More sophisticated donors seeking more financial data

In its recent report on the nonprofit sector, accounting firm BDO found that more and more donors are expecting charities to report increasingly complex financial data showing impact. Per the report, some 55 percent of organizations said that some portion of their funders have required more information than was required in years past. According to Laurie De Armond, BDO's co‐leader for its National Nonprofit & Education Practice, today's donors are growing more sophisticated in evaluating charities' effectiveness. They have a better understanding of what financial metrics mean and how they relate to impact. They know that the basic overhead ratios used in the past don't tell the whole story of what a charity does and the impact it is having, she said.