NonProfit Summit

Pittsburgh's Nonprofit Summit 2005 comes to the Convention Center this coming Tuesday. Though the program looks deep and interesting, it also looks very traditional and conventional. Here's the session that caught my eye, and not in a good way:

J. Measuring Change: The Why, The What, The How. Where are you headed? What do you want to accomplish? How are you going to monitor changes that are taking place? This interactive session will enhance your ability to design and implement a plan and process to measure change. It will clarify the reasons and purpose for measuring change, define the types of elements to be measured, identify approaches and strategies for measuring change, and provide an overview of the logic model. Be prepared to apply these ideas and principles to your individual situation.

Holy Taylorism! Nonprofits can't be cavalier with their money. But achieving real impact means taking real risks and accepting that sometimes, those risks don't pay off. Low risk = low return.