Measure What Matters

Chapter 13

Measurement for Nonprofits

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

—Milton Friedman

Whether you run the local soup kitchen or a membership organization for civil engineers, maintaining good relationships with your members, volunteers, and donors is critical to your success. While relationships impact the bottom line in any organization, in the not-for-profit world relationships take on even greater importance.

In part, this comes from the fact that nonprofits are often seen as not really being businesses, even though many of them have multibillion dollar budgets. But the biggest reason that relationships matter to nonprofits is that the very nature of the operation relies on goodwill and volunteerism. Relationships are the foundation of the reputation and awareness that your PR and other marketing efforts have built. And without those relationships chances are no one would be donating or volunteering for anything. So if you don’t have strong communal relationships with your constituencies, your organization will soon cease to survive. This is why it is critical to continuously measure the nature and efficacy of your relations.

Not Measuring Is Not an Option

Measurement and accountability have recently become more important than ever in the nonprofit sector. Here are three reasons why.

1. Social Media. The advent of social media has brought many new ways of reaching out to your community stakeholders, ...