Advancing Mission-Based Metrics: An Abstract

Every organization measures performance, and historically, the various measures used in business are largely financial in nature. While the primacy of financial and operational metrics to the various stakeholders is appropriate for most organizational types, more is needed to measure the efficacy of nonprofit organizations as they are primarily motivated by their missions. However, measuring performance on the mission side of the double bottom line has proven to be more difficult. How do NPOs measure their success against their stated missions? Perhaps a more basic question is, how should they measure their success against stated missions? This session analysis discusses various ways in which mission-based metrics can be used for evaluating organizational performance, adopting and implementing new programs, deciding among new initiatives, recruiting employees and volunteers, and communicating with various stakeholders including boards of directors, donors, governmental agencies, constituents, legislatures, and the public at large. Current practices are addressed, as well as challenges to adopting and measuring mission-based performance metrics in various types of nonprofit organizations.