The understanding that nonprofits must be transparent and concerned with downward accountability means that many nonprofit organisations spend a considerable time focusing on data reporting to prove their ability to use funds efficiently and to show that it makes a considerable impact however nonprofits are also more often than not time and resource poor. To keep administration cost down and to improve productivity nonprofits need to be able to provide efficient, streamlined reporting that doesn’t compromise the quality of the data.
Many nonproftit organizations struggle to be able to provide the data in a way that shows transparency in what they are doing, how they are making an impact and how they are able to effectively spend funding in a valuable way. This is because with limited resources there is very little time available to spend on administration tasks resulting in valuable data getting lost. By having automated reporting in place nonprofit organizations will cut down on time spent compiling the reports and distributing to the necessary funders and government bodies. Implementing a robust nonprofit fundraising software package will enable nonprofit organisations to reduce administration costs and the time spent doing these tasks, as well as preventing loss of data or data redundancy.
To meet the needs of nonprofit organizations fundraising software needs to be able to provide streamlined reporting to funders, be both flexible and scalable to the changes in data requirements and reporting and be able to funnel out unnecessary or duplicated data. It is also important that the nonprofit fundraising software is intuitive to the needs of the organization.
With many nonprofits often relying on their volunteer base to help with administration and data entry, ensuring software for nonprofit organizations is intuitive and easy to use will help prevent loss of data or data redundancy. Therefore choosing an interface that is familiar and intuitive, such as Microsoft software, will help cut down on time spent on training and prevent human errors occurring. Nonprofit fundraising software that enables organizations to create automated data reporting will help to not only improve the quality of what is being provided but also help to cut down on valuable time spent on reporting that would be better directed in improving fundraising opportunities and managing vital initiatives and projects.
The expectation for nonprofits to spend less than 35% of funding on administration costs (Wise Giving Alliance), and the reality that many spend far less than this means that data reporting for transparency, as well as for organising fundraising drives, managing budgets and funding vital initiatives and projects, must be straightforward and automated where possible. Nonprofit fundraising software that enables organizations to provide budget management and spending reporting instantly as well as reporting on initatives and projects helps to improve efficiency and transparency for nonprofit organizations.
Kate
