Effective nonprofits? Yes, says some interesting research by Guidestar and Hope Consulting. But, the research also found that very, very few donors did any research on the nonprofits and even fewer did research on effectiveness.
This piece, from the Chronicle of Philanthropy gives an overview of the research and some hands-on ideas of what your nonprofit can do to maximize income from the many, many people who care.
It's worth a quick read....it might provide a long term return.
Showing posts with label outcome measures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outcome measures. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Looking at Nonprofits in a better way
Charity Navigator has gotten a lot of press lately for a laudable revamp of its system of grading nonprofits, focusing more on outcomes and less on the totally useless metric of administrative percentage. Good for them, and I hope other online watchdogs as well as foundations and government funders pay attention to Guidestar's process and what they decide to look at.
Here's a New York Times story from yesterday on the subject.
Measuring true outcomes is often very, very difficult; something more funders need to both recognize and fund. Fewer and fewer charities are playing the old game of "we're doing good, so give us money and trust us". Some are still trying to sell their activity levels "we saw 300 people this month as opposed to last month", but more are concerned with outcomes, as in "we got 23 people living wage jobs this month that will help them become more self sufficient."
This is an issue all of us need to keep up on.
Here's a New York Times story from yesterday on the subject.
Measuring true outcomes is often very, very difficult; something more funders need to both recognize and fund. Fewer and fewer charities are playing the old game of "we're doing good, so give us money and trust us". Some are still trying to sell their activity levels "we saw 300 people this month as opposed to last month", but more are concerned with outcomes, as in "we got 23 people living wage jobs this month that will help them become more self sufficient."
This is an issue all of us need to keep up on.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Outcome measures on online watchdogs
Gordon Campbell, the CEO of United Way in New York City provided this excellent post on
I not only liked Gordon's perspective, but he provided good news on what GiveWell, Charity Navigator, GreatNonprofits and Philanthropedia are doing in this area. Then, he cautions readers (who, I assume, are donors who have never tried to provide "meaningful outcome measures") that doing so takes time and a bit of trial and error.
If you have a donor who is thinking about donating to your organization, read this post and send it to them.
As an aside, I love GiveWell's tag line "Real Change for Your Dollar". Of course real change only happens if someone measures outcomes.....or as the old saying goes "In God We Trust. Everyone else bring the data".
Helping Donors Choose: Improving Nonprofit Ratings for the Future
I not only liked Gordon's perspective, but he provided good news on what GiveWell, Charity Navigator, GreatNonprofits and Philanthropedia are doing in this area. Then, he cautions readers (who, I assume, are donors who have never tried to provide "meaningful outcome measures") that doing so takes time and a bit of trial and error.
If you have a donor who is thinking about donating to your organization, read this post and send it to them.
As an aside, I love GiveWell's tag line "Real Change for Your Dollar". Of course real change only happens if someone measures outcomes.....or as the old saying goes "In God We Trust. Everyone else bring the data".
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