Nonprofit financial dashboard guide (with examples) 

Think of the financial dashboard as the command center of your nonprofit, bringing together metrics, data, and insights into a single, visually compelling interface.   

This is a tool that provides executive-level insights at the swipe of a mouse, and this article explores the vital role of dashboards in nonprofit management.   

You’ll see several examples of dashboards within Sage Intacct, highlighting how they deliver real-time, curated data visualizations that can enhance your strategic planning and decision-making.

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, financial backers, or government agencies.

The data visually tells the story of your nonprofit’s financial health.  

Dashboards allow you to pre-select the information to use, so it automatically channels the correct data from other applications, such as accounting or project management.

This gives you a holistic overview of what you need to see while also allowing you to drill into the details of each system or process. 

For example, the dashboard might pull information from your bank accounts to instantly display total donations, or it might automatically compare that figure with your goal for the year. 

You can also select a variety of graph types, allowing you to instantly assess campaign progress, financial health of the organization (e.g. cash flow), and changes in important metrics such as expenses. Ideally, the graphics will be interactive, so that you and your colleagues can isolate certain details or adjust the data for different scenarios. 

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 in a clear and concise way, dashboards are the ideal tool.

Here are the main situations when they come into play: 

For internal purposes  

You can use dashboards to effectively monitor progress toward your strategic goals. 

These tools allow you to visualize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like program efficiency, fundraising effectiveness, and financial health in real-time.

An at-a-glance view of performance lets you identify trends and areas needing improvement. 

For external purposes  

Dashboards offer a compelling way to communicate the impact of contributions to external stakeholders like donors, funders, and the press.

By showcasing key metrics, such as the number of people served, outcomes achieved, and financial stewardship, the dashboards highlight your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

In this way, dashboards contribute to the transparency and accountability that strengthens your relationship with supporters. 

For compliance  

Nonprofits must adhere to various reporting requirements dictated by government entities and authorities. Dashboards streamline this process by consolidating your financial data correctly and in an accessible format.

In short, they present your financial information as it should be when delivering the Form 990 tax declaration, for grant reporting, and in line with audit requirements. 

Benefits of using a financial dashboard 

Financial dashboards offer you 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

Visualize key financial datapoints in real-time for an at-a-glance overview of revenue, expenses, or cash flow.

Your dashboard reveals patterns and anomalies that might otherwise be missed, ensuring threats to financial health are caught early.

This gives you agility in investigating the causes of deviations and taking corrective action.

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.

This tailored approach keeps specific audiences engaged, strengthening your relationships and fostering greater understanding of your organization’s work. 

Make better decisions

Your dashboard may reveal 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 show that one of your fundraising campaigns is exceeding expectations, you can consider expanding the campaign or replicating its strategies.

Clearly displayed analyses allow you to optimize financial strategy across all your activities and maximize your impact, supporting your mission more effectively. 

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 demonstrate the effectiveness of your programs. 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 contributed to positive change 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 you make sure 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

Financial managers can track revenue streams, expenses by category, and overall budget adherence.  

Fundraising progress towards goals

Program managers can monitor the progress of fundraising campaigns and identify any gaps that need to be addressed.  

Program spending

It’s also helpful for managers to analyze spending across different programs. They can then assess the efficiency and impact of each one. 

Restricted versus. unrestricted funds

For compliance, your accounting team will need to know the proportion of funds that are restricted for specific purposes vs. those that can be used for general operations. 

4. Identify your key users

Think about who will be using the dashboard and what information is most relevant to them.

Tailor your dashboard content and design to meet their specific needs. 

Board of directors

A dashboard for the board might prioritize high-level financial performance indicators, such as overall 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 an overview of fundraising progress towards goals, donor acquisition costs, and the effectiveness of different campaigns. 

5. Define your dashboard narrative

Your financial dashboard should tell a story.

Decide on your message and priorities, then create a flow by organizing data and visuals to guide your audience through the most important points.

You should try to make sure the experience is seamless and paint a clear picture of the story you want to tell.

You can use the following questions to help define your narrative, then leverage the visuals and data that are most relevant to it: 

• Who’s the audience (staff, volunteers, board, donors, funders, etc.)? 
• What’s 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, gauges), 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.

Use the insights gained to adjust your strategies and optimize your financial performance. 

Nonprofit financial dashboard examples  

You can customize your financial dashboard to suit different audiences and circumstances.

For example, here’s more information on the Sage Intacct dashboard and its benefits. 

The next five scenarios each require a different dashboard type. Explore what makes each type fit specifically to the purpose. 

1. Role-based dashboards 

Design your dashboards to meet the needs of any role within your organization.

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.  

These role-based dashboards eliminate the need to sift through extraneous data, providing a focused view of the key metrics and insights necessary for effective decision-making.  

By streamlining access to pertinent information, individual efforts are aligned with your organization’s overarching mission and goals.

Role-specific dashboards boost individual efficiency, foster better collaboration across teams, and ultimately contribute to improved strategic choices while offering added security for eyes-only data. 

 For instance, a CFO’s dashboard might combine financial performance data (revenue, expenses) with outcome KPIs, offering a holistic view of your organization’s financial health and impact. 

2. Outcome metrics dashboard 

The only way you know your campaign has made a difference is if you can measure and visualize program effectiveness.

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.   

Similarly, in a healthcare setting, your dashboard could display the number of patients seen across different specialties and the average cost per patient, allowing for comparisons between service units and better resource allocation.   

In this way, outcome-focused dashboards empower you to make data-driven decisions about program adjustments, resource allocation, and future strategies, maximizing your positive impact on the communities you serve. 

3. Nonprofit digital board book 

Effective nonprofit leadership requires a comprehensive understanding of your organization’s performance.

Dashboards can provide a holistic view of progress by showing how your KPIs measure up against strategic goals.

Or they may highlight current or future milestones against a timeline.  

You can benchmark against industry standards and best practices, which helps with optimizing operations and overall decision-making.   

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.  

You can leverage these insights to monitor financial health, track funding diversification, analyze revenue mix, and ultimately ensure long-term sustainability. 

4. Interactive Visual Explorer dashboards 

The true power of cloud-based nonprofit financial management systems is that they let you manipulate and explore real-time data.

Interactive visual analysis tools allow you and other decision-makers to view financial and operational data from multiple perspectives, uncovering trends and patterns that might otherwise be hidden.   

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 allow you to perform precise analyses, targeting the data that is most relevant to the task at hand.   

Finally, you can seamlessly integrate these visualizations into reports, providing board members and other 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, including essential financial statements like the Statement of Activities and Statement of Operations.   

Some dashboards may even incorporate portions of obligatory reporting forms, such as the Form 990, which aids the preparation process.

This functionality will help you prevent miscommunication with external auditors, while enhancing collaboration between teams. 

Final thoughts

Nonprofit financial dashboards are game-changers for organizations that need an efficient, cost-effective way to track their impact while demostrating accountability to internal and external stakeholders.   

These tools can offer you a real-time view of your financial and operational health, helping you spot trends and identify any potential threats on the horizon.

The best financial dashboards for nonprofits will give you clear, customizable visualizations and easily digestible, actionable insights that you can leverage to boost your organization’s performance.  

You can tailor them to suit the needs of various internal users and external stakeholders with role-based, outcome-focused, and leadership-specific dashboards.  

To learn more about how nonprofit financial dashboards can elevate your operations and ability to deliver your mission, download the Sage  Achieving Real-Time Visibility with Nonprofit Financial Reporting and Dashboards e-book.