ABSTRACT
This chapter will begin with a brief discussion of how social impact and financial sustainability are commonly defined. The challenge for social work managers when conducting performance measurement often becomes one of distinguishing between outputs and outcomes. According to Sandfort, a human service organization typically provides services to clients and through these services produces both outputs and eventually outcomes. Ridley-Duff and Bull take a critical view of effectiveness measurement in claiming that the commercialization of the human service sector negates the immeasurable social value that is created by these types of services. Social impact is concerned with the non-monetary value added while financial sustainability refers to monetary value added, in a sense. Brown argues that, quite often, certain groups within and external to human service organizations may resist or implicitly control the performance measurement process. A logic model essentially describes, in a graphical format, the logic or flow of a program or organization.
