Nonprofit Dashboards

Nonprofit board members receive a lot of information in order to make decisions.  Many organizations provide a dashboard to convey the most meaningful information in an easy to read and understand way.

Does your organization utilize a dashboard?  If not, maybe you should consider implementing this tool.

A dashboard is normally a one-page report that shows the organization’s key performance indicators.  The most difficult part of getting started, is deciding what to measure.  What is important to one organization may not be important to another. Your organization should have a strategic plan in place that includes specific goals, which will influence the key performance indicators for your organization.

Indicators can be in a variety of areas – program, financial, fundraising, governance, human resources, etc. and may include the following examples.  However, your organization needs to determine what is relevant and meaningful for your organization.

• Program
  • Enrollment
  • Retention
  • Number of clients served
  • Number of scholarships awarded
• Financial
  • Year to date operating results (total revenue and expenses)
  • Contributed revenue v. earned revenue
  • Cash reserves (number of months of expenses on hand)
  • Number of days in receivables
• Fundraising
  • Sources of contributions (individuals v. corporate v. foundations)
  • Board giving
  • Number of donor visits
• Governance
  • Board member attendance at meetings
  • Board member background/experience
• Human Resources
  • Number of employees
  • Employee turnover

Once you have decided what to measure, you will need to decide how to display the information.  Most dashboards include charts and graphs that make the information easy to understand and comparable to some basis, whether it be prior year or other similar nonprofits.  Make sure you are consistent period to period in how the information is displayed on the dashboard so that the board doesn’t get confused as to what is being reported.

A dashboard allows the organization to focus on what’s important and monitor progress towards its goals.  It does not replace the monthly financials, budget, executive director’s report and other documents provided to the board but it does help the board focus on what matters most.

Contributed by: Carrie Minnich, CPA, MAcct | Director | DWD CPAs & Advisors