How Do You Define Nonprofit Success?

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Some people say that a nonprofit organization is “successful” if …

1. it accomplishes its mission.
2. it accomplishes its mission then goes out of business.
3. at least 51 percent of its funders agree that it has accomplished its mission.
4. at least 51 percent of clients served agree that it has accomplished its mission.
5. it maximizes its social benefit-to-cost ratio.
6. it minimizes its cost per client per unit of social utility produced.
7. it provides a high quality service to a few of our most vulnerable neighbors.
8. it provides a fairly low quality service to many of our most vulnerble neighbors.
9. it’s scalable.
10. it has scaled significantly over the last ten years.
11. it has paid staff.
12. it operates in more than one city.
13. it has branch offices on other planets.
14. its operating budget is over $100 million.
15. it’s funded by the Bradley Foundation.
16. it’s funded by the Ford Foundation.
17. it’s replicable.
18. it’s sustainable.
19. it requires no subsidy to sustain its operations.
20. it has a president/CEO who’s a household name.
21. the organization is a household name.
22. it’s been endorsed by Lindsay Lohan.
23. it’s been endorsed by Angelina Jolie.
24. Morgan Fairchild is a board member.
25. Bill Clinton is a board member.
26. nonprofit executive directors and other “experts” believe it’s successful.
27. Phil Cubeta thinks it’s successful.
28. the organization is important to a generally disempowered segment of the population.
29. year after year, in its own quiet way, it manages to scrape enough money and volunteers together to serve a community largely ignored by other brand name nonprofits.
30. the organization changes the basic equations of power in favor of the oppressed.
31. it works toward a vision of the Good shared by an enlightened elite.
32. it works toward a commonly shared vision of the Good.
33. it helps focus on our minds on eternal things.
34. etcetera …

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Addendum:

Proof That There Are An Infinite Number Of Ways To Define “Nonprofit Success”

A nonprofit is successful if at least 51 percent of the public agrees that it has accomplished its mission.

A nonprofit is successful if at least 51.1 percent of the public agrees that it has accomplished its mission.

A nonprofit is successful if at least 51.11 percent of the public agrees that it has accomplished its mission.

Etcetera.

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Image source: Celebrity HotVideo

Comments

[Phil]

Pretty funny, and that was my response before seeing my name. Then I realized that you were dead serious.

[Glen Peterson]

Those are cute.

Success is when the the highest authority in the organization has clearly defined what the organizational result must be and who or what is the beneficiary and the result has been accomplished.

That the organization's exchange with the world is worth the time, effort, energy, and everything else that was put into it.

It is better to measure the right thing poorly than the wrong thing well.

[Albert Ruesga]

I can't remember the last time I was dead serious. Was it something to do with the Taco Bell chihuahua?