Nonprofits Are Dissatisfied With Foundations’ Evaluation Efforts

Nonprofits say they want more help from donors in measuring their performance, according to a new survey from the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

More than 70 percent of the 177 nonprofit officials surveyed said they don’t receive assistance with evaluation from foundations. About 62 percent said they would like help with that work.

And despite many foundations’ public insistence that they want charities to measure performance, how to do so isn’t a big topic of conversation between donors and nonprofits, according to the study.

Foundations “could help provide expertise and help organizations measure, instead of relying on organizations to bear the sole responsibility for these skills,” said one nonprofit official quoted anonymously in the study. “It is rare that a foundation offers this kind of help.”

More than half of those polled said that when foundations do seek information about nonprofit performance, it’s more often to serve their own needs than those of the charity.

About 40 percent agreed that donors are inconsistent regarding the types of information they seek.