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General Instructions for using the Data Profile forms:
Filling Out the Data Profile
  • To begin filling out the Cultural Data Profile (also known as the Data Profile), register for a login for your organization.  Once you complete the registration process, you will have access to the Data Profile Manager.
  • Go to the Data Profile Manager to create a new Data Profile. Enter the applicable fiscal year-end date.  This will open Section 1 of the Data Profile.
  • The 'Save and Next' and 'Save and Previous' buttons will guide you through the Data Profile in a linear sequence.  However, you can fill in the Data Profile sections in any order by clicking on the section numbers on the top and bottom of each page.
  • Move between the fields in the Data Profile by hitting your tab key, or use your mouse to point and click in the desired field.  Please note, the arrow keys and the enter key will not move you through the Data Profile.
  • When entering financial information, please enter whole dollar amounts.  If the financial information you are using is calculated to two decimal places, round to the nearest whole dollar.
  • You will encounter two “N/As” on the Data Profile:  Not Applicable and Not Available.  Not Applicable means that the line item in question is not relevant to your organization and therefore you have no information to provide.  Not Available indicates that, while applicable, the information asked for is too difficult to procure or provide.
  • Numbers, such as dates or dollar amounts, will not be formatted as you type. When you leave a field, the number will be formatted.
  • G&A stands for General and Administrative.

Source of Data: Use Your Audit!
  • If your organization has an annual audit or review, all financial data entered into the Data Profile must be based on audited or reviewed data.  Do not enter data until after you receive your annual audit or review by an independent certified public accountant.
  • If your organization has no audit or review, and does not plan on having an audit or review for its most recently completed fiscal year, please base your Data Profile entries on your internal financial records for the last complete fiscal year.
  • It is important to read the footnotes of your audit report, which may contain information that you can use to fill out the Data Profile.
  • Some of the information you need to submit can be copied directly from your audit reports. The Data Profile indicates each line item that corresponds to a line item in your audit.  Your internal financial documents are also a good source for the more detailed information required in the Data Profile.
  • As noted, if you have an audit or review, many of the line items correspond directly with the Data Profile.  These line items must be copied directly from the audit:  Total Unrestricted Revenue, Total Temporarily Restricted Revenue, Total Permanently Restricted Revenue, Total Revenue, Total Program Expenses, Total Fundraising Expenses, Total General and Administrative (G&A) Expenses, Total Expenses, Total Assets, Total Unrestricted Net Assets, Total Temporarily Restricted Net Assets, Total Permanently Restricted Net Assets and Total Liabilities &Net Assets.
  • If you are unsure where a particular dollar amount belongs on the Data Profile, treat the amount in question the same way it was treated in your organization’s accounting records and audit.  For instance, if a donation from a corporate foundation was accounted for as a Foundation Contribution in your books and records, then include it with Foundation Contributions on the Data Profile.  If, instead, it was treated as a Corporate Contribution, then treat it the same way on the Data Profile.

Timing of Form Data
  • All of the information required by the Data Profile, both financial and non-financial, should be given in terms of your organization's own accounting method and fiscal year, and not calendar years (unless your fiscal year is a calendar year) or grant years.  If you are subject to an audit, your fiscal year-end will coincide with the date on your audited financial statements.
  • You will need to fill out the Data Profile once per year, after your annual audit or review is complete.
  • If your annual audit or review is not complete when you have to submit a grant application to one of the participating foundations, enter data from your prior fiscal year based on your prior year's audit report.

What to Submit
  • If you are filling out the Data Profile for the first time, please submit two years of data.  Fill out the Data Profile for one year prior to your most recently completed and audited year.  Submit that, and then fill out a second Data Profile for your most recently completed and audited year.  This will give researchers and grantmakers a chance to study trends in the arts and culture community, even in the early days of this database.

Data from Prior Years
  • If you have submitted a Data Profile in the past, you will see the previous year's information in the column(s) to the right of the current Data Profile's fields.  In the financial sections which break down a total into component parts (e.g., programming, fundraising and G&A), in the prior year column, you will see the total column only.  The prior year's data column will be read-only, and available for your reference.  In sections that require a radio button response in addition to your data, the prior year's radio button response will appear in the column called Radio Button.
  • If you are filling out the form for the first time, there will be no prior year column.

Sub-units & Programs
  • If you are filling out the Data Profile for a department or an on-going program within a larger organization or institution, such as a university, and are applying for a grant from one of the foundations or agencies sponsoring this project, consult your grant guidelines to determine whether to fill out the Data Profile for the parent organization or the sub-unit.

Fiscal Sponsors
  • If you are filling out the Data Profile on behalf of another organization or a group you are sponsoring, and are applying for a grant from one of the foundations or agencies sponsoring this project, consult the granting agency’s guidelines to determine if you should base your Data Profile on your own financial information or the information of the group you are sponsoring.

Saving Your Work
  • To guarantee that your work is saved as you move through the Data Profile, make sure you click one of the buttons at the bottom of each page: 'Save', 'Save and Next', or 'Save and Previous'.
  • If you click 'Cancel', your unsaved entries on a Data Profile page will not be saved.
  • If you close your browser without saving the Data Profile and properly logging out, your unsaved changes and additions to the Data Profile will be lost and you will be locked out of the Data Profile (see Sessions and Record Locking for full information about this).

Submitting Your Form
  • When you have completed the Data Profile and are ready to submit it, click 'Save and Exit' to return to the Data Profile Manager.  For the relevant fiscal year, click 'Submit'.  If you are certain that you are ready to submit, click 'Yes' at the prompt.  This will activate the Website's error checking and submission process.
  • The system is designed to catch certain errors and inconsistencies in the data entered into the Data Profile.  For instance, several items in the Data Profile must agree with the information entered in Section 2.  If they do not, you will not be able to submit the Data Profile until you correct the errors.
  • Certain sections of the Data Profile require you to make radio button selections.  You will not be able to submit your Data Profile until you make a selection.
  • If the system finds any errors on your Data Profile, it will present you with a list of these errors.  To correct an error, click on the error message, make the necessary corrections, and click 'Save and Exit'.  This will return you to the list of errors.  Once all of the errors have been corrected, you will be able to submit your Data Profile.
  • If you want to check your Data Profile for errors without submitting it, from the Data Profile Manager, click 'Error Check' in the applicable fiscal year.

Printing
  • If you are filling out the Data Profile to accompany a grant application, be sure to print the grant format report required by the granting agency.
  • To print a grant format or a copy of the full Data Profile, from the Data Profile Manager, click 'Reports' in the applicable fiscal year.  Here you can print and/or download the full Data Profile for your records, or a particular grant format for submission to a foundation or other granting agency.  A Data Profile need not be submitted to view and print any of the reports.
  • To view any of the reports, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.

Help!
  • Each section of the Data Profile has line-by-line instructions to guide you through. To access the general instructions for each section, click the 'Form Instructions' button at the top of the section. To access the line-by-line instructions, click the question mark button on that line.  This will bring up a pop-up window with the line item instructions.
  • To read or print the full general and line-by-line instructions for each section, from the Data Profile Manager, select the Data Profile Instructions menu item.
  • If you have any questions, problems and/or need clarification on any line item or form section when filling out the form, help is available to you - contact the site administrator.  Contact information is available in the 'Contact Us' section of the site.

Help Yourself
  • Each line of the Data Profile has an Annotations icon (pencil) to its right.  Clicking on this icon will bring up a blank pop-up window.  Use this window to make notes for yourself on how you filled out the form--what items you included in a given line, where you found the information, etc.  When you are finished typing in an annotation, click 'Save'.  After you save the information and return to the Data Profile, the annotations icon will appear shaded to indicate that there is a note.
  • If you want to view your annotations as you fill in the Data Profile, check the 'Show Annotations' box at the top of each page of the form.  This will display your annotations, if any, below each line of the Data Profile.
  • When you are finished filling out the Data Profile, to keep a record of your annotations, print the Annotations report in the Reports section described above.
  • Your annotations from the previous year will show up in the annotations window of your current Data Profile to remind you of what you did the previous year and help guide you through the process.

Accuracy
  • It is imperative that you be accurate when completing the form so that the statistics and other information produced from the Maryland CDP database can be as accurate and useful to the arts and culture community as possible.