Here’s an application designed for those fund raiser activities where you have a specific goal in mind and you’re encouraging people to donate money.  Probably for non-profits and similar organizations.

The scenario would be something like this: You have a monitor (maybe a big LCD screen) facing the audience or the passers by of a convention, and that will show the big thermometer of how close you are to achieving your goal amount.  Then, you have a laptop on the same network, or at least with access to a shared network drive, etc.  It runs the Fund Meter Admin application that allows you to punch in the dollar amounts people donate.  As you enter amounts, it updates the Fund Meter thermometer to show the new amount.

Simple, no big complex configurations.  I wanted an easy to use application that would answer 90% of the use cases out there.

It does have some options:

• Goal amount
• Tick interval
• Background color
• Font color
• Thermometer color

These will be expanded upon in the future as the beta version gets feedback.

The workflow for getting the application up and running goes something like this:

1. Install and run the Fund Meter application on the presentation machine – the one facing the audience.
2. Create a blank text file in a shared location (i.e., funds.txt).
3. Click Set File and choose the text file you created in a shared location (i.e., funds.txt).
4. Click the icon in the lower right corner. This will make the application full screen.
5. Install and run the Fund Meter Admin application on the admin machine – the one used by the person accepting the donations.
6. Click Set File and choose that same text file you created in a shared location (i.e., funds.txt).
7. Enter the donation amounts into the text field and press Enter or click the Add Funds button.
8. Get to work accepting donations!

I’d love to hear all of your uses for this application and ways it can be adapted and improved to better meet your needs!

Future enhancements may include:

1. Ability to set your organization logo
2. Add a block of text to place a marketing blurb
3. Ability to change the font size of the tick intervals

I’m investigating the opportunity of creating a Pro version that would have the option of recording names & contact info of donors and providing reports on the fund drive.  If you think this would be something worth paying for, let me know.  With enough interest, I’ll put the time into it.

Send ideas, use cases, suggestions, gripes, requests, questions, comments, and anything else related to the Fund Meter to fundmeter@theflexguy.com.