Google Analytics for Nonprofits: The Reports Worth Checking Each Month

The website has visitors. Somebody set up analytics years ago. Nobody has opened it since, because every time they do it looks like the cockpit of an aircraft and none of the dials say "donations."

Google Analytics does not need to be read like that. For a small nonprofit, five reports checked once a month answer the questions that matter: where people come from, what they do, which pages turn them into donors and volunteers, and whether the numbers are moving. Here is how to set it up so it counts the right things, the five reports worth the monthly hour, and what to ignore.

First, count actions, not visits

Google Analytics records everything that happens on the site as events. The ones that matter are the ones you mark as key events, its term since 2024 for what used to be called conversions: a completed donation, a volunteer sign-up, a newsletter subscription, a contact form, a call from a mobile phone, a program application. Until those are marked, every report shows traffic and none shows results. M+R's Benchmarks study for 2026 found that nonprofits received donations from 1.6 percent of website visitors in 2025, which means the site's whole job is that small share, and the reports should be built around it. The setup is also what feeds Google Ad Grants: the program requires tracked conversions, and importing key events from Analytics into Google Ads is one of the two ways to meet it. Our article on the conversion tracking requirement covers that side.

The five monthly reports

Traffic acquisition: where people came from

Visitors grouped by channel: organic search, paid search, social, email, direct, referral. Read it for two things. Which channel grew or shrank since last month, and which channel produced key events rather than just visits. A channel that sends thousands of visitors and no actions is not a good channel. This is where the Ad Grants account's traffic shows up as paid search, so the grant's contribution is visible next to everything else.

Landing pages: where people arrived

The first page each visitor saw, with visits, engagement, and key events per page. The pages that bring people in from search are the ones to protect in any redesign and to build on; the pages with many arrivals and no actions are the ones to fix. Our article on where Ad Grants traffic should land applies to every landing page, not only the advertised ones.

Key events by source: what produced results

The key events themselves, broken down by the channel and campaign that produced them. This is the report a board understands: last month, search produced this many donations and sign-ups, email produced this many, social produced this many. It is the closest thing to a return on effort for each channel.

Pages and screens: what held attention

The pages people spent time on and the ones they left within seconds. A program page with high engagement and no sign-up needs a clearer next step. A donation page with many views and few completions needs work; our article on writing a donation page people actually complete covers it.

Search queries: what people typed

With Google Search Console linked to Analytics, you can see the actual searches that brought people to the site. The phrases you rank for and did not expect are article ideas, keyword ideas for the grant account, and evidence of what the community calls your services. Our article on nonprofit SEO explains how to use them.

Analytics is not a dashboard to admire. It is five questions, asked once a month, with the answers written down.

Setup that takes an afternoon once

• Confirm the current version of Analytics is installed on every page and firing; older versions stopped collecting data in 2023 and 2024.
• Mark the five or six actions that matter as key events, and test each with a real submission.
• Link Google Search Console, and link Google Ads if the organization holds Ad Grants, so conversions can be imported.
• Extend the data retention setting from its short default to the longest available, so year-over-year comparison is possible.
• Exclude staff traffic by filtering your office network, so your own visits do not inflate the numbers.
• Give a second administrator access on an organization-owned address.

Setting it up correctly, marking the key events, and turning the monthly reports into a one-page summary is part of what our Marketing department maintains for organizations without a communications team. See how our staff keep your story measured as well as told.

What to ignore

Total visits on their own, which reward broad traffic that never acts. Bounce rate as a verdict, since a person who found the phone number and called is counted as a bounce. Real-time reports, except during a campaign. Every report you cannot act on this month. The point of the monthly hour is to leave with two or three changes to make, not with a folder of charts.

A one-page monthly summary

• Visits by channel, with the change from last month.
• Key events by channel: donations, sign-ups, forms, calls.
• Top five landing pages and their key events.
• Top five search queries bringing people to the site.
• Three changes to make this month, and who owns them.

It fits beside the Ad Grants report and the fundraising report, and together they tell the board where the mission's audience comes from and what it does. Our article on reporting Ad Grants results to your board shows the companion page.

Questions nonprofits ask about Google Analytics

Is Google Analytics still available at no charge?

Yes, the standard version is. Paid tiers exist for very large organizations and are not needed for a small nonprofit.

Do we need a consent banner?

Depending on where your visitors are and what you collect, you may. Many nonprofits add one as a matter of trust regardless. Ask your web developer or counsel about the rules that apply to you.

Can we track donations made on a third-party donation page?

Often yes, through the processor's tracking options or by tracking the thank-you page on your own site. Confirm the count against your processor's records monthly.

How much traffic should a small nonprofit expect?

Less than the board imagines and more than enough to learn from. The share that acts matters more than the total, and the sector average of 1.6 percent of visitors donating gives a benchmark for the donation pages.

Your mission is bigger than a traffic count

The site exists to turn attention into action, and Analytics is how you find out whether it does. Five reports, once a month, written into a page. You do not need to become a data analyst on top of everything else. You need a staff that is already marking the key events, already reading the reports, and already handing you the three changes that matter while you lead the mission only you can lead. Find out what our staff can do for you.

Zoya Syal is Content and Production Manager at Nonprofits Engine, where she leads the content and testimonial work for a team that helps small nonprofits get set up and funded.