Monday, May 9, 2011
Concluding Thoughts
Similar to other students, I thought I would use my last blog entry to summarize some final thoughts from the semester. I seem to remember a quote that said something about learning being the process where we learn to ask more questions, instead of having all the answers. In a way, that is true in the case of many topics we have discussed in the course. After a semester of talking about accountability, impact, and effectiveness, I am still not sure that I could easily define or measure any of them. I am sure that each is a necessary component for organizations working to make social change, and I have been convinced that it is necessary for organizations to keep track of what they are doing and how well they are doing it. However, the systems for evaluating accountability, impact and effectiveness are much more complicated than I thought at the beginning of the course. Despite the questions I still have about the best ways to track effectiveness and impact, and to maintain accountability, I did appreciate the Crutchfield & Grant text. I thought this book provided a practical framework of basic practices that nonprofits need to engage in to make significant impacts. I am looking forward to more nonprofit work in the future and seeing how some of these practices could be implemented.
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ReplyDeleteKristen,
ReplyDeleteI like the quote that you used. The quote best concludes my thoughts on effectiveness and impact. Nonprofit effectiveness and impact is subjective. Therefore, one rating model cannot determine the accuracy of a nonprofit's evaluation. In result, more questions than answers emerged among my thoughts on program's evaluations.
I know that from here on, that I will never use effectiveness and impact interchangeably. Clearly, there is a distinction between the two! Also, I will use other indicators other than rating systems to determine whether a nonprofit is effective or has impact. A poor rating by a rating system (i.e. Charity Navigator) may not be accurate. Overall, the introduction to the debate on nonprofit effectiveness and impact has enriched my knowledge of the nonprofit sector.