It will take some time to learn if the recent issues concerning Greg Mortensen are the result of the failures of a charismatic founder or something worse. But this whole affair points out the difficulties – as well as the urgency – in finding better ways of understanding nonprofit performance and effectiveness.

In my last blog post, I talked about the current controversy surrounding Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson and his organization, the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Is this a classic case of a charismatic founder engaging in hyperbole and not paying attention to the details of the organization or is there something worse going on? How do we as donors make judgments about nonprofit organizations?

I for one am going to hold off on making any judgment on Greg Mortensen and his nonprofit organization Central Asia Institute (CAI). There are too many facts that I don’t know about. As Nicholas Kristof pointed out in his column yesterday, “let’s not forget that even if all the allegations turn out to be true, Greg has still built more schools and transformed more children’s lives than you or I ever will.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/opinion/21kristof.html