Nonprofit Data Breaches & Their Impact
Nonprofits are known for their commitment to driving change and making the world a better place. However, their focus on mission over margin often leaves critical areas—like cyber security—underfunded and overlooked. Our analysis of data from the State of Maine's Attorney General's data breach notification website reveals that nonprofits are not immune to the growing risk of cyber attacks.
Why Does Maine Collect Data on Data Breaches?
The State of Maine collects and publishes detailed data on data breaches under its electronic data breach notification law, which requires organizations to report breaches when personal information may have been compromised. The law mandates timely notification to impacted residents, consumer reporting agencies, regulators, and the Attorney General’s office. Maine’s approach ensures transparency and accountability while offering valuable insights into how breaches occur and their potential consequences.
What makes Maine’s dataset particularly interesting is its comprehensive and cross-industry nature. While the law focuses on organizations doing business in Maine, the breach data includes a wide range of sectors, from corporations to nonprofits. This diversity makes the dataset a valuable representative sample, providing insights that reflect broader trends across industries. Nonprofits, in particular, are an essential part of this landscape, as their unique vulnerabilities are often overlooked in broader analyses of cyber risks.
Nonprofits and Data Breaches: An Underestimated Threat
Our analysis of breaches reported from July 7, 2020, to January 23, 2025, revealed that nonprofits accounted for 6.31% of all reported incidents in Maine’s public dataset. While this may seem like a small percentage, it highlights the reality that nonprofits are frequent targets despite their often-limited resources. Attackers are drawn to nonprofits due to the valuable personal and financial data they hold and the perception that they lack robust defenses. This underscores the need for nonprofits to view cyber security as a critical aspect of their operations.
Affected Nonprofit Types: Diverse Missions, Shared Vulnerabilities
The nonprofits impacted by data breaches span a wide range of missions, including human services, education, arts, advocacy, social justice, and environmental conservation. From food banks and youth shelters to museums and faith-based organizations, the affected groups highlight how cyber threats can target any sector. This diversity underscores the universal nature of the risk and the importance of prioritizing cyber security across all nonprofit missions.
The Cost of Delay: Discovery and Notification Times
One of the most striking findings from our analysis was the time it took nonprofits to detect and report breaches. On average, breaches were discovered 74 days after they occurred. This delay is significant, as the longer an attacker has access to a compromised system, the greater the potential damage. Delayed discovery not only exacerbates the breach's impact but also increases the likelihood of additional attacks.
Adding to the challenge, it took an additional 59 days, on average, for nonprofits to notify affected individuals after discovering a breach. This means victims often aren’t notified until approximately 133 days after the breach has occurred. During this time, individuals may remain unaware that their personal information has been compromised, leaving them vulnerable to fraud and identity theft. This lengthy notification timeline highlights the critical need for nonprofits to invest in faster breach detection and streamlined communication processes to reduce the potential harm to those they serve.
Breach Methods: How Nonprofits Are Targeted
External system breaches, including hacking incidents, accounted for a staggering 72.28% of nonprofit data breaches. This category encompasses threats like ransomware, phishing, and credential stuffing attacks, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The prevalence of external breaches shows that nonprofits must prioritize defending against outside threats, particularly as cyber criminals exploit gaps in basic security measures.
Other causes, such as inadvertent disclosure and insider wrongdoing, made up smaller portions of the dataset but are equally significant. These incidents reveal vulnerabilities in internal processes, such as weak access controls and insufficient employee training. Addressing these gaps is crucial for reducing the overall risk of data exposure.
The Scale of Impact: Individuals Affected
Nonprofit data breaches affected an average of 19,251 individuals per incident. For smaller nonprofits, this number could represent the entirety of their donor or member database. The scale of these breaches demonstrates how a single cyber incident can have far-reaching consequences, impacting thousands of people and threatening the trust that nonprofits rely on to fulfill their missions.
When donors or members lose faith in a nonprofit's ability to protect their personal information, it can lead to reduced financial support and reputational damage that is difficult to recover from.
Responding to Breaches: Identity Theft Protection
In the aftermath of a breach, 85.96% of nonprofits offered identity theft protection services to affected individuals. These services often included credit monitoring, dark web surveillance, and access to identity restoration specialists. The average duration of these services was 14.80 months, which provides some protection for victims.
While offering these services demonstrates a commitment to protecting affected individuals, they also come at a financial cost that many nonprofits are ill-prepared to bear.
Trends Over Time: The Persistence of Cyber Threats
The number of reported nonprofit breaches fluctuated over the years, with notable increases in 2021 and 2024. These trends suggest that while some years may see fewer incidents, the overall threat remains constant. Cyber criminals continue to evolve their tactics, exploiting new vulnerabilities and targeting organizations that fail to adapt their defenses.
The persistence of breaches serves as a reminder that nonprofits cannot afford to take a reactive approach to cyber security. Instead, they must adopt a proactive strategy, regularly updating their defenses to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Conclusion: Cyber Security is Mission-Critical for Nonprofits
The data from Maine’s breach notification website paints a clear picture: nonprofits are not exempt from the risks of cyber attacks. In fact, their missions and the sensitive data they hold make them particularly attractive targets. The financial, reputational, and operational impacts of a breach can be devastating, but they are not inevitable. By investing in preventive measures, fostering a culture of cyber security awareness, and learning from incidents like those highlighted in this analysis, nonprofits can protect their missions and the communities they serve.
For nonprofits, cyber security is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It is a mission-critical priority. Taking action today can prevent tomorrow’s crisis.
