Summary of Effective Economic Decision-Making by Nonprofit Organizations

Effective Decision-Making by Nonprofit Organizations is the first major publication of the National Center on Nonprofit Enterprise (NCNE) founded in 1998 to "help nonprofit organizations make wise economic decisions." NCNE was organized on the premise that in a world of increasing competition and scarce resources, nonprofits need to develop ever more sophisticated ways of thinking about their economic decisions. The contents of this publication will be especially useful to public-serving charitable organizations, 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s, that rely on paid staff and manage significant sums of money.

Divided into three parts with content written by twelve co-authors, the first part examines core operating decisions such as how to price services, how to compensate workers, and how to decide what kinds of activities to administer in-house or to outsource. The second part addresses resource development issues specific to nonprofits, including how much to spend on raising charitable contributions and how to determine the amount of endowment funds to invest or disburse. The third part covers strategic decisions on programmatic ventures, institutional collaborations, and Internet engagement. A concluding chapter synthesizes overall observations to provide seven insights into effective economic decision-making for nonprofits.