IPR - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern University

P
hilanthropy and
Nonprofit Organizations
The rapidly growing and evolving nonprofit sector is prominent in major service industries such
as hospitals, nursing homes, higher education, and museums—often competing with for-profit
and government organizations but also often collaborating with them. These interactions among
institutional forms in mixed industries are a key research focus of this program and its chair,
economist Burton Weisbrod. Faculty in this area examine:
• performance measures of both nonprofit and public service organizations
• accountability in the nonprofit and public sectors
• comparative behavior among different forms of institutions
• healthcare costs and competition
Overview of Activities
< Performance Measurement of Nonprofits
Fundamental to problem solving for any firm, be it
nonprofit, public, or for-profit, is how to empirically
measure “performance” or “outcomes” to enhance
performance. Yet to gauge nonprofit and public services,
such as hospitals, museums, schools, or the police, by
a private profitability metric is an exceedingly complex
undertaking. Such a gauge does not adequately reflect
their true societal contributions and thus misses key
aspects of their performance. Against this backdrop,
economist Burton Weisbrod heads a unique interdisciplinary
group exploring how to gauge and improve
performance measures in the public and nonprofit
sectors and how to translate such measures into effective
and efficient reward systems for the persons involved,
including teachers, police, and hospital administrators.
Weisbrod, John Evans Professor of Economics, organizes
the IPR Seminar Series on Performance
Measurement around the core belief that the challenges
of measuring performance and establishing rewards are
the same regardless of the area of application. In addition
to speakers from universities and organizations locally
and around the United States, the series welcomed
a multidisciplinary line-up of Northwestern faculty.
The second year kicked off with the Spencer Foundation’s
chief financial officer, Mary Cahillane, who
reviewed the foundation’s efforts to measure the success
of its grant-making activities. Field Museum program
director Elizabeth Babcock addressed the challenges of
measuring the success of education and scientific outreach
programs at a nonprofit natural history museum.
Chair
Burton Weisbrod, Economics
Weisbrod heads a unique interdisciplinary group that explores how
to gauge and improve performance measures for nonprofit and
public sector organizations.
21