By Isaiah Perez and Melinda Waite
All Association Acumen’s clients have an online dashboard. A dashboard is a valuable communication tool that shows a high-level visual snapshot of a client’s important information, such as a financial overview, membership trends, conference/annual meeting fundraising and registration, and so much more! A dashboard allows the client’s board to view a large amount of data quickly, usually presented in easy-to-read charts or graphs.
The content and level of detail in a dashboard is customizable. For our clients, they are determined by the board or leadership in consultation with staff. Some dashboards are very robust and comprehensive, providing insight into every program/activity of the client. Other dashboards may be rather simple or focused, perhaps only showing financial performance year to date. Some clients have additional dashboards for their committees. Committee dashboards may focus on areas such as advertising/promotions analytics, membership metrics, and strategic planning progress.
With dashboards, the board can make decisions much faster. The board can view and assess not only the year-to-date performance but also year-over-year comparisons. This allows for identifying trends and measuring progress towards a specific goal or budget.
Dashboards are a powerful visual tool that Boards use to quickly grasp the organization’s performance and make data-based decisions.
Thinking about your organization, what data would you include in a dashboard that would help you feel more empowered?