Nonprofit Data Dashboard Services: Four Power BI Dashboards, Built and Handed Over
The board packet is assembled by hand every quarter, the development director keeps a private gift spreadsheet, and finance answers 'how much of that is restricted?' by email. Each report is right on its own. None of them agree, because each was run on a different day.
Our nonprofit data dashboard services deliver a defined set of four Power BI dashboards: one for the board, one for fundraising, one for programs and impact, and one for finance that keeps donor-restricted and unrestricted funds apart. Each has a named audience, an agreed refresh schedule and a sharing plan, and all four are handed over to your staff.
Edward Pinela, MBA, builds them inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant, working remotely with your executive director, development and finance staff. The build is quoted at a fixed price after a free 30-minute strategy call. Later changes, such as a new campaign or a new grant, can run on Power BI Flex Support: from $2,500 for 20 hours, $100 to $125 an hour in prepaid blocks of 20, 40 or 80 hours, and the hours never expire.
Because this is a Power BI build, Lightray's Power BI guarantee covers it: if, during the first 4 hours, you find you don't like working with us, your money is refunded. The fundraising metrics themselves, including retention and cost per dollar raised, are defined on nonprofit data analysis; this page is about the dashboards that show them.
“Amazing! Lightray Solutions built us a Power BI dashboard based on my busy restaurant’s quickbooks data that allows me to see my entire business on a daily basis which has been a game-changer! Excellent communication and service!”
— Quinn R., Google review
Which dashboards does a nonprofit need?
Four, each serving one audience and one decision rhythm. The board reviews quarterly and needs a single page. Development staff work weekly, gift by gift. Program managers report monthly against grant targets. Finance works to the month-end close. Building one dashboard per audience keeps every page short, and every figure on it is one someone actually uses.
- Board dashboard. One page: revenue against budget year to date, months of operating reserve, donor counts and retention against last year, people served against plan, and three or four headline program outcomes.
- Fundraising (development) dashboard. Gifts and donors by campaign, appeal and channel, lapsed-donor lists, pledges outstanding and the major-gift pipeline by stage, using the same definitions as the analysis page so the numbers match.
- Program and impact dashboard. Enrollment, attendance or services delivered, and outcome measures per program against each grant's targets, filterable by grant period.
- Finance dashboard. Revenue and expense by fund and program against budget, net assets by restriction class, restricted gifts released as their purpose is met, and grant spending against each award.
| Dashboard | Main users | Typical contents | Refresh | Source systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board | Board members, executive director | Budget vs actual, reserves, retention, people served, headline outcomes | Monthly snapshot, reviewed quarterly | Summarized from the three below |
| Fundraising | Development director, major-gifts staff | Gifts by campaign and channel, lapsed donors, pledges, gift pipeline | Daily, more often during a campaign | Donor CRM, online giving platform |
| Program and impact | Program managers, grant writers | Participants, attendance, outcomes against grant targets | Weekly | Case-management tool or program spreadsheets |
| Finance | Finance director, treasurer | Revenue and expense by fund, net assets by restriction class, grant spend vs award | After each month-end close | Accounting system, budget file |
How are restricted and unrestricted funds shown?
The way your auditor sees them. Since FASB's ASU 2016-14, nonprofit financial statements show two classes of net assets, with donor restrictions and without donor restrictions, replacing the older split into permanently restricted, temporarily restricted and unrestricted. The finance dashboard uses the same two classes, fed from the fund coding in your accounting system.
The dashboard does not decide what is restricted; your accountant codes the funds, and the report follows that coding. What it adds is visibility: the balance of each restricted fund, what has been released and whether spending is on pace for the grant period. The board sees unrestricted resources on their own line, so a large restricted gift never looks like money available for payroll.
Sensitive detail, such as salaries by program, can be limited with Power BI row-level security, which filters rows by role. Microsoft notes that it applies only to people with the Viewer role in a workspace, so board members and program managers are given Viewer access, not edit rights.
How often do nonprofit dashboards refresh?
As often as the decision needs, within Power BI's limits. A semantic model (the data model beneath the reports) on a shared-capacity Pro workspace can be scheduled up to eight times a day; on Premium, Premium Per User or Fabric capacity, up to 48, according to Microsoft's refresh documentation. Most nonprofits need far fewer.
In practice, fundraising refreshes daily or a few times a day during a campaign, finance after each month-end close, programs weekly, and the board reads a monthly snapshot. If your accounting file sits on a local server rather than in the cloud, the refresh runs through Microsoft's on-premises data gateway on a machine that stays switched on.
How do board members see the dashboards?
Each board member who opens a dashboard in the Power BI service needs a license that allows it. Microsoft's license documentation says sharing and viewing others' content needs Pro or Premium Per User, unless the content sits in a Premium or Fabric F64 or larger capacity, where free users can view it. For most nonprofits, that means Pro.
Microsoft's offers for nonprofits include a discounted Power BI Pro license for eligible organizations; the figures are compared on Power BI vs Tableau for nonprofits, so they are not repeated here. Board members get an account in your tenant and a Power BI app containing only the board dashboard. Members who will not log in receive a PDF export with the board packet.
How does a nonprofit dashboard project run?
In five steps, all remote: a discovery of the reports you produce today, who reads them and which systems feed them; a data model joining the donor CRM, accounting and program data; the four dashboards, each reconciled to the source system's own reports; the sharing setup; and recorded training for the staff who will refresh and maintain them.
When the hard part is the data rather than the dashboards, for example three program spreadsheets that never match the CRM, the foundation is built first, as described on nonprofit business intelligence. Youth and education programs tracking enrollment and attendance will find that side on back-to-school nonprofit analytics. Edward has 20+ years and 200+ projects behind him, and Lightray holds a 4.9 Google rating.
Further reading: Microsoft Learn — Power BI service features by license type.
Want the board, development and finance looking at the same numbers?
Book a free 30-minute call with Edward Pinela, MBA. You get an honest read on what to fix first — and if we are not the right fit, you will hear that on the call.
Frequently asked questions
How much do nonprofit data dashboard services cost?
The four-dashboard build is quoted at a fixed price after a free strategy call, based on how many systems feed it and how clean the data is. Ongoing changes can use Power BI Flex Support, from $2,500 for 20 hours, with hours that never expire. Microsoft licences are paid to Microsoft.
How long does the project take?
Usually a few weeks from discovery to handover when the CRM and accounting data are reasonably clean. Messy program spreadsheets or several donor databases add time. The schedule is part of the written quote, and each dashboard is reviewed with you before the next is built.
Can all of this be done remotely?
Yes. Lightray works only remotely: discovery and reviews take place over video with a shared screen, the reports are built in your own Microsoft 365 tenant, and training is recorded. Your data stays in your tenant throughout, and the finished dashboards belong to you.
What do you need from us to start?
Access to the donor CRM, the accounting system or its exports, any program spreadsheets, a copy of the last board packet and grant reports, and an hour each with the executive director, development lead and finance lead.
We are a small nonprofit. Do we need all four dashboards?
Not necessarily. Small organizations often start with the board and fundraising dashboards, which replace the most manual work, and add program and finance pages when grants require them. The strategy call is where that order gets decided.
You Won’t Get Handed Off to Junior Staff.
At most consulting firms, the senior person who sold you shows up for the kickoff — then you get handed to a team of juniors learning on your dime. That’s not how we work.
When you hire Lightray Solutions, you work directly with Edward Pinela, MBA — a principal consultant with 20+ years of experience across Power BI, web development, SEO, and CRM systems. Edward architects every engagement personally, stays involved through delivery, and answers his own phone.
Read Edward’s Full Bio“Mid-market companies deserve senior-level expertise without paying enterprise-agency prices. That’s the gap Lightray fills.”
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