a) Generally, evaluating not-for-profit organisations’ performance is difficult but can be managed when ‘value for money’ criteria is used.
Required:
i) Explain FOUR (4) problems associated with performance measurement of not-for-profit organisations. (6 marks)
ii) Explain the THREE (3) main components of ‘value for money criteria’ and their usefulness to not-for-profit organisations. (6 marks)

i) Problems with performance measurement of not-for-profit organisations

  • Multiple objectives: They tend to have multiple objectives, making it difficult to identify which is the overriding objective.
  • Measuring outputs: Outputs can seldom be measured in a way that is generally agreed to be meaningful, making data collection problematic.
  • Lack of profit measure: Without a profit expectation or sales, indicators such as ROI and RI are meaningless.
  • Nature of service provided: Many not-for-profit organizations provide services for which it is difficult to define a cost unit.

ii) Components of ‘value for money criteria’

  • Effectiveness: The relationship between an organization’s outputs and its objectives, ensuring that outputs have the desired impact.
  • Efficiency: The relationship between inputs and outputs, aiming to maximize output for a given input or using the minimum input for a given output.
  • Economy: Acquiring the appropriate quantity and quality of inputs at the lowest cost, ensuring resources are of suitable quality to provide the desired service standard.