Charity leaders can demonstrate their effectiveness by focusing on the outcomes they seek and showing their progress in meeting them, speakers at the Better Business Bureau’s ninth annual Charity Symposium told a crowd of more than 130 Thursday at the Chase Park Plaza, in St. Louis.

“We have to be outcome-oriented in this sector,” said keynote speaker Doug Bauer, executive director of The Clark Foundation of New York.

Nonprofits must be “brutally honest” about their ability to meet society’s needs, Bauer said. They need to look for ways they can collaborate or partner with other nonprofits. Partnerships should be formed long before a nonprofit is floundering. They should be seen as an opportunity to expand services and pare costs rather than a solution to problems.

Charles Gasper, director of evaluation for the Missouri Foundation for Health, said nonprofits and their (more…)