Key performance indicators (KPIs) have become woven into the fabric of most businesses and pushed into the psyches of our organizations. In an effort to better understand and manage our businesses, we’ve created more of them and in the process have diffused their impact and value. And although a few organizations have evolved and cleverly devised leading KPIs, the rest of us have lost sight of their purpose and construction.

A perennial challenge for any non-profit organization is to balance the mission of serving others, for the benefit of humanity, with the management basics required for the organization’s survival and growth.  Both sides of the house, program management and business management, require experience and skill sets particular to each functional area to be successful.  The latter focuses more on the heart, in the sensitive intricacies of caring and compassion involved in serving others.  The former demand a pragmatic view and sometimes involves making difficult and unpopular decisions.  Non-profit organizations are important to the well-being of society and their very survival is often dependent upon having strength in both, seemingly dichotomous domains.