With the right implementation, nonprofits have a straightforward tool for measuring success at their fingertips.

By Joel Zimmerman

That’s the reason managers build assessments based on measures such as attendance data, number of currently registered volunteers, production and fulfillment records, budget deviances, and computer system up-time. When you build an assessment program around the measures you have available, instead of building metrics around the concepts you need to measure, then you have a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.