Sustaining Nonprofit Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It - Hardcover

Light, Paul C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815752261 ISBN 13: 9780815752264

Publisher: Brookings Institution, 2004

Synopsis

The nonprofit sector survives because it has a self-exploiting work force: wind it up and it will do more with less until it just runs out. But at some point, the spring must break.

America's nonprofit organizations face a difficult present and an uncertain future. Money is tight. Workloads are heavy, employee turnover is high, and charitable donations have not fully rebounded from the recent economic downturn. Media and political scrutiny remains high, and public confidence in nonprofits has yet to recover from its sharp decline in the wake of well-publicized scandals.

In a recent survey, only 14 percent of respondents believed that nonprofits did a very good job of spending money wisely; nearly half said that nonprofit leaders were paid too much, compared to 8 percent who said they earned too little. Yet the nonprofit sector has never played a more important role in American life. As a generation of nonprofit executives and board members approaches retirement, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that their organizations are prepared to continue their missions —that they are built to last in a supremely challenging environment.

Paul Light, renowned expert on public service and nonprofit management, strongly argues for capacity-building measures as a way to sustain and improve the efforts of the nonprofit sector. With innovative data and insightful analysis, he demonstrates how nonprofits that invest in technology, training, and strategic planning can successfully advance their goals and restore public faith in their mission and capabilities. He explains the ways in which restoration of that faith is critical to the survival of nonprofits —another important reason for improving and then sustaining performance. Organizations that invest adequately in their infrastructure and long-term planning are the ones that will survive and continue to serve.

About this title

Review

"Sustaining Non-Profit Performance is crammed with thought-provoking data on the state of capacity building and organizational performance in nonprofit organizations." --Beth Gazley, School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Unspecified Book review

Synopsis

America's nonprofit organizations are facing an uncertain future. Many are operating with leaner budgets and face a wave of budget cuts as the federal deficit grows. At the same time, public confidence in nonprofits is at a contemporary low. Congress seems poised to enact new and stringent rules for nonprofit spending. Many state attorneys general find nonprofits a prime target for criminal investigations. The media continue to uncover troubling examples of excess, and charitable giving has yet to respond to the economic recovery. To address this crisis, Paul Light, one of the nation's leading experts on nonprofits and public services, argues, nonprofits must embrace capacity building measures. Using innovative data collection and analysis, he demonstrates how nonprofits that invest in technology, training, and strategic planning can successfully advance their goals. As many of the top leaders of America's nonprofits reach retirement age in the coming years, it will become increasingly important to ensure that the organizations they oversee (and in many cases founded) are able to continue their missions.

Light provides convincing evidence that an organization that takes the time to invest in its infrastructure and future is more likely to survive and prosper. The alternative could be a long-feared contraction of the nonprofit sector.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookings Institution
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0815752261
• ISBN 13: 9780815752264
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224