The nonprofit sector is in need of renewal. According to Give.org, only 1 in 5 individuals trust charities to use their donations well. Giving is down 50% over the last decade, and the National Council for Nonprofits reports over half of nonprofits have staff positions they can’t fill and waiting lists for many services currently run more than a month long. The New Year brings us an opportunity for renewal to support small nonprofit success. And there is very good news: it is now well understood how small to midsize nonprofits can pivot from struggling for survival to financial health and continuous growth of the services they provide their communities.

Supporting small nonprofit success all starts with imagination.

Let’s imagine a version of our organizations that reflects all that we know about effective organizational leadership — regardless of tax status or mission: organizations that are both audacious and efficient, that operate with a business brain as well as a social heart, and ones that are more transparent and accountable to their stakeholders and supporters. Let’s make six wishes for greater nonprofit success in 2025 and then start translating these dreams into reality with practices that are proven to work.

I wish for more performance benchmarks to support small nonprofit success. Performance benchmarks — also known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) —  are a large part of what drives all successful organizations forward. Evidence continues to demonstrate that, no matter what type of organization, a small, focused set of robust company-wide KPIs are critical for good teamwork and optimal organizational performance. While this irrefutable truth is embraced by leaders of large and sophisticated nonprofits (such as hospitals and universities), far too many small to midsize nonprofit leaders have never been trained to formulate and implement KPIs, and their boards often lack the experienced leaders and entrepreneurs who know how important these KPIs are — things like monthly trends (especially those that connect levels of service delivery to the organization’s vision of ultimate success ), quantitative measures of program impact and efficiency, fundraising measures (such as cost per dollar raised and donor loyalty), financial measures (such as months of liquidity on hand), and  organizational measures of board and staff engagement.

These and other KPIs are defined in an organization’s long-term plan and then measured with discipline, focus, and urgency, supporting small nonprofit success. As the old saying goes: You can’t manage what you don’t measure — but leaders can’t measure more than a handful of things well, so careful selection is essential.

Read the full article about supporting small nonprofit success by Donald Summers at CEOWORLD Magazine.