutilized using multi-year financial data. Built for higher education and nonprofit professionals responsible for fund oversight.
This tool analyzes multi-year balance and spending data to calculate a normalized spend rate across time. It helps identify funds where balances are growing faster than spending, which may indicate underutilization.
Built by a higher education professional working directly with philanthropic funds, this tool simplifies a process that is typically manual, fragmented, and time-consuming. It is designed to quickly surface potential issues so teams can focus on decision-making, not data wrangling.
Upload the completed template with sheets: Year1, Year2, Year3.
Enter as a whole number percentage (e.g., 50 = 50%).
The threshold defines the minimum acceptable spend rate.
Spend Rate = Average Spend ÷ Available Balance.
Funds with a spend rate below this percentage will be flagged as potentially underspent.
Example: If threshold = 50%, any fund spending less than half of its available balance
over time will be flagged.
Lower thresholds are more lenient. Higher thresholds are more aggressive.
When selected, revenue is added to the available balance when calculating spend rate.
Use this if:
• Funds receive ongoing inflows
• You want to evaluate spending relative to total inflows
Do not use this if:
• You want to evaluate against existing balances only
• You are analyzing endowment-style behavior
This setting can materially change results.
Analysis typically completes in under 2–3 seconds.
Common issues:
• Missing one of the 3 sheets (Year1, Year2, Year3)
• Renamed sheets or columns
• Blank or non-numeric values in balance/spend
Results display funds that fall below your selected threshold.
These funds may indicate underutilization, meaning balances are accumulating faster than they are being used.
This does not automatically mean a fund is being misused — it is a signal for further review.
Consider:
• Donor intent and restrictions
• Planned future use
• Fund lifecycle stage
• Institutional policy
Spend Rate = Average Spend ÷ Available Balance.
Lower values may indicate funds that are not being actively utilized.
Where do I get this data?
Export fund-level financial data from your CRM, ERP, or financial system.
What is Spend Rate?
Average Spend divided by Available Balance.
What does underspent mean?
A fund may not be deploying available resources at an expected rate.
What if my file doesn’t work?
Ensure correct sheet names and required columns are used exactly.
Your data is never stored, logged, or shared.
Files are processed securely in memory and immediately discarded after analysis. No data is written to disk or retained.
No data is accessible to the developer or any third party at any time.
Built by a higher education professional focused on fund stewardship and operational efficiency.