A Managerial Perspective on the Use of the Balanced Scorecard for Non-Profit Organizations in Educational Field

The performance and its monitoring is an objective for both economic entities and non-profit organizations (NPOs) that do not pursue the profit, but the engagement in certain social activities. One of the most known instruments used for this purpose is Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced scorecard (BSC). In this paper we intend to adapt the classical BSC model in non-profit organizations which activate in educational field. The starting point of our research is represented by an analysis of the literature which contains BSC approaches for different types of NPOs. We consider a number of 22 papers and books in which there can be found aspects, different points of view and objectives, regarding BSC structure for NPOs. Forward we started with the BSC classical structure, reorganizing the four axes and proposing specific indicators and metrics for each of them. More than that, we proposed a hierarchy model for the chosen indicators. At its base, a good knowledge of the particularities of the NPOs for which the BSC was created is mandatory. In respect of, 41 indicators were identified for our model, out of which 10 for the customer axis, 6 for internal processes axis, 14 for financial axis and finally, 11 for innovation and growth axis. Certainly, creating a BSC for NPOs is subjected to potential limits related, on one way, to the organization’s capacity/incapacity to obtain non-economic founds and, on the other way, to the ability of the top management to correlate its activity with the operational levels.