Benchmarking and Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations

• Benchmarking: How Nonprofits are Adapting a Business Planning Tool for Enhanced Performance by Christine Letts, William Ryan, and Allen Grossman.
• The Center for What Works - Benchmarking for Nonprofits
• Benchmarking An useful overview by the British National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
• Organizational Fitness: Developing the Capacity to Adapt (Dialogue with Harvard professor Christine Letts) Dr. Letts discusses how benchmarking fits into organizational growth and adaptation.
• Best Practices of Effective Nonprofit Organizations - The Foundation Center (includes an online "self-test" of your understanding of nonprofit best practices.

Data Resources for Nonprofit Benchmarking

• Guidestar The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations

• Common Data-Gathering Methodological Framework - Tips on how to efficiently search for appropriate information.

  • Example: Traumatic Brain Injury Organizations

Cases and Field-Specific Benchmarks

• Department of Energy's Best Practices Benchmarking Training Material
  DOE's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development
• The Association for Benchmarking Health Care
• MuniNet Your Reference Guide to Municipal Web Sites
• Commonwealth of Virginia Best Practices
• America's Most Livable Communities Partners for Livable Communities
• Oregon Progress Board "Oregon Shines" Strategic Plan - The premier state benchmarking project
• Best Practices for Human Settlements The Together Foundation and the UN's Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) have compiled information from around the world on how to address urban issues such as poverty, access to land, clean water, population, shelter, and transportation.
• Best Educational Financial Management Practices Self-Assessment Florida's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability
• Best Financial Management Practices For Florida School Districts Florida's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability

Learning More about Benchmarking

• BPR vs. TQM Comparison of Business Process Design and Total Quality Management
• Best Practices Tutorial Center for Virtual Organization and Commerce
• Overview of Benchmarking - The Free Management Library
• National Partnership for Reinventing Goverment Tools page
• Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site
• International City/County Management Association
• American Productivity and Quality Center Resources on benchmarking, best practices, performance measurement, and process improvement.
• BenchNet The Benchmarking Exchange
• Overview of Benchmarking - The Free Management Library