Measuring the Intangible: An Exploration of Performance Measurement in Non-Governmental Organizations

The difficulty of measuring complex goals within nongovernmental organizations is well detailed in nonprofit management literature. For many years, NGOs have faced obstacles ranging from the technical difficulties of measuring intangible missions to ambiguous or unreliable performance criteria to political issues in the design of measurement systems that cater to diverse stakeholders. But despite the challenges, many nongovernmental organizations and researchers are rising to the challenge to design and implement effective systems of measurement.