Passion for the Mission with Accountability

Source: Gary Dubas, McKonly & Asbury

Executives join a nonprofit organization for numerous reasons including quality of life, professional growth, proximity to home residence, and service to community. Possibly the strongest reason from a personal perspective is passion for the mission of the organization. No doubt, a passionate group of staff, volunteers, and board members can produce remarkably impressive results to the benefit of clients, patients, members, or the community at large. For example, charity: water is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by a former nightclub promoter that went on an international journey, in which he saw firsthand the effects of dirty drinking water. By the end of 2022, this organization, through installations of water wells, has brought clean water to over 16.8 million people according to its 2022 annual report.

Passion for the mission may be the juice that creates energy and excitement within the organization, but without some accountability baked in, “mission impossible” may be a more fitting description of what the results could be.

Measurements for Management

A familiar saying in the business world is, “what gets measured gets done.” It is attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, who more accurately said “what gets measured gets managed.” We accountants wholeheartedly agree! I can tell you that when our firm decided several years ago to concentrate and measure a particular metric, the subsequent results were dramatic and motivating.

Does your organization’s executive management team know their numbers, and are they accountable for them? Are organizational goals widely established, and are they quantifiable and measured regularly?

For example, take an organization that serves clients through individual and group counseling sessions, and the manager is responsible for client counseling services. Do they have specific goals set, such as optimum number of hourly individual counseling sessions for each counselor per week? Also, is there a goal regarding average ratings on client surveys? In this simplistic example, the goals would address quantity of counseling sessions and the quality of those sessions. Each counselor would be held accountable for their number of sessions and the perceived quality. This then facilitates the goals of the manager of client counseling services, which would be the overall average results of all counselors that report to that manager. This alignment of measured goals can produce impressive results. Measured goals also provide consistent information to make effective decisions on staff compensation and promotion, training, and utilization of technology. Furthermore, it can create real momentum and energy within the organization when goals are met and celebrated.

Implementing a Measurement for Management Plan

If managing by numbers is a new concept to an organization, a well-thought-out implementation plan can increase the chances of accelerated results. Team members should be involved in determining the goals to be measured, if possible, and should certainly have a thorough understanding of why the specific goals have been established through consistent and often repeated communication. There should then be systems in place to gather the necessary information to timely and accurately report results for each goal.

"What gets measured gets managed."

Donors, grantor agencies, and other stakeholders increasingly expect transparency and accountability from nonprofit organizations. When nonprofits can consistently deliver and effectively communicate the value being provided to its clients, members, or the community at large, it can in turn lead to more opportunities for higher levels of donations and funding from those that are observing from afar or who are directly impacted by that organization’s services.