By Dillan Erdman<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley is home to hundreds of nonprofit organizations and thousands of dedicated employees, volunteers and donors who genuinely want to improve our community. This is not an attack on those people. In fact, many of them work tirelessly for causes most of us couldn\u2019t imagine taking on every day.<\/p>\n
But good intentions should never replace accountability.<\/p>\n
When we evaluate businesses, we ask whether they create value. When we evaluate government, we ask whether taxpayer dollars are being spent effectively. Yet when it comes to nonprofits, we often stop asking difficult questions simply because the mission sounds noble.<\/p>\n
I believe that\u2019s a mistake.<\/p>\n
Every institution responds to incentives. Businesses are rewarded when customers voluntarily buy their products. Governments respond to elections, budgets and public pressure. Nonprofits respond to grants, donations and continued public support.<\/p>\n
None of those incentives are inherently wrong. But they shape behavior.<\/p>\n
The question isn\u2019t whether nonprofit leaders want to help people. I believe most do. The question is whether the system rewards solving problems or managing them. Those are not the same thing.<\/p>\n
Annual reports often highlight how many people were served, how many meals were distributed, how many workshops were held or how many referrals were made. Those numbers demonstrate activity, but activity is not the same as lasting progress.<\/p>\n
If homelessness remains unchanged after decades of expanding programs, shouldn\u2019t we ask why?<\/p>\n
If educational outcomes continue to struggle despite increasing investments, shouldn\u2019t we examine which approaches are actually working?<\/p>\n
If violence declines, how much of that change can be attributed to a specific program rather than broader economic, demographic or policing trends?<\/p>\n
These aren\u2019t cynical questions. They\u2019re the questions every donor should ask before writing another check.<\/p>\n
Imagine two organizations addressing the same issue. The first serves 10,000 people every year for 20 years. The second serves fewer people initially but helps enough individuals become permanently self-sufficient that demand for its services steadily declines.<\/p>\n
Which organization has been more successful?<\/p>\n
Too often, our funding system rewards the first because its numbers remain large. Yet the second may be accomplishing exactly what every nonprofit should aspire to: making itself less necessary over time.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why we need to rethink how we measure success:<\/p>\n
Instead of asking what percentage goes to overhead, ask whether the organization can demonstrate durable outcomes.<\/p>\n
Instead of focusing on fundraising totals, ask whether the underlying problem is measurably improving.<\/p>\n
Instead of celebrating growth in staff, programs and budgets, ask whether those expansions are matched by measurable improvements in people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
Some problems may never disappear completely. Emergency shelters, hospice care and disaster relief will always have a role. But organizations that promise lasting, measurable change should be expected to demonstrate exactly that.<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley deserves nonprofits that openly publish not only their financial statements but also clear outcome scorecards.<\/p>\n
\u2022 What problem are you trying to solve?<\/p>\n
\u2022 How has that problem changed over the last five years?<\/p>\n
\u2022 What evidence suggests your organization contributed to that change?<\/p>\n
\u2022 What didn\u2019t work?<\/p>\n
\u2022 What are you doing differently because of those lessons?<\/p>\n
Those are not unreasonable expectations. They are the same standards we increasingly expect from businesses, schools and public agencies.<\/p>\n
As donors, taxpayers and community members, we should not confuse compassion with effectiveness. We should celebrate organizations that are transparent enough to acknowledge failures, adapt their strategies and measure long-term results instead of simply reporting activity.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit sector exists because our communities face challenges that markets and governments alone do not fully address. That mission is too important to settle for measuring success by dollars raised or people reached.<\/p>\n
The generosity of Lehigh Valley residents deserves something more. It deserves proof that the problems inspiring those donations are becoming smaller \u2014 not simply better managed.<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. Dillan Erdman is a lifelong Lehigh Valley resident, business owner and contractor in Allentown. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dillan Erdman The Lehigh Valley is home to hundreds of nonprofit organizations and thousands of dedicated employees,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1559],"class_list":["post-264577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}