Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Spring 2014
  • Article
  • California Management Review

What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Organizations with social missions, such as nonprofits and social enterprises, are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. This article draws on several cases to build a performance assessment framework premised on an organization's operational mission, scale, and scope. Not all organizations should measure their long-term impact, defined as lasting changes in the lives of people and their societies. Rather, some organizations would be better off measuring shorter-term outputs or individual outcomes. Funders such as foundations and impact investors are better positioned to measure systemic impacts.

Keywords

Nonprofit Organizations; Performance Evaluation

Citation

Ebrahim, Alnoor, and V. Kasturi Rangan. "What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance." California Management Review 56, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 118–141.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

V. Kasturi Rangan

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    The END Fund (B)

    By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han
    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    The END Fund: To Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases

    By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han
    • November 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Goonj: Growing in the Face of a Pandemic

    By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Priyank Narayan
More from the Authors
  • The END Fund (B) By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han
  • The END Fund: To Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han
  • Goonj: Growing in the Face of a Pandemic By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Priyank Narayan
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College