Mario Morino, in his book “Leap of Reason,” posits that the nonprofit sector is grappling with an era marked by dwindling resources. He believes that a viable solution to this constrained financial climate is to place greater emphasis on measurement and assessment. However, he critiques the manner in which several nonprofit organizations approach this. He suggests that a deficit in management training among many organizational leaders hinders the effective creation and execution of an assessment blueprint. Occasionally, the act of measuring becomes its own goal, with organizations diverting excessive time and resources into assessment. Understandably, the fear of subpar performance affecting future donations might deter genuine assessment. Moreover, a significant number of funders and donors are reluctant to bear the overhead associated with this essential task. Essentially, an organization needs ample proficiency to competently assess its operations. If donors primarily wish to back “the cause” over the organization as a whole, this could inadvertently impede efforts to foster accountability.
In our upcoming discussion, let’s explore and appraise various techniques of evaluating and quantifying a nonprofit’s endeavors. What, in your opinion, is the most effective method? Should we lean towards assessing holistic outcomes that may be difficult to quantify? Or, should we emphasize financial metrics and expense ratios?
