Nonprofits fall on difficult financial times. Competition for funding is getting fierce. Foundation endowments decline by 25%. Donors want to understand their return on investment. Organizations are closing their doors. 

While these are the current and most pervasive headlines about the nonprofit sector, there is another kind of conversation and groundswell of activity percolating: how to best measure or assess social impact. It is no longer enough for organizations to say that they do good work because their mission statement references the social change that they aim to generate. Today, more and more organizations are looking for, developing and finding meaningful ways to understand and communicate the results of their work. 

The Foundation Center recently launched a beta site of Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact. The site includes a list of tools that organizations are using to track progress and communicate results. The most striking thing about this list is that there are more than 150 different approaches and tools, which means that measurement is becoming a part of the fabric of the sector, but there is no “right” or “standard” way for the sector to pursue this work. 

From our vantage point, it is the organizations that are considering and communicating their results in a clear, practical and compelling way that will be in a stronger position to differentiate themselves among their peers and/or perceived competitors, make better investment or resource allocation decisions and weather the difficult headlines and realities that lay ahead. 

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