by Allyson Kapin Do you think your organization has clout or Klout? Is your organization considered a content curator? Are you a leader or a follower? Or are social media ranking tools an example of more kool-aid mix being added to the overflowing punch bowl? As more nonprofits get aggressive with their social media outreach, they are starting to take cues from the business sector about their own influence and finding “those influentials” that they think are going to produce magical results. “Is it even possible to measure online influence, divorced from offline influence,” asks Tom Webster over at BrandSavant. Nope, it’s not possible. On this influencer quest, I fear that organizations are starting to lose sight of the most important outcome of outreach and engagement - impact. … Continue Reading
The Newest Buzzword: Results
Charity Navigator - love them or hate them - it generally depends on how many stars they award your nonprofit. And for those organizations with the top rating? You can be certain they let you know it - all the time. Press releases, big logos on their websites and the like. But Charity Navigator, and they are not alone, places way to much emphasis on overhead expense ratio and downplays results. That's right - what you pay your CEO is more important to Charity Navigator that the impact your organization creates! Well, even Charity Navigator is waking up and "getting with the program" by making significant changes to their current system. Currently under development, the new system will move the needle from considering overhead and other financial metrics as the only input to counting towards … Continue Reading
Social Enterprise: Innovation or Mission Distraction
from The Nonprofit Quarterly: Social Enterprises Linked to Poor Performance in Nonprofits A new study by researchers at the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Pace University, “Social Enterprise: Innovation or Mission Distraction?” has found that nonprofits who run income producing businesses tend to short change those they are meant to serve by “focusing on money making schemes.” ... The study found that nonprofits that engage in unrelated business activities often run less efficient organizations than their peers. “As income from peripheral businesses went up, the share of a contributed dollar that went to actual services went down,” according to the report. … Continue Reading
The New Major Donors in Europe
Non-profit organizations have the potential to attract donations from a new model of European venture philanthropy but risk losing out on this valuable source of funding as they remain too focused on traditional methods. According to Chris Carnie, founder of consultancy firm Factary, non-profits will have to change their approach to fundraising dramatically if they are to meet the needs, aspirations, energy and imaginations of these new philanthropists. The model, whereby venture philanthropy (VP) funds invest in projects and measure the resulting social impact, with the ultimate aim of returning part of the original investment back to the VP fund, has been in existence for some time, but has gathered pace in the last year in Continental Europe, with renewed interest from a number of … Continue Reading
Back up Impact with Tachlis
from Third Sector (U.K.): Funders 'ask for more solid evidence from applicants' Funders are becoming more rigorous in scrutinising the evidence provided by charities in funding applications, key sector voices have warned. ... [Big Lottery Fund CEO Peter] Wanless said providing this evidence could be harder for charities that were trying to address new challenges. "But we would still need clear evidence of the need and a demonstration of how their approach to it would work," he added. Tris Lumley, head of strategy at New Philanthropy Capital, said charities without a solid evidence base for their outcomes were at a "very high" risk of missing out on funding. He said smaller charities should not worry about research costs - as long as they asked themselves the right questions, it was … Continue Reading
Being Able to Communicate What You Achieve
Scanning the various communications sent by charities, it would be easy to assume that they acknowledge how vital it is to communicate the impact of their work, and that their funders seek evidence of that impact. However, the latest paper issued by [the U.K.'s] New Philanthropy Capital, Talking about results, takes a closer look at how charities communicate their impact, and finds that the reality is quite different. NPC's research found that nearly all the charities analyzed were good at describing what they did - their outputs - less than half communicated clearly what changes they achieved in people's lives - their outcomes. While not a subject of this research, many of the largest - and most well-known - global Jewish organizations fail to communicate outcomes clearly. In fact, many of … Continue Reading
March to Metrics: The Downside
from The Nonprofit Quarterly: What Do Donors Want? There is little question that data, metrics, and measurement have become embedded into the philanthropic process in recent years - practices were initially met with deep skepticism by some but eventually gained considerable traction among a majority of nonprofits and philanthropic institutions. Today, in fact, few would argue against the need for more evidence-based measures of progress, outcomes, and impact. Foundations, in particular, have been focused on helping nonprofits beef up their data collection and evaluative capacities, due to a growing demand from their boards for evidence that their investments were having an impact. Also a factor is increased public and government scrutiny, and competition from private companies moving into … Continue Reading
New Tool Available to Measure Effectiveness of Philanthropy
The Foundation Center has launched an online database of proven approaches to measuring and analyzing the impact of social investments. As philanthropists and the nonprofit community shift towards more strategic approaches to get a "social return," evaluation activities must also operate at a higher level. TRASI ("Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact") addresses these growing needs by offering tools and methodologies that place a premium on evidence and metrics in tracking progress. Developed in partnership with McKinsey & Co., the assessment approaches in TRASI were authored by a range of organizations, including social investors, foundations, NGOs, and microfinance institutions. The Better Business Bureau, USAID, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Center for Effective … Continue Reading
Most Nonprofits Measuring Programs’ Effectiveness
A new Johns Hopkins University survey has revealed widespread innovation among the nation’s nonprofits, as well as efforts by those organizations to measure their programs’ effectiveness. The vast majority (82 percent) of responding organizations reported implementing an innovative program or service within the past five years, and 85 percent reported measuring program effectiveness. The study surveyed a nationwide sample of nonprofit organizations in four key fields - children and family services, elderly housing and services, community and economic development, and the arts - with 417 organizations responding. It defined an “innovative” program or service as “a new or different way to address a societal problem or pursue a charitable mission that is more effective, efficient, … Continue Reading
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