Book Questions Whether Charities Should Adopt New Management Trends

Making Nonprofits Work: A Report on the Tides of Nonprofit Management Reform
By Paul C. Light

The best management strategy charity executives can employ is patience, writes the author.

Mr. Light is vice president and director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution, in Washington.

This book is based on a study financed by the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector Research Fund.

He identifies four types of change that he says have captivated businesses and government in recent years: adopting a common set of best practices, evaluating program results, merging with like-minded groups, and making public more information.

The jury is still out on how effective those methods are, says Mr. Light, and worse, no one knows yet if any of those changes will work for philanthropy. He argues that a little blind faith could be a dangerous thing.

“The non-profit sector still has time to avoid the wasted motion that has plagued so many government and private reform efforts,” he writes.

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington 20036; (202) 797-6258 or (800) 275-1447; fax (202) 797-6004; http://www.brookings.edu; 114 pages; $14.95; I.S.B.N. 0-8157-5245-8.