Performance in the Not-For-Profit Sector – ACCA Advanced Performance Management (APM)

Non-profit seeking organisations are those whose prime goal cannot be assessed by economic means. Examples would include charities and state bodies such as the police and the health service.
For this sort of organisation, it is not possible or desirable to use standard profit measures. Instead (in for example the case of the health service) the objective is to ensure that the best service is provided at the best cost.
In this chapter we will consider the problems of performance measures and suggestions as to how to approach it.

Problems with performance measurement

• Multiple objectives
• The difficulty of measuring outputs
• Financial constraints
• Political, social and legal considerations
• Little market competition and no profit motive.