This is a guest post by Bob Ottenhoff, CEO of Guidestar, which has partnered with BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Independent Sector to launchCharting Impact.

There has been a long-standing debate among nonprofits and those that benefit from nonprofits’ goods and services about how to measure nonprofit effectiveness. It seems every organization has a different method for evaluating its progress, and yet we all know that communicating successes – and failures – are of the most vital importance to stakeholders and donors. Not only is there greater demand for transparency and accountability in the new giving era, but there is a greater demand for data on which to base decisions. At the end of the day, people want to know how their contributions are being used, and they want to find that information easily.

Read the full post.