Skip the primary navigation if you do not want to read it as the next section.
Skip the main content if you do not want to read it as the next section.
NPC’s Martin Brookes (right) and The Economist’s New York Bureau Chief Matthew Bishop (left) discuss the issues around valuing impact at NPC’s conference in May. Photo © Kristian Buus
The last quarter of a century has seen the rise of many new professions, including investment managers, alternative healing practitioners, social entrepreneurs, call centre operators to name but a few.
Now, perhaps it is time to add another one to the list: the non-profit analyst.
Commercial organisations have been scrutinised by analysts and rating agencies for many years, but in the charity world, such independent analysis is either new or absent. Non-profit analysis is too diverse and inconsistent to be called a profession. Outside the third sector, there is little awareness that non-profit analysis even takes place, and outside their own organisations, there is little support for people who assess third sector organisations.
In response to this need, New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) and the Bertelsmann Foundation hosted a groundbreaking conference on 19th May, to discuss the possibility of an Association of Nonprofit Analysts (ANA).
The event brought together 200 professionals from all over the world. Some make grants or interpret social impact. Others commentate on charitable performance or create social impact themselves.
And they all have one thing in common: a passion for non-profit analysis. All aim to change lives: helping the vulnerable, nurturing families and improving communities. As Martin Brookes, chief executive of NPC, said in an address to the conference: "That purpose embraces us all. Everyone in this room wishes to apply hard-nosed analysis to achieve social good. We want to get more out of the third sector—that is at the heart of our work. We approach it in different ways, with different philosophies, but with that basic common goal.”
From this common goal came a day of challenge and debate, as participants explored how impact analysis is transforming the non-profit sector. Responses to the event were overwhelmingly positive.
But the conference aimed to go beyond this one day of networking and debating methodologies. It was a conference with ambition, looking to create a collective endeavour more lasting and useful for non-profit analysis. It was the idea of ANA that turned a conference about impact into a groundbreaking first step.
The proposed association has the potential to raise the profile of the discipline of non-profit analysis and shape it as a profession, uniting people from a disparate array of fields. It would provide support for analysts and forums for sharing and learning. And it would improve the sector, encouraging better standards, frameworks and judgements about the performance of nonprofits.
As Brookes put it: “If an association can help us to find better ways of understanding and analysing non-profits - without losing the stories and anecdotes which convey the richness and importance of their work—it will contribute towards a better sector and a better world."
In the conference’s closing plenary, participants cast their votes about the idea of the association—80% said that they would like to become a member, and a quarter said they would be interested in becoming founding members.
This feedback will be taken on board when NPC, the Bertelsmann Foundation and other interested organisations plan their next steps and explore the practicalities of establishing an association.
Through ANA, the charitable sector itself would become more effective in helping the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. In the words of keynote speaker Matthew Bishop: “Charity analysis can transform both the sector and the way that money works in society as a whole … I think that this will be a significant meeting that will be looked back on as a turning point in philanthropy.”
To find out more about ANA, and to see a report from the conference, visit www.nonprofitanalysts.org.
Esther Paterson has co-authored the report Short changed, on financial exclusion and When I'm 65, which is an update on NPC's earlier older people report. Esther has a Masters in the Psychology of Religion from the University of Cambridge.
Download Newsletter
Subscribe