ABSTRACT
As the nonprofit sector has gained visibility and prominence in addressing societal ills and community needs, discussion has increased around how to assess and improve the effectiveness of these organizations. If charitable and public dollars are to be invested in nonprofits to produce services and solve social and environmental problems, it then begs the question of how to determine if this investment is producing results. However, measuring organizational effectiveness in a population of organizations as diverse as those that populate the nonprofit sector has proven to be a difficult task, with few definitive answers on the “ideal” way to assess nonprofit organizational effectiveness. This entry provides an overview of the research on nonprofit organizational effectiveness, focusing on the definition of effectiveness as a multidimensional concept, the various measures encompassed in a multidimensional effectiveness framework approach, and the challenges for measuring nonprofit organizational effectiveness in the “real world” of the nonprofit sector in the United States.
