We know from the readings this week (particularly Ebrahim’s helpful working paper) that accountability for nonprofits has many different dimensions (upward, downward or internal) and can be reflected in processes such as disclosures, evaluations/performance assessments, self-regulation, participation and adaptive learning (Ebrahim, p. 28).  For a large, well-funded organization, its leaders know that they have to prepare Form 990 disclosures and publish Annual Reports, and utilize budgeted resources to conduct evaluations from various stakeholders (beneficiaries, constituents, employees, volunteers). In addition, the Board of a large, established nonprofit gets together and critically evaluates how well the organization is fulfilling its mission, at least once a year.

But for small non-profits, or very new organizations, there is a tendency not to think about accountability at all because there are more existential concerns such as: can we pay our bills and salaries? will we exist in a month or in year? does anyone care about what we’re trying to do?  Such a small nonprofit may not even be required to file an annual Form 990 under the IRS rules, and their Boards may consist of just 3 or 4 people, but I think such organizations can benefit their sustainability by engaging in certain accountability actions, such as distributing online surveys to their constituents.

Aside from assessing constituents’ level of satisfaction with the organization’s programs, the nonprofit will learn something important even if there are very few responses to the survey invitation: low participation in surveys is often an indicator that the survey targets are either apathetic about the organization, or that there should be a better communication channel chosen to communicate with constituents.  For example, a nonprofit that serves homebound senior citizens may not want to rely on an online beneficiary survey link e-mailed to seniors because many such beneficiaries may not regularly use e-mail or the internet.  The leader(s) of the organization must be prepared to confront inadequate survey responses head on, rather than assume that “no news is good news.”  When constituents or beneficiaries ignore a nonprofit’s survey, this is a sign that the organization should do a rethink of its operations and/or communication strategy.