The $0 Dashboard

The Overview

The Problem

  • Users could not access information.
  • The department did not have any room in the budget for new software or data visualization tools.
  • The database containing all information was not remote accessible, even though teams worked in the field, and needed to access & log information while fresh from meetings
  • Outdated UI discouraged users from attempting accessing information

The Goal

Develop an accessible dashboard that development officers can use to understand their portfolio, pipeline, and production in one visually stunning report, without having to sign into the database.

The Process

Step 1: Identify what information is critical to directors

In individual meetings with each development officer, I inquired about what information they find themselves lacking when int he field.

  • Biographical Information
  • Donor's giving history
  • Contact information
  • Production numbers

Step 2: Create ad-hoc query (or several queries) to pull the information from the database

Based on the information from Step 1, I determined I would need needed 3 separate reports from our database to fill in the appropriate fields for the team:

A 'Portfolio' report that includes donor bio data
The Pipeline report with anticipated funding. (See: Case Study 1)
Production report that shows what goals MGOs need to hit

Step 3: Develop a template within Excel that can be an easy copy/paste solution.

I know- but to reiterate, we did not have the budget for a visualization tool, so we used some of Excel's rockstar data visualization capabilities.

My next steps were:
  1. Export each report in a .csv format from RE7 (our database) and paste it into an Excel template. Creating individual tabs for each report.
  2. Create a v-lookup table that displays information in a functional order. In this case, we used the donor ID tag as a lookup code.
Step 4: Testing the new dashboard with the directors.

After creating a report for each director, I scheduled a meeting with them to discuss their functionality, gave them access through SharePoint, and let them try it out for a full month cycle.

the outcome

This process was adopted in 2020, and grew to be the primary method for development staff accessing data.

The dashboard was used during 1:1 calls to plan quarterly goals and develop solicitation strategy.

This process entered it's decline phase in 2025 as a new analytics director is developing a functional dashboard within PowerBI, as well as budget allowing for the adoption of an updated CRM with dashboard capabilities.

Due to lack of access to information, Development Directors monthly and annual production numbers were consistently low.