What is the overhead cost ratio? Can focusing on overhead hurt the charity sector? What's the relationship between overhead and outcomes? Are there better ways to measure charity effectiveness? These questions are answered in this episode.

You'll hear from Hala Altamimi, an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas. Hala's research focuses on efficiency and effectiveness in the public and nonprofit sectors.

Find out more about Hala:

On the University of Kansas website: https://spaa.ku.edu/people/hala-altamimi

On Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c2QxxsAAAAAJ

You can find out more about your host, Zac Parsons, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zwparsons/

For resources, reflection, and the transcript, visit: https://contributemore.org/ha/

Chapters:

(0:00) Intro

(0:35) What is the overhead coat ratio?

(4:24) What is the nonprofit starvation cycle?

(7:21) Why do we rely on the overhead cost ratio and is there a benefit to keeping overhead costs low?

(13:47) Can we spend as much as we want on overhead?

(15:06) Hala Altamimi’s research into the relationship between overhead and outcomes

(18:38) How much variance is there in optimal overhead spending?

(22:48) What metrics should we use instead of the overhead cost ratio?

(26:49) Should we be encouraging nonprofits and donors to agree on their own metrics of success?

(29:12) Outro

(30:46) Homework