“Listening to the rubric committee’s presentation cast light on how complex it is to evaluate nonprofits. Before my experience in this class, I never appreciated the complexity in deciding how to give nonprofits money. There are many variables needed to evaluate an organization, one of these variables being the nonprofit's alignment with our mission statement. Some of these variables have a degree of subjectivity, as well; every organization has strengths and weaknesses that lie in different areas. There’s also the issue of addressing how not every organization can provide the information we need—it’s a challenge to accurately assess organizations if not all are being assessed on the same exact content. The question comes down to: how do we quantify a nonprofit’s mission, passion, and impact on our community?
The rubric committee’s presentation detailed the way we will do this. Essentially, our class will “grade” each nonprofit based on the following categories: alignment with our mission statement, impact, accessibility, challenges, funding, and management structure.
Objectivity is also important when I consider my own process in evaluating the nonprofits. After the presentation, I thought more deeply about my own bias. Naturally, the more familiar you are with a nonprofit’s mission, the more you want to support it. To fairly evaluate the nonprofits, you have to set aside your personal preferences and cannot allow those emotions to override the objectivity. Our class’s rubric, by design, doesn’t leave room for bias, and that will aid us in making the optimal decision.”
Gina D. - Valparaiso, IN - Senior English major
