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Critical Issues
in strategy, planning & organizational development
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for effective organizations
P A R T N E R S H I P Number Eight
The second reason is sustainability. There is a saying See the sidebar for illustrations of adaptation to
that nonprofit is a tax status, not a business model. environmental trends.
No matter how different the purpose, values, and Norms (benchmarks)
culture of a museum, an environmental advocacy Most nonprofits can identify other organizations that are
organization, or a shelter for the homeless are from comparable in one way or another. In some cases buyers
those of a widget manufactureror from each other, (users) could make other choices (schools, museums,
performance venues, houses of worship), and donors
can always do so. Members of an association can easy to define an outcome precisely, or distinguish it
compare experiences with other associations to assess from an output (see sidebar). It may be that several
the value of the benefits offered. measures are required to frame a desired outcome.
Often discussion and definition of outcomes can in itself
Resources of various sorts (staff, space, marketing)
be an important and revealing activity for staff and
used for a unit of result can vary widely. If you are
board alike. As with work on a strategic plan, this should
aware that your organization varies from the norm in
not be a one-time effort, but an ongoing process of
either performance or outcomes, you can examine the
reflection and evaluation.
reasons and see if there are things you can change.
It can be difficult to acquire the data for norms. In How?
some fields, associations gather useful data and make it In is one thing to identify and gather data, and quite
available to members. Some nonprofits form another to make best use of it. Once the critical metrics
benchmarking consortia to collect, share and compare have been defined, including determination of who
data. In other cases data can be gathered by one should receive what data, and how much data they can
institution; this can be a first step toward forming a absorb, there is still the question of how to present it.
benchmarking consortium. Some people can look at standard financial reports and
See the sidebar for an example of the value of access immediately identify the most important information;
to normative information. others can only understand the import of numbers
through distilled and simplified graphs. Since
Performance information is meaningless unless it is understood and
For performance metrics the problem is to sift used, sufficient thought must be invested in
through a wealth of available or collectable data and communicating appropriately to the various audiences.
determine what is most valuable, to measure the
performance of: Among the commonly used tools are:
the organization as a whole (for review by the Graphs of benchmark and trend data, which can be
governing board and senior staff and for updated periodically to provide current context.
Strategic plan monitoring checklists, for a quick
communicating to stakeholders and the public)
programs and services (for review in differing overview of the progress of implementation compared
degrees of detail by managers, senior staff, and to the intended schedule.
Dashboards, which typically use vivid graphic tools,
governing board)
individuals (for annual evaluation by managers and such as colors, dials and graphs to make them easy to
senior staff). read, though limited in the depth or quantity of
information conveyed. Different dashboards can be
Performance measurement is too large a topic to be developed with the information needed by different
addressed meaningfully here, but the basic idea is to audiences.
identify and winnow the most crucial data for The balanced scorecard, which distills a broad array of
operating with focus, sustainability, and effectiveness. information into a concise summary report, from
The primary sources for this information include: which key performance indicators can be distilled and
Strategic plan actions tracked.
Standard financial reporting, such as cash flow and Financial models, which can define and track a
budget vs actual comparisons complex array of variables for major initiatives (see
Key departmental data in development, Critical Issues #6: Financial Modeling)
communications, membership, and program areas.
In a future number of Critical Issues well look at the
For several different takes on the subject, see both the visual design of these tools, and how to use them to
current season of Wednesday Webinars and the communicate most effectively.
archive of past webinars (http://bit.ly/SyPwebinars).
Outcomes See sidebars & resources on the following page.
While trends, norms and performance data can be
critical factors in assessing efficiency and sustainability,
in the end its the identification and measurement of Subscribe to Critical Issues: www.synthesispartnership.com
outcomes in service of mission that fundamentally Wednesday Webinars: http://bit.ly/SyPwebinars
validates the organization.
Copyright 2012 Synthesis Partnership All rights reserved.
Outputs (what youve done) are often confused with
Complete and fully attributed copies may be made and shared.
outcomes (what youve achieved). Sometimes its not
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P A R T N E R S H I P Number 8 page 3 www.synthesispartnership.com