Not Measuring Is Not An Option in Nonprofit

In chapter 13 of "Measure What Matters", Katie Paine discusses how measurement and accountability have recently become more important than ever in the nonprofit world. The creation of social media has completely changed how nonprofits reach their audiences. However, all of the social media in the world does not make a difference without measurement. Due to how competitive the world is, nonprofits need to measure like for-profit companies to receive donations to keep pushing their mission. Nonprofits have to be transparent enough for donors to be sure that their funds are going to programs and initiatives that are benefiting from the nonprofit.

All of these above goals can be achieved through measurement. Katie Paine believes that any nonprofit organization can measure its success by following her six step process:

1. Using the organizations mission to define objectives
2. Identifying and prioritizing audiences
3. Establishing a benchmark
4. Picking metrics
5. Picking a measurement tool
6. Analyzing results and making changes

However, practitioners of nonprofit public relations may not agree that is as easy as she leads on to believe. Maggie McGary, a marketing manager for a nonprofit organization, is in charge of measuring social media for her organization. In her blog, she details the struggle of combining Facebook, Youtube, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram data into one simple, readable report at the end of the month. While larger, for-profit organizations have the benefit of a budget that allows access to $500 programs that quickly create a report of the metrics, nonprofit is not that lucky. Instead, nonprofits must pull out data individually or use free, but not as convenient, analytic tools. There is not a tool available for nonprofits to easily access measurable data and combine it into one report. While Katie Paine gives good steps for measuring in the nonprofit sector and understands the importance of social media in nonprofit, she does not outline how a nonprofit organization with a nearly nonexistent budget can find these measurements in a timely manner.