News & Views

A blog for those interested in what affects, motivates and drives the New York City Nonprofit Sector — written by CRE’s crackerjack consulting team. We hope you use this space to share your thoughts, ask questions and engage in conversations about our city, social justice and the nonprofit sector.

Framing the Impact of the Recession on Nonprofits

By Louisa Hackett, Senior Managing Director - Last week, two presentations about the current state of affairs facing New York City’s nonprofits were a reminder that solutions need to come from within as well as from outside of our sector. Read more >>

Thursday, April 05, 2012 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

How Answering a Few Questions Can Make Your Organization More Effective

By Louisa Hackett - The following is a continuation of a previous blog post introducing the Five Questions Driving Organizational Effectiveness.

Strategic plans come in many shapes, serve a variety of purposes and always take time. Read more >>

Thursday, September 08, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

5 Questions Driving Organizational Effectiveness

By Louisa Hackett - What makes an organization effective? Sure strong managers, high performing staff, visionary leaders, sufficient resources and up-to-date technology all play a part. But a critical element, maybe the most critical, is clarity of purpose. Without knowing fundamentally what an organization is striving to accomplish and for whom, the chance to have the most effective programs is lost and muddled, diffuse programming can follow. Read more >>

Thursday, September 01, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Financial Strength: CRE’s Point of View

By Louisa Hackett - CRE recognizes nonprofit organizations are engines of social change and often the most proximate means for disenfranchised people to access needed services. We believe our consulting services can make New York City’s nonprofit organizations stronger and more effective in fighting poverty and advancing social justice. Our theory of change is grounded in the belief that organizations with effective leaders and programs, high performing staff and financial strength are more likely to be successful in creating a more fair and just New York City.
Read more >>

Thursday, January 06, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Should Hard Times Lead to Strategic Planning Shutdowns?

by Louisa Hackett - Times are tough for social service organizations. For many, demand for services is increasing while resources to meet client needs are shrinking. What is an organization to do? After all, when fundraising pressures intensify, isn’t it the worst possible time to plan? And what self-respecting organization can take the time when there is so much money to raise, when there are salaries and rent to pay, and when there is so much need to address? Yet, focused strategic planning can often quickly answer some of the hard internal and external questions an organization faces during challenging economic periods. Read more >>

Thursday, September 09, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Evidence of Doing Good

by Louisa Hackett - For those of us trying to make the world a better place, figuring out a way to study, understand and assess the interventions we make is critical to improving the work we do. Read more >>

Monday, May 17, 2010 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Is Evaluation an Infection?

by Louisa Hackett - Recently, a few community-based organizations, evaluators and funders gathered at the City University of New York Graduate Center to discuss, as one participant described it, the accountability regime eating us. Read more >>

Monday, April 05, 2010 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Comments

Allison Fine commented on 06-Apr-2010 11:29 AM

This is really terrific, Louisa! I particularly am drawn to the notion that nonprofits need to own evaluation and stop giving the power to define programs and success to others - media, watchdogs, funders, etc. Thanks for this post.

Allison

Isaac Castillo commented on 06-Apr-2010 12:44 PM

Thanks for this piece - it helps to communicate an important message.

For the past few years, I've been trying to get nonprofits and funders to understand the difference between the terms accountability and evaluation. Accountability is basically the process of determinig if a nonprofit is behaving properly - are they spending money responsibly, are they providing the services they proposed, and are they serving the individuals they are supposed to.

Evaluation is really the process of determining what outcomes resulted from a program, sevice, and project, as well as determining what components lead to these outcomes. In it's most useful sense, this evaluation data would then be used to inform the next evolution of the program, sevice, or project.

Unfortunately, both funders and nonprofits have been stuck in thinking of only accountability. Blame falls on both sides.

Funders assume most nonprofits aren't sophisticated to do evaluation, and the funders rarely provide the additional funds necessary to do evaluation. Therefore, only accountability measures are requested as part of a reporting process.

Nonprofits also fail to stand up to funders and request additional funds for evaluation. Nonprofits too often fall into thinking that they can't question the funder, which leads to just doing the bare minimum that the funder wants, even if that limits the amount of knowledge the nonprofit could generate from doing evaluation (and not just accountability).

Gayle Gifford commented on 06-Apr-2010 12:45 PM

Louisa, I agree. Thank you for the connect to the paper "A Lot to Lose." While I also agree that accountability and asking "does this work? how can we make it work better" are essential, those in the field know that this is not always easy and success (or setbacks) rarely attributable to one organization or service.
As for your idea that nonprofits need to redefine programs, Here Here!! See similar musing "Hope, dignity and quality of life are also valuable outcomes, even when measured in hours." at http://bit.ly/8iYuEk Gayle