Eighty-two percent of nonprofit organizations reported implementing an innovative program over the past five years, according to a new survey released by Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. This trend remains strong across small and large organizations — challenging the myth that larger, more established organizations can not re-think their approach to their work.
As more nonprofits measure success, government and grantmaker support falls short.
The study, conducted as part of the Listening Post Project, surveyed 417 nonprofit organizations working within major areas including children and family services, elderly housing and services, community and economic development and arts organizations. An “innovative” program or service was defined as “a new or different way to address a societal problem or pursue a charitable mission that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than prevailing approaches.”
Eighty-five percent of respondents also indicated that they have been measuring their effectiveness as well. Despite the rosy picture that these numbers paint, two-thirds report that they have been unable to start an innovative program or service over the last two years.
The major barriers to nonprofit innovation reported:
- Lack of funding (86%)
- Inability to bring to scale due to lack of “growth capital” (74%)
- Narrow governmental funding streams (70%)
- Tendency among foundations to encourage innovations, but not sustain support (69%)
Similarly, attempts to measure programmatic effectiveness were also stunted by a lack of funds. Respondents did, however, make some recommendations about different efforts that could be undertaken to improve the ease of measurement, and innovation.
Recommendations to overcome performance measurement and innovation include:
- Creating better tools to measure qualitative impacts (82%)
- Less time-consuming measurement tools (81%)
- Financial resources to support measurement and research functions (79%)
- Greater help from intermediary organizations to fashion common evaluation tools (67%)
- Training for personnel on how to accurately use tools (63%)
The philanthropic and public sector have been challenging nonprofits to innovate and evaluate. Nonprofits have clearly answered this call to action. Despite strong adoption of these practices, there’s still important work that can be done to help nonprofits innovate, evaluate and maintain the best programs and services. The complete survey report can be downloaded here (pdf).
Join the conversation: Do you have any personal stories of innovation to share? What organizations, whether nonprofit or philanthropic, are doing things right when it comes to establishing easy-to-use scorecards for different focus areas? Please share your thoughts.
- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate
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