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Online
Session Date-Application DeadlineProgram Fee$4,200Faculty ChairProgram Director
Executive Certificate: This program is a core program in the Nonprofit Leadership concentration. This program can also be used as a third program for any concentration in the Executive Certificate series.
Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs): This program aligns with one or more Executive Core Qualifications.
Program Overview
When it comes to measuring organizational performance, nonprofits face unique challenges. In addition to measuring financial performance, nonprofit executives must be able to tangibly evaluate social and environmental impacts.
Harvard Kennedy School’s Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation online executive program that helps nonprofit leaders think conceptually about organizational performance-measurement systems. Through live presentations led by Faculty Chair Dutch Leonard, along with case studies and group discussions, you will examine the rationale behind performance measurement.
Join us to learn how to align your organization’s mission, strategy, and performance—and how to develop a culture of learning and innovation at your nonprofit. You will also discover how to assess and communicate outcomes to partners and stakeholders. And you will find out how to identify, institute, and sustain key metrics.
PROGRAM CURRICULUM
Developed by the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education, and The Hauser Institute for Civil Society, Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation is an online program designed to cover all aspects of nonprofit performance measurement.
The program will take place over six half days: Thursday, March 21 from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern Time (ET), and Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29 from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET daily. Live online classes will run from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM ET. Participants will spend one hour with their discussion groups in the mornings before classes on Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29 from 8:00 to 9:00 AM ET. Select days will also feature open conversations with faculty. The program sessions take place via the Zoom platform. Please note that there are no live program sessions scheduled from Friday, March 22 through Sunday, March 24.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation covers these key areas:
- Aligning mission and organizational performance management: Linking organizational performance, mission, and impact; comparing what is being measured and what is being delivered; developing a theory of change and logic model
- Challenges and obstacles to managing organizational performance: Building a performance-based culture; developing capacity within the organization; implementing a performance management strategy
- Innovation through measurement: Designing experiments to develop new interventions and improve existing programs; fostering a learning mindset
- Collaborating with partners: Using data to communicate social and environmental outcomes to key stakeholders; dealing with the forces that shape the nonprofit environment
- Sustainable performance management systems: Understanding and overcoming implementation challenges; institutionalizing continuous improvement in your organization; assessing communication issues
Application Information
Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation is designed for senior leaders (typically with budgets over $1 million) committed to improving performance measurement and management.
Those who will benefit from the program include:
- Chief executive officers
- Presidents
- Executive directors
- Chief financial officers
- Chief operating officers
- Board chairs
- Deputy directors
This leadership training program is suited for individuals as well as teams. It is focused on organization-level performance measurement and management, not individual-level or human resource-focused performance measurement and management. View a sample program schedule here.
WHAT PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING
“This program gave me the tools to create a properly calibrated, flexible performance measurement system. It is a transformational experience for anyone leading a nonprofit organization.”
Kevin Worden, Executive Director, Rochester Habitat for Humanity
Faculty & Research

Herman B. (Dutch) Leonard

James Honan

