Nonprofit Data Sharing: What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know

Your nonprofit has just unearthed the perfect grant opportunity to expand its programming. You meet all of the eligibility criteria and share similar values with the grantmaker—all that’s left to do is to convince them that you’re worthy of the funding. This is when it’s time to start pulling out your data. Funders want to know about your impact on the community and often want the numbers to prove it.

Whether you’re communicating with donors, grantmakers, or corporate partners, nonprofit data sharing is essential to building trust and securing long-term support. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the process, including:

• Nonprofit Data Sharing: FAQs

• 3 Types of Tools for Sharing Nonprofit Data

• Nonprofit Data Privacy: Key Considerations

• Best Practices for Nonprofit Data Reporting

By managing a clean database and implementing policies to protect data privacy, you can turn your nonprofit’s data into a powerful tool for interpreting your impact.

Nonprofit Data Sharing: FAQs

Before you start assessing your nonprofit’s data approach, explore these frequently asked questions to understand where it fits into your overall strategy:

What is nonprofit data sharing?

Nonprofit data sharing refers to the process of exchanging information with donors, grantmakers, corporate partners, and other stakeholders to boost transparency, improve collaboration, and inform decision-making.

Your nonprofit can share data in numerous ways, from your website to social media posts to annual reports. Ultimately, the format you choose will depend on your purpose for sharing the data and your audience’s communication preferences.

Why is nonprofit data sharing important?

Fulfilling your nonprofit’s mission is no solo effort. You need to cooperate with other individuals, corporations, and organizations to secure necessary resources, build capacity, and make a difference in your community. Through strategic nonprofit data sharing, you can:

• Improve program coordination. By joining forces with other nonprofits in your area, you can provide more comprehensive services and better meet the needs of your community. Over time, as you share program outcomes, you’ll be able to identify which areas require more attention and whether any gaps in your services need to be addressed.

• Boost reputation and trust. Disclosing your nonprofit’s financial details, including how you use your funding, assures everyone in your community that you’re making responsible decisions toward furthering your mission. Even if you’ve encountered some setbacks, being open about them demonstrates that you’re committed to taking steps to improve going forward.

• Win long-term support. According to Independent Sector, 80% of U.S. donors agree they need proof of a nonprofit’s impact to continue supporting it. By consistently following up on everything you’ve accomplished with their support, you can keep donors, partners, and other stakeholders invested in your organization for the long term.

Donor preferences and community needs are constantly changing. Presenting and exchanging relevant data gives you the context and insight your nonprofit needs to continue carrying out its purpose effectively.

What types of data should nonprofits share?

While no two nonprofits are identical, common types of data you might report to stakeholders include:

• Financial statements

• Program outcomes

• Fundraising results

• Volunteer participation

For example, let’s say your hunger relief nonprofit recently wrapped up a fundraising campaign after a natural disaster in the area. To follow up on the success of your campaign, you might send an email update to everyone who donated, explaining how many emergency meal kits you distributed and the number of individuals you helped feed thanks to their contributions.

3 Types of Tools for Sharing Nonprofit Data

Your nonprofit might regularly interact with hundreds of donors, volunteers, and partners, which can lead to a ton of information to keep up with. Fortunately, there are some key types of technology that facilitate both internal and external nonprofit data sharing:

• Constituent relationship management system (CRM). A CRM, such as Salesforce for Nonprofits, makes it easy for your staff and volunteers to access all of the details related to your donor relationships, programs, and more on one platform. You can keep track of each donor’s giving history, log their contact information, and automate communications based on their past engagement with your nonprofit.

• File-sharing services. Using cloud storage solutions such as Google Drive and Dropbox, your team can access important files and documents from anywhere, collaborate in real time, and organize your data into relevant folders. Plus, they often come with safety measures such as encryption and secure file transfer protocols to keep your sensitive information safe.

• Storytelling and visualization tools. Beyond having a wealth of accurate data at your nonprofit’s disposal, you need a way to communicate it effectively with stakeholders. With graphic design tools such as Canva, you can create engaging visual representations of your data. Then, using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, you can upload these illustrations to your website or blog.

When building your nonprofit’s toolkit, keep your goals and available resources in mind to find the best options to fit your specific needs. Feel free to reach out to your peers at similar organizations to see if they have any software recommendations.

Nonprofit Data Privacy: Key Considerations

While data can be a powerful tool when used properly, it requires a level of responsibility and care. Since you’re often collecting and managing sensitive data such as a donor’s contact information, location, and payment details, you need to establish procedures to safeguard everything. Start by:

• Informing donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries about how you’ll use, store, and protect their data.

• Setting user permissions in your database, so only the necessary individuals have access to sensitive information.

• Implementing regular backups to minimize any risk of data loss.

• Using multifactor authentication to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your nonprofit’s accounts.

Microsoft found that fewer than 15% of nonprofits have cybersecurity experts as staff and the vast majority do not implement critical hygiene practices, such as multifactor authentication. Make data security and privacy a priority for your nonprofit by incorporating training sessions into your onboarding process and hosting refreshers throughout the year. Common topics to cover include phishing, malware, and physical data security.

Additionally, depending on your nonprofit’s mission, there might be specific regulations to keep on your radar. For example, health and human services organizations should pay close attention to privacy laws. For nonprofits that provide medical services, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits the improper sharing of individually identifiable health information such as diagnosis details or medical record numbers.  

Even though most nonprofits are not considered covered entities under HIPAA, it is an excellent model for how to protect sensitive data. Organizations can benefit from implementing some of the key requirements of HIPAA such as ensuring passwords are not shared, that roles and responsibilities are clear, and that anyone who works with your data understands what is sensitive – and therefore not to be shared – for your own organizational context. 

Best Practices for Nonprofit Data Reporting

Ready to start reporting your impact and using data to refine your nonprofit’s strategies? Make the most of your secure, organized database by following these best practices:

• Tell stories. Weave your data points into a grander narrative that will stick with your audience. In your annual reports and major donor conversations, use data to supplement inspiring stories about your impact, rather than replace them. For example, a nonprofit dedicated to improving higher education access might share the story of a beneficiary who got into their dream college and mention how they’re one of 90% of program participants who are accepted into a college of their choice.

• Incorporate visuals. Not everyone has an eye for numbers. Make your data understandable at a glance by displaying it in infographics, diagrams, and graphs. If you’re posting these images on your website or social media, incorporate your nonprofit’s branding so people can easily associate it with your organization.

• Leverage technology. A recent nonprofit technology trends report found that manual, time-consuming reporting was one of the top internal challenges reported by nonprofits. CRMs like Salesforce for Nonprofits can facilitate tasks such as data entry, transfer, and analytics so your team can focus less on wrangling your data and more on using it to improve how you fulfill your mission.

No matter your current relationship with data, consider reaching out to nonprofit technology firms if you need more support. At Deep Why Design, we know data can be a game changer for your nonprofit’s workflow, program outcomes, and overall impact. That’s why we’re dedicated to helping you design a Salesforce ecosystem and strategy tailored to your specific needs and expectations.

If you’re a small or mid-sized nonprofit looking for assistance with troubleshooting or improving your Salesforce processes, jump into our Office Hours for expert advice! Or, if you have a more custom project in mind, we’re more than happy to work with you to build a solution that meets your goals.

Wrapping Up: Streamlining Nonprofit Data Sharing

Sharing data is an ongoing process for nonprofits, which means that you’ll always have opportunities to improve over time. Maintain data hygiene by standardizing data entry, scheduling routine audits, and removing outdated entries from your database. Before long, you’ll be nurturing impactful, collaborative partnerships and enhancing transparency by sharing key data with your stakeholders.

Never feel like you have to navigate your nonprofit’s data alone. Reach out to the technology specialists at Deep Why to learn how we can help you become a data-driven, results-oriented organization.

To learn more about how your nonprofit can improve its approach to data, check out these additional resources:

• Nonprofit Data Management: A Guide to Harnessing Your Data. Follow the steps in this guide to improve data management across your organization and turn your database into a treasure trove of insights to inform your decision-making.

• How to Use Salesforce for Nonprofits: A Complete Guide. Salesforce for Nonprofits is one of the leading software solutions for streamlining your operations and paving the way for enhanced impact. Explore the basics in this guide.

• Practical Data for Nonprofits: Part 1 — A Primer. Learn the four pillars of data literacy to improve how your team talks about and manages its data.