NPC contributes to measurement debate at Voluntary Sector Studies Conference

How important is it to measure charities’ effectiveness? How can the research community help create a better charity sector, and with it, improve people’s lives?

These questions were addressed in a panel session run by NPC at the recent Voluntary Sector Studies conference. The conference, organised by the National Council of Voluntary Organisations, is an annual bunfight bringing together academics interested in the voluntary sector, and is always full of lively discussion.

The panel session comprised a debate about the benefits of measuring charities’ results, with speakers from NPC, a charity and an academic. Contributions from the audience were also invited.

Tris Lumley, Head of NPC Tools, stated that charities do not measure enough, something which hinders their improvement. He argued that academics could play a larger role in helping charities understand the effectiveness of their work and presented an analysis of the papers presented at the conference over the last four years, which indicated that just 7% look predominantly at the issue of effectiveness.

Mick Atkinson, Contracts and Commissioning Manager at charity the Place2Be, described how measuring and understanding the results of his charity is fundamental to helping them to continue to develop and improve. It allows them to make comparisons between branches in different parts of the country, and spot strengths and weaknesses.

Rob Paton, Professor of Social Enterprise at the Open University Business School, questioned the emphasis put on measurement as the answer to charities problems. Whilst agreeing that measurement is a key tool in providing charities’ management with information to help them to improve, he argued that the charitable sector needs to avoid falling into a damaging ‘measurement fundamentalism’. Practical problems, such as a cost-benefit trade-off of measurement, as well as the reality of what drives funding decisions, mean that we need a sensitive and practical approach to measurement.

Contributors from the audience made the point that very often funders do not care about results, and that much of the talk of ‘outcomes funding’ is rhetoric. The discussion also addressed whether the ‘gold standard’ of randomised control trials in studying charities were the most appropriate and practical approach.

Click here to read the paper prepared for the session.
Click here to see the analysis of papers presented at the last four conferences.
Click here for more information on the Voluntary Sector Studies Network.

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