Nonprofit financial dashboard guide (with examples)
Do you dream of having instant access to your organization’s critical performance indicators, all in one place? Financial managers can now operate like a ship’s captain viewing screens in a control room, arranging all essential metrics with a financial dashboard.
For Canadian nonprofits, not-for-profits, and registered charities, financial dashboards are a crucial strategic tool for greater transparency, accountability, and mission-driven decision-making.
With over 85,000 registered charities and thousands more nonprofits contributing $216.5 billion to the Canadian economy each year, the sector faces mounting pressure to demonstrate efficiency and impact.
Think of the financial dashboard as the command center for your nonprofit, bringing together metrics, data, and insights into a single, visually engaging interface.
This tool provides executive-level insights with the swipe of a mouse, and this article explores the vital role of dashboards in nonprofit management.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What are nonprofit finance dashboards?
A financial dashboard is a collection of graphics that displays data collated and tailored to a specific audience, such as program managers, donors, or government agencies. The data tells the visual story of your nonprofit’s financial health.
For example, the dashboard might pull information from your bank accounts to instantly display total donations or automatically compare that figure with your annual goal.
The finance dashboard allows you to easily track things like fundraising, project milestones, and distribution of resources. Real-time access to this information helps you quickly decide when to adapt plans to changing circumstances and the appropriate course of action.
When to use a nonprofit financial dashboard
Whenever your organization needs to communicate complex financial information clearly and concisely, dashboards are the ideal tool.
Here are the main situations when they come into play.
For internal purposes
You can use dashboards to monitor progress toward your nonprofit’s strategic goals and spot trends or areas that need improvement.
These tools allow you to visualize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like program efficiency, fundraising effectiveness, and financial health in real-time and communicate mission impact to your board, donors, and community.
For external purposes
Dashboards provide a compelling way to communicate the impact of contributions and demonstrate transparency and accountability to external stakeholders, such as donors or the press.
By showcasing key metrics, such as the number of people served, outcomes achieved, and financial stewardship, dashboards highlight your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.
For compliance
Canadian nonprofits, not-for-profits, and charities operate under distinct compliance requirements.
Financial dashboards help meet these requirements and simplify compliance by consolidating financial data into an accurate, accessible format. They can automate tracking and present your financial information for compliance requirements like CRA reporting, federal grants, or provincial regulations.
Benefits of using a financial dashboard
Financial dashboards are a powerful tool for visualizing and understanding your financial data, leading to more informed decision-making and greater impact.
Here’s how.
Quickly identify trends and red flags
Your nonprofit’s financial dashboard allows you to visualize key financial datapoints in real-time for an at-a-glance overview of revenue, expenses, and cash flow.
It also reveals patterns and anomalies that might otherwise be missed, ensuring threats to financial health are identified early and providing the information you need to investigate deviations and take corrective actions.
Dashboards also highlight positive trends, such as successful fundraising campaigns, which can inform future strategies and resource allocation.
Customize and cherry-pick the most relevant stats
Focus on the metrics that matter most to you by drilling down to KPIs for specific goals and program areas.
For instance, program managers may seek metrics like cost per beneficiary and program effectiveness, while a development director will focus on fundraising progress and donor retention.
Make better decisions
Your dashboard may reveal that a particular program is financially underperforming. Your planners and leaders can immediately explore options such as adjusting budget allocations, refining program strategies, or seeking additional funding.
Conversely, if the results indicate that one of your fundraising campaigns is exceeding expectations, you might consider expanding the campaign or replicating its strategies.
Measuring success is different for nonprofits
Unlike for-profit businesses, nonprofits usually define success by the impact they make on their communities. This requires a different approach to measuring and tracking KPIs.
While financial health is important for nonprofit sustainability, you also need to consider outcome metrics that show how effective your programs are. You can adapt the same dashboard software that displays your financial data to also highlight operational wins.
This might include metrics such as:
- Number of people served: How many individuals have benefited from your programs?
- Improvements in health or education: Have there been measurable improvements in the well-being of those served?
- Community impact: Has your organization made a positive difference within the community at large?
Tracking outcome metrics alongside financial data gives your supporters and stakeholders a complete picture of mission performance.
Steps for building a financial dashboard
Modern accounting solutions for nonprofits offer tools and templates for you to build custom financial dashboards.
Get started with the following steps:
1. Choose the software
Select a tool or software solution that meets your needs and budget.
If you work for a small nonprofit, a more basic tool like Excel might be enough for you to visualize data and build simple dashboards.
But for growing organizations and nonprofits that handle complex financial data, dynamic accounting software is likely to be a better fit. Consider factors such as ease of use, customization options, integration capabilities, and cost.
Cloud-based accounting software like Sage Intacct often includes robust dashboard features.
2. Connect your data sources
Integrate your accounting software with your fundraising database and any other relevant data sources.
This will help ensure that your dashboard is populated with accurate, up-to-date information and insights.
3. Select your metrics
Determine which KPIs and metrics are most important to track for your nonprofit. This will depend on your organization’s specific goals and priorities.
Consider including metrics related to fundraising, program expenses, impact measurement, and overall financial health.
Common types of financial data include income and expenses, fundraising progress towards goals, program spending, and restricted versus unrestricted funds.
4. Identify your key users
Consider who will use the dashboard and what information is most relevant to them. Tailor your dashboard content to meet their specific needs.
Board of directors
A dashboard for the board might prioritize high-level financial performance indicators, such as total revenue and expenses, net assets, and return on investment for major initiatives.
Program managers
Program managers benefit from dashboards that track program-specific metrics, such as the number of people served, outcomes achieved, and expenses incurred.
Development team
A fundraising dashboard provides a snapshot of fundraising progress toward goals, donor acquisition costs, and the effectiveness of different campaigns.
5. Define your dashboard narrative
Your financial dashboard should tell a story.
Determine your message and priorities, then create a clear flow by organizing data and visuals to guide your audience through the most important points.
You can use these questions to help define your narrative and then leverage relevant visuals and data to support it.
- Who is the audience (staff, volunteers, board, donors, federal agencies, etc.)?
- What is the easiest way to display the data?
- What are the key themes you want to highlight?
- What visuals will engage your audience the most?
- Does your audience need extra context (e.g., accounting standards and regulations)?
- What message do you want your audience(s) to walk away with?
6. Customize your dashboard
Design the layout, choose visualizations (charts, graphs, etc.), and add filters to create a dashboard that is visually appealing, informative, and easy to use.
7. Monitor and analyze
Regularly review your financial dashboard to track progress, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.
Nonprofit financial dashboard examples
You can customize your financial dashboard to suit different audiences and circumstances.
For example, here are some examples of the Sage Intacct dashboard and its benefits. The following scenarios each require a different type of dashboard.
1. Role-based dashboards
Whether it’s the Executive Director, CFO, Controller, Program Managers, or even external auditors, each individual benefits greatly from curated access to the information that is most relevant for their responsibilities.
For instance, a CFO’s dashboard might combine financial performance data (like revenue and expenses) with outcome KPIs, offering a holistic view of your organization’s financial health and impact.
2. Outcome metrics dashboard
Dashboards focused on outcome metrics integrate your financial and operational data to provide a comprehensive picture of your program efficiency and overall results.
For example, a food program dashboard might track the number of meals your nonprofit served alongside the cost per meal, instantly revealing operational efficiency.
In a healthcare setting, your dashboard could display the number of patients seen across different specialties and the average cost per patient, allowing comparisons between service units and better resource allocation.
3. Nonprofit digital board book
Dashboards can provide a holistic view of progress by showing how your KPIs measure up against strategic goals or highlight current or future milestones against a timeline.
For example, Sage Intacct tools like the Nonprofit Digital Board Book offer a collection of pre-built dashboards designed specifically for these tasks. They integrate data from various sources, including financial statements, donor management systems, and budgets, to provide real-time visualizations of key metrics.
4. Interactive Visual Explorer dashboards
The true power of cloud-based nonprofit financial management systems is that they allow you to manipulate and explore real-time data.
For example, the Sage Intacct Interactive Visual Explorer module features libraries of pre-built visualizations and a variety of chart types, which you can consult to quickly create customized dashboards. Use this functionality to easily drill down from high-level summaries to granular details.
Filters and other interactive features enable you to perform precise analyses, targeting the data that is most relevant to the task at hand. You can integrate these visualizations into reports, providing stakeholders with clear, concise, and readily digestible insights.
5. Compliance dashboard
Maintaining compliance with nonprofit accounting standards is essential for financial integrity and transparency. Dashboards significantly simplify this process by providing a centralized view of key compliance-related information.
For example, a compliance dashboard might display real-time audit and tax data, such as information needed for CRA T1044 reporting or incorporate portions of mandatory reporting forms, which helps streamline the preparation process.
Final thoughts
Financial dashboards are game changers for Canadian nonprofits that need an efficient way to track their impact while demonstrating accountability to internal and external stakeholders.
The best financial dashboards for nonprofits offer clear, customizable visualizations and actionable insights you can leverage to boost your organization’s performance.
