Although cybersecurity is a prevalent concern across various industries today, nonprofits like yours are especially vulnerable to these threats. Your organization likely stores a lot of sensitive information about its supporters, beneficiaries, and employees across multiple third-party platforms, which makes it an attractive target for cybercriminals. In fact, 68% of nonprofits reported experiencing at least one data breach between 2022 and 2025.
This staggering number doesn’t mean your nonprofit should shy away from adopting new technologies. In most cases, the benefits of more effective data management, automation, and innovation that top-of-the-line nonprofit software provides outweigh the associated cybersecurity risks. However, it does mean that the more technology your organization leverages, the more vigilant you should be about ensuring security.
In this guide, we’ll review a few cybersecurity best practices to help your nonprofit protect against common threats as it furthers its mission with the help of modern software. Let’s get started!
1. Take advantage of built-in software security settings
The best nonprofit software typically includes built-in settings to improve platform security. Check for the following measures both in your existing solutions and any new tools you’re considering adding or migrating to, and turn them on if you haven’t already done so:
- Encryption, which scrambles data so it’s unreadable until it’s “unlocked” by a password or secret key.
- Limited user permissions so only team members who absolutely need to view or edit specific information within a platform can do so.
- Two-factor authentication to add an additional layer of protection to employee software logins (on top of strong passwords).
- Single sign-on—besides being more convenient to log into multiple accounts with one set of credentials, it centralizes authentication for additional safeguarding.
- Regular system updates that ensure your solutions are always equipped with the latest vendor-developed security patches.
You probably think of these security measures primarily in the context of your donor database or constituent relationship management (CRM) system, which is important since that platform is the central repository for your nonprofit’s supporter data. However, many of your other solutions—from donation processors to prospect research tools to accounting software—likely also contain sensitive information and should therefore have any applicable security measures turned on.
2. Provide cybersecurity guidance for employees
The nonprofit cybersecurity report referenced earlier also states that nearly 70% of nonprofits lack formal procedures for responding to cyberattacks, and almost half have no official policy regarding third-party data sharing. Developing guidelines for these activities and others related to data protection and governance, then sharing those policies with your entire team, should be the first step you take in getting your nonprofit’s staff on board with your cybersecurity efforts.
Tech Impact’s guide to cybersecurity for nonprofits also recommends taking these steps to make data security a priority across your organization:
- Host recurring training sessions. Include a cybersecurity lesson in your onboarding processes for new employees, and give experienced team members a refresher course at least once a year (and more often if they specialize in information technology).
- Simulate common cyberattacks. After they complete a training course, test employees’ ability to spot a phishing email or respond to a ransomware attack by deploying a fake, controlled threat across their devices and assessing what happens.
- Incorporate cybersecurity conversations into everyday operations. Bringing up security issues and training outcomes during performance check-ins and team meetings cements your organization-wide commitment to keeping sensitive data safe.
You may also ask for employees’ input on your various cybersecurity measures, whether they have the opportunity to give feedback on training courses or suggest amendments to your policies, to demonstrate that you truly value their involvement in these efforts.
3. Keep your data clean and updated
Although data management may seem like a separate process from cybersecurity at first, there is actually some overlap. Clean, up-to-date data is more likely to comply with data protection regulations, and you’ll also reduce your data volume (so there is less sensitive information in your systems for hackers to access) and centralize storage in secure locations as you go.
Some steps to take to improve data hygiene at your nonprofit include:
- Auditing your databases regularly. Set a regular schedule (annually, quarterly, etc.) for going through all of your supporter, beneficiary, employee, and financial records and removing or correcting outdated, inconsistent, incorrect, or duplicated data.
- Standardizing data entry. Double the Donation’s nonprofit data hygiene guide suggests creating guidelines for formatting information that can be written multiple ways, such as phone numbers, mailing addresses, and gift types, to reduce errors across platforms.
- Integrating data-collecting solutions. Integration allows different platforms (e.g., your CRM and donation processor) to “talk” to each other and automatically transfer data between them, which saves time, improves accuracy, and creates a tighter storage ecosystem.
Add these hygiene steps to your data governance policies so that all guidelines related to managing and protecting important information within your nonprofit’s software are easily accessible in one place.
4. Communicate with supporters about data protection & privacy
Data protection at your nonprofit is as much an external priority as it is an internal one. Your community should know how their data is stored, secured, and shared so they can make informed decisions about how to engage with your organization and what information to disclose as they do so.
Here are a few ways to involve supporters in your nonprofit data privacy and protection conversations:
- Share the steps you’re taking to keep data safe. For example, you might email donors about the current state of your cybersecurity measures or publish a community-facing privacy policy on your organization’s website.
- Allow for and respect opt-out decisions. In addition to internal measures such as checkboxes on forms and unsubscribe options for texts and emails, your nonprofit also needs to abide by regulations from third-party opt-out services like the National Do Not Call Registry.
- Conduct recurring assessments. Like with your database audits, set a schedule for reviewing your data privacy measures, making changes, and communicating improvements to donors.
Being transparent about data privacy and protection helps build trust with supporters, which is foundational to developing relationships that lead to long-term engagement and loyalty.
The best practices in this guide are just a few of the steps you can take to improve and prioritize cybersecurity at your nonprofit. If you need help implementing these tips or have questions along the way, working with a nonprofit technology consultant can not only make your efforts go more smoothly, but also free up time for your team to get back to what you do best—saving the world.