Discussion 1 - The Challenges Encountered when Assessing Not-for-Profit Organizations
Topic to be discussed from Monday March 23 to Friday April 24, 2009
Introduction to topic:
Not-for-profit organizations (NFP) are (or are rapidly becoming) dynamic forces in many countries. Increasingly, boards and donors are interested in obtaining better information about the effectiveness and efficiency of NFP organizations. They are also interested in the capacity of the NFP to expand, take on new challenges, and/or provide more services. Boards and donors are searching for evidence that would inform them in making structural and funding decisions in keeping with NFPs' capacities and have turned to "organizational assessments" as a tool to help them.
Topic Question:
As an evaluator, board member, donor or NFP leader, what are the challenges you would face in conducting an organizational assessment of a not-for-profit organization?
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Comments
For many organizations, effectiveness is equated with
mission fulfillment. However, many NFP organizations' mission statements are
vague and are not used to guide and evaluate their actions and projects. Thus,
a first challenge is developing an operational definition that grounds the
mission and captures the work that we do.
Hi Lydia,
You are right. The mission of NFP is often to lofty and vague. But we have found that many NFP interpret their mission in strategy papers and plans. What about using these as ways of measuring effectiveness?
Charles
The problem relies in defining efficiency. There are few benchmarks in the non-for-profit sector
and each organization accounts for resources differently. Ratios such as cost
per client served, administrative costs, and productivity per hour of staff
time all provide different pictures of efficiency depending on how funds are
accounted for in the organization. However, this type of data is often hard to
find. Thus we rely on other evidence related to management practices.