Nonprofit Organizational Assessment

be confused with actual outcomes, although both are pertinent to measuring progress.
Outcome indicators are assigned a specific numerical measurement "that indicates
progress toward achieving an outcome," but are not the outcomes themselves.
Example of Indicators vs. Outcomes
Performance indicators are typically quantified, with measurable descriptors like ratio,
incidence, proportion, or percentage, to demonstrate progress. When establishing
progress between reporting periods, an indicator may also express measurement by
using words such as the change in, or the difference to describe values for particular
reporting periods. By contrast, an outcome might measure the 'number of cases
correctly resolved during the time period or the percentage by which the number
increased this reporting period as compared to the previous period.' Thus, if
a transportation system outcome indicator measures the percentage of roads in good
condition, the transportation system outcome would be that roads be in acceptable and
durable condition.
Performance measurement systems are often criticized for putting emphasis on
indicators, at the expense of important outcome characteristics, which can lead to a
misallocation of program funding resources and strategic endeavor. It is vital that
indicators include a comprehensive set of outcomes that anticipate undesired ones.
Examples of putting more emphasis on indicators than outcomes, include a law
enforcement agencyfocusing solely on the number of police arrests, or a tax
agency focusing solely on amount of dollars collected. Such laser focus creates
a perverse incentive that might 'tempt staff to harass individual citizens [and]
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