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When Dollars Don’t Tell the Whole Story: The Value of Nonprofit Mission Metrics

Erica Harris et al.

Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance2026https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x261438885article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Measuring nonprofit performance has been a perennial challenge. While current mandated reports require financial information about dollars received and spent, donors and regulators encourage voluntary disclosures of mission activities. Because there are few common measures across different types of nonprofit organizations and no designated reporting mechanism, studying the information value of mission performance has been difficult. We use a database of nonprofit impact-based performance indicators recently made available through GuideStar to investigate the usefulness of information contained in measures we call “mission metrics.” Examining two distinct stakeholders—donors and directors—and controlling for financial and governance factors, we find that donations and executive bonus compensation are positively associated with any improvement in mission metrics. Bonuses, but not donations, are lower in years after all reported metrics decline. These results confirm the value relevance of nonprofit mission metrics.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x261438885

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@article{erica2026,
  title        = {{When Dollars Don’t Tell the Whole Story: The Value of Nonprofit Mission Metrics}},
  author       = {Erica Harris et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x261438885},
}

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When Dollars Don’t Tell the Whole Story: The Value of Nonprofit Mission Metrics

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.