More from the Author

• | 2013

  Harvard Business Review: Let's Be Realistic About Measuring Impact

  Alnoor Ebrahim

  "Measure impact" has become a mantra for creating social change. Claims about making a difference are no longer sufficient; evidence of how much difference you're making is now required. We should applaud this trend, because results are sometimes ambiguous and claims often go unsubstantiated. But does it really make sense for all mission-driven organizations to measure their long-term impact on society?

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor. "Let's Be Realistic About Measuring Impact." Harvard Business Review (blog). March 13, 2013. http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2013/03/lets-be-realistic-about-measur.html.

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• Article | Nonprofit Management & Leadership | Fall 2012

  Enacting Our Field

  Alnoor Ebrahim

  This keynote address, delivered to the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council at its 25-year "benchmark" conference, examines the pedagogical challenges facing the field of nonprofit management in American higher education. It interrogates four binary distinctions commonly used in scholarship and teaching about the social sector, but which now show signs of eroding: for-profit versus nonprofit, funder versus grantee, local versus global, and secular versus faith-based. Each distinction is examined with the aim of answering two questions: What are the implications for new theorizing about this field? What are the implications for teaching and action? In closing, the essay explores innovations in structuring social sector management programs in order to educate cross-sector leaders capable of addressing critical societal problems.

  Keywords: Conferences; Higher Education; Teaching; Social Issues; Innovation and Invention; Programs; Management; Nonprofit Organizations;

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor. "Enacting Our Field." Keynote Address. Nonprofit Management & Leadership 23, no. 1 (Fall 2012): 13–28. (Keynote Address to the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, 25 Year Benchmark Conference.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2012 (Revised from original 2010 version)

  ActionAid International: Globalizing Governance, Localizing Accountability

  Alnoor Ebrahim and Rachel Gordon

  As a global NGO working in 45 countries, ActionAid International aims to eradicate poverty by addressing its underlying causes such as injustice and inequality. This case follows a series of radical transformations implemented by the organization's CEO, Ramesh Singh--a power shift from its headquarters in London to an international secretariat in Johannesburg; a new federated governance structure that increases the influence of units in Africa and Asia; and, innovations in accountability and transparency to the poor communities with which it works. But as Singh gets ready to step down after seven years, he is confronted with challenges from newly empowered country units that he feels risk taking the organization in the wrong direction. How will the divisions between the Northern and Southern units play out? Will they tear the organization apart, just when it is becoming a global player?

  Keywords: Local Range; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Power and Influence; Johannesburg; London;

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor, and Rachel Gordon. "ActionAid International: Globalizing Governance, Localizing Accountability." Harvard Business School Case 311-004, March 2012. (Revised from original October 2010 version.)

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