Understanding Nonprofit Organizations, 4th Edition

PART IX Accountability and Evaluation

DOI: 10.4324/9781003387800-42

The needs, purposes, and concepts of accountability and evaluation have been written about extensively since at least the 1970s, but our ability to obtain and analyze accurate information needed to evaluate programs and achieve accountability has improved dramatically in recent years.¹ But, let’s start with basic definitions:

• Accountability means answerability for one’s actions or behavior.²
• Evaluation, on the other hand, determines the value or effectiveness of an activity for the purpose of decision making.³

Both accountability and evaluation present measurement difficulties and reporting challenges for nonprofit organizations. These arise, in part, from internal and external ...