Each group has its own goals, so each group asks its own questions about performance. No single measure informs all the questions, nor does any single measure give all the useful information for any single question. Humans must analyze many measures to come up with ways to improve performance. This document gives measures that inform the questions drawn from the goals of each group. The measures differ in the resources with an opportunity cost, in the opportunity cost itself, and in the time frame.
Sustainability is defined as repeating performance in the future.
Such permanency requires a flexible organization and a structure of incentives to maintain performance in spite of changes in the environment Judging measures as they stretch into the future is qualitative and so takes human work and smarts. No quantitative measure is sufficient for self-sustainability. Performance is progress in reaching the mission of microfinance. The mission is to make the lives of poor people better by producing outreach, loans and deposits used by the poor. Measurement is worthwhile if the benefits of better performance are more than the costs of measurement.