The Overhead Question: Opportunity to reflect on the future of nonprofit assessment and reporting

A short eight weeks ago, Great Nonprofits, GiveWell, Philanthropedia, Charity Navigator, Guidestar, the Hewlett Foundation, and Philanthropy Action signed a joint press release espousing the limitations of relying too heavily on overhead ratios and other financial data when evaluating a nonprofit’s impact.

If you agree with that premise -- I know I do -- then the declaration serves as a welcome touchpoint for exploring just what a balanced nonprofit evaluation process should include.

That's the topic of a free online event to be hosted by NTEN on February 4th, titled The Overhead Question: The Future of Nonprofit Assessment and Reporting. From the event description, organizations such as the ones listed above are "looking to use new metrics that will assess indicators such as (but not limited to) financial health and sustainability; accountability, governance and transparency; and outcomes. This is good news for the sector, but what data will be tracked and how we will be asked to provide it is still up in the air. How will effectiveness be measured? What will be required of nonprofits in order to support this effort? What impact will these changes have on the standard operations of a charitable organization?"

NTEN kindly invited Social Actions to participate, and I'll be joining Bob Ottenhoff (Guidestar), David Geilhufe (NetSuite), Ken Berger (Charity Navigator), Lucy Bernholz (Blueprint R&D and Philanthropy2173), and Peter Campbell (TechCafeteria) on the panel. NTEN's Holly Ross will host, and Tactical Philanthropy's Sean Stannard-Stockton will moderate.

It's an exciting event not just because the topic is so important but because -- like the best events always are -- it's a great opportunity to do some careful reflection leading up to and following the event itself.

I hope you'll have a chance to attend and just as importantly to join in that reflection, online and off. Don't hesitate to use this space -- from adding comments to authoring a post -- to share your thoughts. Lots of listening going on here :)