The Tyranny of Success: Nonprofits and Metrics

Modern philanthropy famously demands success in the form of tangible, objective, measurably positive outcomes. This demand, in turn, requires nonprofits or those who audit or evaluate them to make sharp distinctions of their work into success and failure. And yet, especially among hard-pressed populations that have always been the peculiar charge of the nonprofit sector, that distinction often is not so clear. What today looks like a success in a few months may turn into a failure, and what today looks like a failure becomes a success.