Many nonprofit organizations fail to record the data that is necessary to ensure that they have the information that they need to be successful. Data tracking can be a difficult task, especially for organizations that do not have the resources to pay large amounts of money for software to automate this task. While recording data is a laborious task, it is necessary to identify the success of initiatives and ultimately the progress of advancing toward the vision of your organization.

It is very important that organizations report accurately on what happens to their funds as opposed to how they report that information. A comparison between what a nonprofit expects to achieve and what it accomplishes is important to be able to determine if it is financially viable and if it allocates resources efficiently. It is especially critical to define clearly what a nonprofit is doing and what kind of results it is aiming to achieve. What matters is what it measures and is what is presented to the donors. You cannot measure everything, but you can measure many things.

The correct information is particularly useful to help boards of directors assess if a nonprofit is meeting or exceeding the goals it is setting for itself, and to show that donations have a positive impact. Those involved in a nonprofit organization are more concerned with what actually happened and what it means compared to what was expected to be the result of their efforts.

MyCommunity specifically looks to help organizations in this capacity by offering tracking tools for both of these items for as little as $2 a month. Click here for more information about how we can help.

Here are three tips for being able to identify what and how to track data most effectively for your organization:

1. Build out a system that gives your leaders a pulse on all of your business measures. Identify the five to fifteen data points that help inform the most important measurables and evaluate them every week to get an accurate sense of how things are going in the nonprofit. Start thinking this way: What metrics could I track every week for a year that will be the best indicator of my organization’s success?
2. Build out these metrics by team or department for identifying key performance indicators. If everyone has access to a few key numbers each week, it may help to get an accurate picture if your organization is clearly accomplishing the mission. Ask yourself questions like: What information can be tracked in each department? How much money are people donating to the organization? How much money do we have in reserves? What are our weekly expenses? How many volunteers are serving in our organization? How many people do we help serve?
3. Assign individual numbers to each person in the organization, so that each person knows which metrics to target. Creating accountability through data metrics is the ultimate goal. Each individual should be accountable to or accountable for the key metrics that are being recorded. That will enable people across the company to see all of the data that they need, every day. It will also enable leaders to hold their managers accountable for their teams’ performance. It helps employees to know what people are responsible for doing to enable the company to accomplish the things it wants to do. Employees will learn how to better manage themselves, and will be better able to reach out to bosses for help if they become off-course.

Tracking indicators like this will help leaders determine what your company will be doing in the coming months and years. Department and organizational metric tracking helps leaders identify areas where employees need to focus on i mproving performance and empowers employees to take responsibility for fixing problems as soon as possible.

If your organization takes the vision and mission of your organization seriously, it will take data seriously. Data keeps organizations and individual accountable for achieving the short-term and long-term goals of an organization.

To learn more about nonprofit coaching for implementing strategies like the one outlined above, contact MyCommunity. MyCommunity exists to build relationships and tools that equip organizations so that they can maximize their impact. Our suite of tools is designed to help organizations of all sizes focus on their mission without worrying about the logistics. We understand the importance of building strong relationships, so we provide the necessary tools to maximize impact and make a difference like our easy-to-use platforms MyDonors and MyVolunteers. Likewise, MyNonprofitCoach equips nonprofits with the training they need to be successful. Schedule a demo for any of our solutions here.

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Sources: https://www.plangoals.com/nonprofit-traction/ and https://www.bloomgrowth.com/blog/strengthen-your-data-component/