Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT

The Basics of Measurement: Start Here

Measurement matters in the nonprofit world, perhaps more than ever. A heartwarming story may pull folks in, but institutional funders and even many individual donors increasingly demand hard evidence that your organization is making a difference.

That impulse is especially strong among young philanthropists, particularly those with a tech or science background.

“They’ve been around data all the time,” says Paul Niehaus, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and co-founder of the nonprofit GiveDirectly. “They’re used to running A/B tests on their websites.”

As the tech community becomes a larger engine of philanthropy, you can bet the clamor for measurement will only grow louder.