In this age of data visualization, it’s useful to have a few good dashboards in your nonprofit’s toolbox.
Dashboards can help boards and staff of nonprofits get a handle on large amounts of data and see the significance of the data quickly. Dashboards can also be shared with donors and grantmakers to help familiarize them with a nonprofit’s impact, scope of programs, or finances.
Some dashboards illustrate performance over time, such as numbers of people served; others offer a snapshot view of a situation, such as the current and forecasted cash flow.
Nonprofits can use dashboards to demonstrate a nonprofit’s social media influence or to show board members selected financial indicators. A dashboard can chart the progress made towards achieving specific goals and illustrate who is accountable, making dashboards terrific tools for performance measurement. An effective dashboard shows rather than tells the audience about data needed for actions or decisions.
Additional Resources
- A Nonprofit Dashboard and Signal Light for Boards (Blue Avocado)
- See this data visualization page for examples of interactive and static dashboards showing different ways to present financial data (YPTC)
- Models and components of a great nonprofit dashboard (Nonprofit Quarterly)
- Minding the Gap with dashboards (Social Impact Architects)