We've all read an annual report that lists each grant made in detail, page after page of painful detail in some cases.  Ok, so they gave $2,000,000 to the Mr. and Mrs. Do-good Foundation.  I wonder what they were able to do with that money.   I wonder why they chose $2,000,000.  If it's such a good cause, why not $3,000,000? ...

Nonprofits fall on difficult financial times. Competition for funding is getting fierce. Foundation endowments decline by 25%. Donors want to understand their return on investment. Organizations are closing their doors.  While these are the current and most pervasive headlines about the nonprofit sector, there is another kind of conversation and groundswell of activity percolating: how to best measure or assess social impact. It is no longer enough for organizations to say that they do good work because their mission statement references the social change that they aim to generate. Today, more and more organizations are looking for, developing and finding meaningful ways to understand and communicate the results of their work.  ...

This past weekend, a local sports talk radio station discussed a recent charity event in which every single dollar raised went to support need children.  This proclamation is clearly a response to the growing trend for accountability from nonprofits. Surely, accountability is a good thing, a necessary thing.  Nobody wants to give money to a charity only have "their" dollar spent on things which don't help the cause. But what does accountability mean?  Often, accountability takes some form of cost per dollar raised.  In response, nonprofits are incentivized to drive down costs and advertise their efficiency.  But what does cost per dollar raised tell us about how much social change that dollar helped create?  Not much. ...

The following post first appeared on Change.org as the kickoff to a series of guest posts from Mission Measurement and Jason Saul. See the original post here and check back for future posts in 2009! ...

A lot can change in 10 years.  But can high school drop-out rates be cut in half by 2018?  United Way of America (UWA) recently announced, among other things, that it will strive to do just that.  At first blush, this is an impressive statement!  At second glance, one wonders how UWA will accomplish this, given that decades of effort and millions of dollars have failed to solve the issue.   ...

While holiday shopping is a tradition for many Americans, our awareness of the causes associated with seasonal spending, seems to impact how we shop. Sites like the NewAmericanDream.com have created a Conscious Consumer Marketplace that suggests fair trade and environmentally friendly gifts. “The environment is increasingly on consumers' radar screens," according to the 22nd Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends, commissioned by Deloitte. ...

A number of our clients have recently been working with us to push into the next frontier of measurement - beyond merely collecting data how do we operationalize outcomes data within the organization to improve decision making?  We've referred to this as "Applied Measurement".  The areas of Applied Measurement include: inform ...

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) held their annual conference in Chicago, IL earlier this month. I had the chance to attend the entire conference and will be sharing some of what I learned over the two days of plenary sessions, breakout groups and casual conversations with philanthropic colleagues. ...

Philanthropy is fast becoming one of the hottest business strategies of the decade. Hung over from drinking too much CSR KoolAid (and wary from writing fancy reports that no one reads), companies are finding that philanthropy is a more strategic instrument. While CSR at best disproves a negative ("honestly, we're not bad, look, we're complying with all the rules..."), philanthropy is more pro-active and controllable. The subject is getting surprisingly high billing in the mainstream business press. Here are the latest headlines and research that we've seen in recent weeks: ...

Todd Cohen of the Philanthropy Journal has got his finger on the pulse. His recent article on "outcomes planning" approach taken by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta is spot-on-the-mark. ...