I'll be participating in a fundraiser this weekend and needed some help doing some calculations to maximize the funds I could receive. I initialy thought the "math" would be easy but harder than initialy anticipated.

Here are the rules:

I am a candidate for an art grant.

There will be approximately 10 other candidates vying for grants.

Attendees to the fundraiser will be able to vote for whom gets an art grant.

Each attendee of the event can contribute as much as they like in $1 increments.

Each $1 counts as one vote.

Candidates can vote for themselves by contributing $1.

At the end of the fundraiser the amount collected in votes will be distributed according to percentage of votes. Example total collected 5000, votes for me 500 (10%).

Here is where it gets tricky

There is a total of $10,000 available in "matching" funds available equaling the amount collected from votes up to the stated individual candidate budget. Which in my case is $2500.

So, what I am trying to figure out via excel:

At the event, what is the amount I should contribute myself knowing that although each dollar I put in myself, I get back, There is a 2500 cap total Including the matching funds. Therefore if I contributed $2,500 of my own money, I would not receive any matching because the matching is after the funds collected from voting up to my 2,500 cap.

I would like to have an excel table on my smartphone that I could plug in variables at the event to determine the amount I should contribute.

Unknown: Number of attendees (Estimated at 100)

Unknown: Number of votes to be cast by attendees (Estimated 10 each)

Known: $10,000 available in matching funds in proportion to the % of votes received.

Known: $2500 cap on my award (votes + matching funds)

Thank you for any assistance you could provided.