Abstract
In some ways, the title of this chapter is misleading, for we are well aware of the challenges inherent in measuring performance in nonprofit organizations. It is time to deal with the challenges directly. Young, Bania, and Bailey succinctly summarized the reasons for the task before us: “Having inherited from the 1980s a legacy of a full and growing agenda of social problems, and a stringent fiscal environment of restricted government funding and fierce competition for private contributions, nonprofits have now been challenged where it hurts most—their very integrity has been called into question” (1996, p. 347). Funders are under increasing pressure to demonstrate results from their resource allocation decisions; the public wants to know what outcomes justify inflated nonprofit executive salaries and fund-raising costs; and those who run nonprofits are beginning to realize that “doing good” must be measurable.
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Stone, M.M., Cutcher-Gershenfeld, S. (2002). Challenges of Measuring Performance in Nonprofit Organizations. In: Flynn, P., Hodgkinson, V.A. (eds) Measuring the Impact of the Nonprofit Sector. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0533-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0533-4_3
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