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Doing Good Work

Implications of Performance Accountability for Practice in the Nonprofit Sector

Lehn M. Benjamin is with Nonprofit Management Studies, Department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Email: lbenjami{at}gmu.edu

Kajri Misra

Kajri Misra is with the Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca. Email: km245{at}cornell.edu

Nonprofit accountability remains a pressing public concern. In response, funders around the globe have adopted performance measurement to use with their grantees in order to ensure accountability and secure some social benefit for their investment. Yet, we still have limited empirical evidence about the consequences of using performance accountability frameworks in the nonprofit sector. This article seeks to further our understanding by examining how the emphasis on accountability and results is influencing the practice of a set of US funders. We find that the idea that nonprofits ‘do good work’, which is so central to the nonprofit sector, may limit the role of performance measurement in organizational learning and thus in actually improving performance.

International Journal of Rural Management, Vol. 2, No. 2, 147-162 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/097300520600200202


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