Protecting your nonprofit’s supporters (and their data) doesn’t mean sacrificing your website analytics.

Data privacy is a big deal. This holds especially true for charitable and advocacy groups. Because your organization isn’t selling a product–with built-in return on investment–it is crucial to build trust at every opportunity.

An effective website is an invitation to engage and become emotionally involved in your mission. It’s vital to create a safe online experience.

Your visitor's level of trust can make all the difference in:

  • recruiting that new volunteer,
  • collecting a story from someone you’ve helped,
  • or securing a steady stream of online donations.

However, tracking visitors and collecting data is equally important. Analytics are necessary for running a website that offers the best user experience. It’s important to know how site visitors found your website, what they looking for, and if their expectations are being met.

Your organization is careful with the data you collect. But are you using tools that could put your community unintentionally at risk?

Google Analytics is free and robust–it’s no wonder that over 85% of sites use the service. But Google is in the business of harvesting and selling data. This means that using their ‘free’ tools comes with a price–namely that you don’t own or control your data.

Pointing to a Post-Roe world, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) writes,

“That data is often shared with third parties, and from there could make its way to law enforcement or into court. And even if you are working in a space where data collection doesn’t obviously endanger your clients or supporters, don’t forget that what is currently legal may not always be legal.”

Did you know there are excellent options for website analytics?

There are actually a number of alternative analytic tools to Google available. Some are simple while others are impressive in their range of features. There is also a good chance one of these offers a free plan that will suit your needs.

After due diligence, The Communicated Story integrated Matomo (formerly Piwik). As a user I am attracted by its user-friendly interface. As a long-time web developer I appreciate that it is open-source. And as a consultant I like that it is forward-thinking and GDPR-compliant.

Following are notes from the integration experience that can benefit your own research:

  • It’s free if self-hosted and WordPress-friendly.
  • If you manage your site through cPanel, you may find your host includes the Softaculous Installer. This allows you to install Matomo ‘automagically.’ Note: if you use WordPress or another CMS, be sure to install Matomo in its own folder when prompted. It will throw an installation error if you try to install it in the public folder alongside WordPress files.
  • This handy WP integration plugin, which allows you to view statistics on your WP dashboard, offers a clean interface and is customizable. Note: on the TCS installation, I ran into a conflict with the iThemes Security plugin. For the plugin to connect I had to turn off the option to use the default blacklist list in iThemes. I can’t imagine that is a common problem–but something to note if you run into issues.
  • Matomo walks you through the initial learning curve with fun challenges (on its own dashboard). It can be completed a couple of hours. I personally dislike tutorials–preferring to poke around on my own–and this approach happily blended the best of both learning styles.
  • Boosting geolocation reporting (if you choose) is a tad tricky. It’s free, but the Matomo walk-thru for doing this is a bit of a circuitous trip. I suggest coming back to that in a later session.
  • If you are using Google Analytics now, you can import your existing data so you don't lose your history.
  • They also make it easy for you to allow visitors to opt-out from tracking.
  • In summation, it turned out to be perfect for TCS use. It’s both full-featured and user-friendly. And better for our visitor's privacy.

Hopefully, this article has you thinking how you can create a better experience for your online visitors and generates interest in protecting their data! You can find more ideas in EFF’s Nonprofit Better Practices Guide found here.


If you are a not-for-profit, and need help getting started or switching over to Matomo analytics, don't hesitate to get in touch.


Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

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