GuideStar, the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations, announced the launch of its redesigned Nonprofit Profiles. The new profiles efficiently feature key nonprofit performance data in a simple and user-friendly way to help users easily navigate and compare nonprofit information.

The new profile design offers a better way for donors to look for meaningful information when comparing the performance of nonprofit organizations. This is particularly important as new research indicates that the number of individuals evaluating nonprofits has tripled since 2010. The new GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles emphasize nonprofit programs and results in addition to financial and organizational metrics, to provide a well-rounded view of each organization.

‘The new GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles help the sector take a leap forward from data and information about charities to powerful knowledge and insight to help us make informed decisions,’ said Victoria Vrana, senior program officer, Philanthropic Partnerships, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ‘The emphasis on programs and results, the user-friendly visualization, the multi-year trend data and the ability to compare nonprofits will benefit donors, nonprofits, media, policy makers and those seeking services.’

The profiles, more than 2 million in total, are specifically designed to enable nonprofit leaders to compare and benchmark their organizations more effectively.

‘One of the greatest challenges plaguing nonprofits today is showing the progress they are making toward their missions,’ said Jacob Harold, president and chief executive officer of GuideStar. ‘Our new profiles create a vehicle to easily demonstrate how organizations are making a difference. We’ve prioritized the information that matters most, showing program and results data right up front.’

In addition to reprioritizing the information, GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles now include interactive data visualization and more meaningful pre-calculated financial metrics: gone are overhead pie charts, replaced with liquidity ratios and months of cash. These new features make it even easier for users to understand trends in an organization’s financial performance, stability, revenue model, and grant support.

Key questions the new profiles help answer include: What programs or services does the organization offer? Where does it provide its services? What kinds of results and impact is it achieving? How financially stable is it? What is the makeup of its board and staff? What are its sources of funding?

‘GuideStar plays a critical role as an information hub in the social sector, promoting data-driven decisions among donors and enabling nonprofits to benchmark and improve their effectiveness,’ said Jon Sotsky, Knight Foundation director of strategy and assessment. ’Knight is excited to support GuideStar as it develops new tools like its new profile pages, which increase insights and impact in the sector.’

The resigned GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles are an important step in creating better information for better decisions in the social sector. In the next few months, the organization will add a Platinum level to the profiles to include quantitative outcome measures, a redesigned intuitive search functionality, and a new online community to connect nonprofits focused on improving their performance using data. To learn more about the profiles and upcoming initiatives, follow this link or go to http://trust.guidestar.org/2016/01/20/introducing-the-new-guidestar-nonprofit-profile.