Evidence of Worth in Not-for-Profit Sector Organisations

The Not-for-Profit sector is a significant part of the economy. Not-for-Profit sector organisations have a duty to their stakeholders to provide evidence that they are using resources well. The authors have a few decades of Not-for-Profit client work and have conducted some original research amongst leaders of UK Not-for-Profit organisations in order to test their proposition that the Not-for-Profit sector should provide evidence of worth. This research, which is interesting for strategic thinkers in all multi-stakeholder sectors, shows that:Not-for-Profits are increasingly aware of the need to provide evidence of worth;Four themes emerge in demonstrating evidence of worth as Not-for Profits struggle with “internal aspiration versus external imposition”, “outcomes not outputs”, “gathering evidence” and “communication, contribution, consensus, commitment”;There are four basic types of Not-for-Profit organisations based on their primary desired outcome, viz. expanding frontiers, changing systems, service delivery and communitarian;Information to validate evidence of worth may be categorised as risk control, reward enhancement or volatility reduction targets