Then, one day the bank calls for the past-due loan payments, and the Cause's leaders suffer an identity crisis along with all the rest of their problems. It is a kind of a business, for all its tax-exempt status. No one can say what is the best measure of effectiveness. It is often unclear. In some ways, it is even harder to determine a nonprofit organization's health than that of a regular profitmaking business.
Statistics only provide part of the answer.
With a business, you have a product or a service to market and make or provide. From building new housing to becoming a landlord who has to collect the rent, the identity shift affects the populations being served, as well as the organization itself. The tenants in the neighborhood's new housing moved in thinking the nonprofit was on their side. This becomes hard to reconcile when that same nonprofit comes calling for past-due rent, eventually threatening eviction. One way to prevent such disconcerting moments is to establish separate functions within the organization - social services people, for example, are advocates for the tenants, while the property management people are on hand to identify those tenants behind in their rent payments.