Full speed ahead
A dashboard gives you a quick
status of your nonprofit
Board members must keep a close eye on whether
their nonprofits are meeting key goals and furthering their missions.
One of the easiest, quickest ways for boards to do this is to periodically
receive a "dashboard" of key performance indicators. Just as an automobile
dashboard gives drivers a quick glimpse of their car's status, a performance
dashboard provides an at-a-glance look at an organization's current
health.
By using a dashboard to check your not-for-profit's vital
signs, board members can detect trends more quickly and take corrective
action as necessary.
Although most boards regularly receive financial
reports to review, a dashboard can be more effective because it's
designed to be concise and focused on the measures that boards are
most interested in. Plus, the information is displayed in a format
that all board members can easily understand - even if they aren't
well versed in analyzing financial statements.
For instance, one organization
that had diversification of revenue sources as a primary goal added
that measure to its dashboard. It used a pie chart to display the
percentage of income from each source, enabling the board to easily
monitor whether the slices of the pie were becoming more equal in size.
Other examples of performance indicators a nonprofit might track are
the number of new clients served, volunteer hours, and new individual
and corporate donors.
If you're interested in developing your own dashboard,
consider these questions:
- What are your not-for-profit's top priorities
or objectives?
- What key aspects of your operations do you want
to monitor?
- What is the best way to display progress toward goals
in key areas?
- How often do you want board members to receive the
dashboard for review, such as at every meeting?
One of the most important
roles of nonprofit boards is to set strategic direction and establish
priorities for their organizations. To carry out this duty, boards
need relevant information that is easy to monitor and understand.
The dashboard approach to tracking key performance indicators can
help them keep their not-for-profits focused on those measures that
are most crucial to success.
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publications are distributed with the understanding that the author,
publisher and distributor are not rendering legal, accounting
or other professional advice or opinions on specific facts or matters,
and, accordingly, assume no liability whatsoever in connection
to its use.
