Measuring and Reporting Your Nonprofit’s Internal Demographic Data

Nonprofits are accustomed to providing demographics about the populations they serve

Funders have long asked nonprofits for demographic data on the populations served by their programs. Requested data can include race/ethnicity(**), sexual identity, or even disability, nativity, or annual household income. These funders are usually asking the question to be sure the nonprofit’s service fits their foundation’s funding priority. Say a foundation’s priority population is students from low socioeconomic backgrounds: the funder might want to see your program serving a majority of students who fall into this category.

Depending on the program and its reach, nonprofits approach the measurement and reporting of this data in a few ways. They can use primary sources, surveying their program participants (before, after, and/or during services). If they’re serving an entire defined population, they can use secondary sources to report that population’s published demographic data. For instance, a nonprofit providing a service to a whole school district can use the state or district’s latest published data (which is typically current within 1-2 years).

Funders want more demographic information than ever before

However, it’s increasingly common in grant applications for nonprofits to provide demographic data on the nonprofit’s staff and board. In this case, funders are most often comparing your staff and board to your service population. How well does your nonprofit reflect the community it serves? This can be one way foundations attempt to address equity issues, as well as whether nonprofits are providing programs requested by the community. (What’s rarer is for these same funders to publish their own demographic breakdown. But that’s a topic for another time.)

I’ve seen some applications divide staff demographics into executive, management (budgetary oversight) and rank-and-file staff. If you’re an arts organization, you might also have to report demographics for the artists and ensembles you hire or the arts instructors who facilitate or implement your programs.

Are you ready to answer funders’ demographic questions about your nonprofit?

Because it hasn’t been as common to report nonprofit staff and board demographics, your nonprofit may not have a system ready to collect data. When I need to guide clients through a demographic survey process, I reference Candid. Earlier this year, Candid announced new updates to their survey responses that are more inclusive and updated their demographic survey guide.

Does your nonprofit have a process set up to request this information on an annual basis from your staff, board, and other relevant constituencies? How will you handle the sensitive and private nature of this information? What would keep your nonprofit from carrying out such a survey on an annual basis? What steps can you take to encourage buy-in from your board and staff in this process?

(**) If you’d like to learn more about the history of racial and ethnic identifiers, I highly recommend Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson and The 1619 Project, Chapter 2 by Dorothy Roberts.

Cover photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash