The primary function of the National Cultural Data Project is to provide a central location to enter historical organizational and financial data; to print summary reports that can be submitted to the participating funders; and to provide powerful reporting tools that allow organizations to view trends and benchmark themselves against their peers. The following flowchart outlines the basic process of using the site:


Register
In order to use the site to enter your data, you must first create an organization login. You will need to select a unique Organization ID and password, which will be used to login to the site on future visits. You will enter the legal name of your organization and designate a primary contact. You may also optionally create a password hint question and answer that can be used to recover your password if it is forgotten.

Read the Instructions
The instructions explain the data requirements for each of the 11 sections that make up the Cultural Data Profile (also known as the Data Profile). In addition, you can download a PDF document of the entire set of instructions, or print each page of the instructions separately.

Create Data Profile
The information for each Data Profile is organized by fiscal year-end. When creating a new Data Profile, you will need to supply the full date that the fiscal year ended. The Data Profile can contain less than twelve months of data in the case where the fiscal year has changed.

In order to enable organizations to use the trend reporting features, organizations are being asked to provide two years of data the first time they complete the profile. Going forward, groups will only need to provide one year of data.

Enter Data
Enter information into the Data Profile for the selected fiscal year-end. The Data Profile forms will format and total data where appropriate, and automatically display data from the previous year for comparison purposes. Each line of each section of the Data Profile allows for an annotation where you can keep notes about that data.

Perform error check
The error check will perform a number of tests on the selected data profile. Any discrepancies or problems found will be listed on the results page. Each of the items will contain a link to the appropriate section and line number of the Data Profile. All problems must be resolved before the Data Profile can be submitted.

Submit Data Profile
Upon successful error check, submit the Data Profile to the administrators. Once the data is submitted, it cannot be changed (without contacting the site administrator) but can be used for reporting and reference purposes.

  View and Print reports
There are a series of pre-defined reports for the participating funding organizations, as well as 77 unique trend and comparison reports for use by your organization. These reports can be run for any selected fiscal year-end for which you have a completed Data Profile.