Browsing by Subject "Performance measurement"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Experiencing Nonprofits in Vietnam: What Matters Most to the People Nonprofits Aim to Serve
    (2024-07) Doan, Dana R. H.; Benjamin, Lehn M.; Wiepking, Pamala; Dwyer, Patrick C.; Pasic, Dean Amir; Merritt, Cullen C.; Sidel, Mark
    To better understand nonprofit performance and impact, this study set out to identify the salient viewpoints of the individuals and communities a nonprofit human service provider sets out to serve, i.e., the nonprofit’s constituents. Focusing on the first encounter with a nonprofit, which the service management, public encounters, and help-seeking literatures all identify as important to understanding experiences of and engagement with service organizations, I ask: How does a constituent’s first encounter with a nonprofit influence their experience and decision to engage with the organization? To address this question, I implemented a community-engaged, multi-phased, Q methodology study with 56 women in Vietnam. I utilized a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews, participant reflections on a first visit to a nonprofit, a Q sort, and debrief interviews. My research revealed three viewpoints and four dimensions of effectiveness. The three viewpoints include: Mutuality - I am looking for signs we can work together as equal partners to address my problem; Caring - I am looking for signs you are personally motivated towards helping me; and Efficiency - I am looking for signs I can get what I need in a timely manner. The four dimensions of effectiveness include: relational, technical, accessibility, and other dimensions of effectiveness. Regardless of the viewpoint, the relational dimension of an encounter is central to constituent decisions to engage with a nonprofit, a dimension that is undertheorized in social impact measurement. That said, all three viewpoints bring the four dimensions of effectiveness together in distinct ways. In this way, a Q study reminds us that constituents are not all the same and exposes some of the differences. These findings offer implications for research and practice on nonprofit management and measurement.
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    Nonprofit Organizations and the Evaluation of Social Impact: A Research Program to Advance Theory and Practice
    (Sage, 2023) Benjamin, Lehn M.; Ebrahim, Alnoor; Gugerty, Mary Kay
    This article proposes a research program with two goals: (a) to support nonprofit leaders to productively engage evaluation and (b) to advance a meso-level theory of nonprofit evaluation that recognizes the diverse ways nonprofits contribute to social change. Such a research program is timely, as evaluation becomes increasingly institutionalized in the sector in ways that constrain nonprofit leaders from engaging productively with evaluation to advance their social impact. This research program brings existing nonprofit scholarship into conversation with evaluation scholarship and puts forward a research agenda organized around the practical dilemmas facing nonprofit leaders as they answer four key evaluation questions: what to evaluate, for what purpose, using which criteria, and with what evidence and methods. By anchoring a research program around these four questions, we seek to reopen the possibilities for how scholars can support nonprofit leaders in engaging evaluation to enhance their social impact.
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    The Potential of Outcome Measurement for Strengthening Nonprofits’ Accountability to Beneficiaries
    (Sage, 2013) Benjamin, Lehn M.
    This article considers one mechanism that could create a clearer accountability path between nonprofits and their beneficiaries: Outcome measurement. Outcome measurement focuses attention on a nonprofit’s beneficiaries and whether they are better off as a result of the nonprofit’s work. The article analyzed 10 outcome measurement guides targeted to nonprofits, totaling more than 1,000 pages of text. The analysis shows that the guides were neither uniform in the conceptualization of nonprofit beneficiaries nor in how they directed nonprofits to use outcome measurement with their beneficiaries. Despite scholars’ suggestion that a nonprofit’s relationship to their beneficiaries is a key accountability relationship, the guides suggest that beneficiaries have an ambiguous standing, relative to other stakeholders, in the nonprofit accountability environment.