The two big challenges – Ethics and Evaluation Ethics and evaluation have always been a priority for me. My mom always told me as a youth, “Whatever you do, do something good.” And my dad always told me, “Whatever you do, do it well.” These two values inevitably led me to a career with nonprofits. My first career was working with five leading nonprofit organizations to “do something good and do it well” and my second career was consulting and teaching others how to “do something good and do it well.” Now my focus is writing and sharing more widely what I have learned in a lifetime of experience, research, and getting results in the civil society sector. Civil society organizations are at risk in many countries as I write this book. NGOs are dismissed or even under attack for various reasons such as aiding those subject to discrimination or oppression, advocating for freedom or justice, opposing divisive decisions or regressive actions, or just bringing truth to people. They are also limited because many people – or perhaps most people – are not convinced of the trustworthiness and effectiveness of charities, or don’t see the problems beyond their own immediate surroundings. The purpose of this book is to address trustworthiness and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. I have seen enough to know that trust comes from ethical behavior and respect comes from achievement of results. The best NGOs already perform well in these two areas and, as a result, are increasing their revenues and expanding their impacts. These best NGOs are getting bigger because in the public’s eyes they are better. The challenge for smaller and mid-size organizations, and some older large ones that are not getting better and bigger, is to address ethics and evaluation as a priority. Why would anyone give their financial support or volunteer their time to an organization if they don’t trust and respect it? As reported in the December 2020 issue of NonProfit Times, we know from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that in the U.S., “the vast majority of nonprofits raise $1 million or less each year.” Globally, the vast majority of all nonprofits are small. Imagine if they all could become completely trusted and highly respected how much more they could achieve!