---

The bottom line is of utmost importance for every non-profit organization. As an NPO, you must maximize the money acquired through grants and donations to further your cause. One of the crucial ways to streamline expenses is through smart decision-making. You need to know how your data affects your decisions.

For example, with fundraising: do your donors respond better to emails or when called on the phone? These little nuances maximize the time and money spent. However, the literature reveals that non-profits don’t know how to utilize Power BI reporting because of a lack of experience, cost concerns due to low budgets, and an inadequate understanding of how the data can help their bottom line.

With so many affordable options for a Power BI dashboard, the time is now for non-profits to make the switch. 

5 Ways Power BI Dashboards Streamline Non-Profit Management 

Power BI dashboards, also referred to as “data dashboards” or “analytics,” is a tool businesses use to track and analyze data. In the non-profit sector, this can look like tracking activities such as volunteer sign-ups, donor retention, dollars raised per year, and so much more. 

By understanding past data, non-profits can make data-driven decisions. Forget the guesswork or “going with your gut.” Both of these strategies can take non-profit leaders in the wrong direction, and they end up spending money in ways that don’t suit the organization.

1. Encourages Data-Driven Decision Making

Every dollar matters in a non-profit. Making decisions with known data means you’re more likely to choose an avenue that succeeds. Power BI reporting takes data from the software your non-profit uses to create reports that outline different variables. With these reports, you can 

• Keep an eye on fundraising goals
• Leverage donor trends for the best way to encourage donations
• Understand program impact on clients
• Show areas for growth that would have otherwise gone unnoticed

Data-driven decisions come from data visualizations. Power BI reporting automatically collects data from the software. You can choose your variables and arrange them in the report in the way that best makes sense for the decision at hand. Best of all, these reports can be made in seconds. This means that non-profit workers can get the information they need quickly to make snap decisions at the moment which will save money in the long haul.

However, people must know how to use a Power BI report builder for it to be effective. A good case management software or other non-profit software systems should have extensive resources, such as videos or live demos, so that everyone in the organization can learn how to operate the software and reporting tools correctly. This ensures that they’re properly used and that data-driven decision-making happens at your non-profit.

2. Reduces Data Silos

One of the most frustrating things to experience as a worker is when you’re accidentally left off of an email. When you’re out of the loop of important information, it can expand timelines and halt productivity. In non-profits, a data silo occurs when only one department has access to important information that everyone needs to know, much like being left off an email.

This silo constricts other workers from being able to make data-driven decisions. You don’t know what you don’t know, so it forces people to act without a complete picture. Power BI software allows non-profits to share data easily through permissions. They can create their own reports and have access to the data needed to analyze information and gain insights. 

Reduced data silos mean it’s easier to achieve data-driven decisions. According to the Harvard Business Review, “highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who rely less on data.”

3. Improved Budgeting and Forecasting

Non-profits must have thorough financial management. Knowing exactly how every dollar is spent is a requirement of many grants, and donors may want to know that information as well. However, building a budget and forecasting results can be tedious if you’re trying to glean information from disorganized spreadsheets. 

A Power BI report can give granular insights into how money is best spent. All of the data is integrated from your software, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally missing a piece of information or creating a redundancy. Once the money is spent, these same tools can create visualizations that make it easy to understand the budget for donors and grantors. Power BI allows NPOs to customize financial statements automatically, making a task that used to take hours last only a matter of minutes.

Just a few of the financial reporting options in Power BI reports include:

• Monthly results
• Amounts left in a grant
• Forecasting cash as it’s related to a certain target
• Scenario planning and forecasting

4. Simplified Fundraising

Raising money for your cause can feel like a necessary evil. It can be exhausting to wrack your brain for more ways to bring in funding for the critical work your non-profit does. With power dashboards, you can create reports that help you understand where most of your donors are coming from.

Say you have an email campaign through your newsletter. With that information, you could potentially see which parts of the city or state are giving you the most money. In subsequent fundraisers, you could focus your in-person efforts on those areas. Seeing patterns and trends like this is a key benefit of analytics.

5. Leverage KPIs for Better Transparency to Donors

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are benchmarks that your non-profit sets to indicate success. This could be a certain amount raised, the number of clients helped, or money saved from one year to the next. The KPI changes based on the needs of every organization. 

Dashboards in Power BI tools allow you to track these KPIs. Sharing KPIs with donors through visualized reports builds trust–you’re proving that you follow through on your promises. 96% of individuals donate to organizations because they have a sense of duty to tackle injustice and give back to society. By proving to people through KPIs that you’re doing just that, donors will be more likely to continue to support your cause.

Implementing Power BI Dashboards at Your Non-Profit

It can feel like a daunting task to start a new software. The good news is that Power BI reporting is usually connected to software your non-profit already needs, such as streamlined case management. Software companies offer training sessions or have plenty of resources on the website so that you can start creating Power BI dashboards with minimal headaches. 

Comprehensive Dashboards in Power BI

One of the first steps is creating a dashboard in Power BI. You can create as many dashboards as make sense for your organization. Typically, a dashboard will cover a general area within your non-profit that you want to collect data on. Here are a few examples of Power BI dashboards.

• Donor dashboard: All reports related to donors. This could be how much they’re giving, how often they give, and their demographics.
• Website analytics dashboard: This includes information about your website: who is visiting, how they got there, where they’re located, and more.
• Annual report dashboard: Information needed to build your annual report, including communities served, successful programs, and budgets.
• Volunteer dashboard: Data covering your volunteer programs, such as age range, the amount of hours served, and new sign-ups.

Power BI Reports

Reports are data sets paired together to visualize information critical to decisions at your non-profit. Let’s take a look at PlanStreet’s reporting software to get an understanding of some of the different Power BI reports available for use. Some of the visualizations available include:

• Doughnut Charts: A circular chart with a hole in the center, displaying the distribution of parts of a whole. Each category has its own piece, and the size of each piece matches the proportion of that category in the total.
• Pie Charts: A circular chart that divides data into slices to illustrate numerical proportions, where the whole “pie” equals 100%. It explains the relationship of parts to a whole.
• Funnel Charts: Visualizes a process with sequential steps that resemble a funnel. This is best used for tracking and analyzing processes, with the size of each stage representing the percentage of items or people moving forward.
• Bar Charts: Rectangular bars show data value through the length or height of each (can be horizontal or vertical). A bar chart is commonly used to compare data in different categories or show changes over a certain period.
• Column Charts: Data is represented through the heights of vertical columns, great for comparing data and values over different categories.
• Line Charts: Data is a series of points connected by straight lines, ideal for showing trends over time and establishing patterns.

Elevate Your NPO Case Management Through Plan Street’s Data-Driven Power BI

It’s critical to use as few software options as possible to minimize spending. Plan Street offers robust, customizable case management software for non-profits. Organize cases, streamline referrals, and maximize your budget through Power BI-embedded dashboards. Workflow automation takes the administrative hassle out of decision-making, and user-friendly mobile and web apps make it easy to access critical data from anywhere.

Learn how your non-profit can start making data-driven decisions and schedule a live demo with PlanStreet today.

Meta Description: Power BI dashboards are a critical tool to streamline processes for non-profits. Learn more about this money-saving software, and how PlanStreet can help.