Alnoor Ebrahim is a professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His current research addresses two core dilemmas of accountability facing social enterprises, nonprofit organizations, and public agencies: How should they measure and improve their performance? How should they address competing demands for accountability from diverse stakeholders? These questions are addressed in his new book, "Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World," (Stanford University Press, 2019). He is also author of the award-winning book, "NGOs and Organizational Change: Discourse, Reporting, and Learning," and is co-editor of "Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics," (both with Cambridge University Press).
Professor Ebrahim presently serves on advisory boards to the Global Impact Investing Network and Acumen Fund on the topic of impact measurement, and he previously served on a working group established by the G8 to create global guidelines on social impact measurement. He has also worked with the NGO Leaders Forum, an annual gathering of CEOs of the largest humanitarian development organizations based in the U.S. His previous research on accountability mechanisms within the World Bank led to a congressional testimony on improving the Bank’s information disclosure policy. Alnoor teaches courses on leadership and strategy, and also co-chairs an executive education program at the Harvard Kennedy School for the Schwab Foundation’s social entrepreneurs.
Prior to joining The Fletcher School, he served on the faculty at Harvard Business School where he chaired two executive programs for social sector leaders, Harvard Kennedy School, and Virginia Tech. Professor Ebrahim received his doctorate and master’s degrees from Stanford University, and his bachelor of science from M.I.T.
Dichter, S., T. Adams, and A. Ebrahim. 2016 (winter). “The Power of Lean Data,” Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Ebrahim, A., J. Battilana and J. Mair. 2014. “The Governance of Social Enterprises: Mission drift and accountability challenges in hybrid organizations,” Research in Organizational Behavior, 34: 81-100.
Ebrahim, A. and V.K. Rangan. 2014. “What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance,” California Management Review, 56(3): 118-141.
Brown, L.D., A. Ebrahim, and S. Batliwala. 2012. "Governing International Advocacy NGOs." World Development 40(6): 1098-1108.
Ebrahim, A and S. Herz. 2011. “c: The Role of Civil Society” in Jan Aart Scholte (ed.), Building Global Democracy? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance, 58-77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ebrahim, A. 2009. “Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in ‘Thick’ Perspective,” American Behavioral Scientist, 52(6): 885-904.
Ebrahim, A. 2005. “Accountability Myopia: Losing Sight of Organizational Learning,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 34(1): 56-87.
Ebrahim, A. 2003. “Making Sense of Accountability: Conceptual Perspectives for Northern and Southern Nonprofits,” Nonprofit Management and Leadership 14(2): 191-212. (Recipient of Editor’s Prize for best paper).
Ebrahim, A. 2003. “Accountability in Practice: Mechanisms for NGOs,” World Development 31(5): 813-829.
"Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World," (2019 forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
Ebrahim, A. and Edward Weisband (eds). 2007. Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, U.K.
Ebrahim, A. 2003 (hardback) 2005 (paperback). NGOs and Organizational Change: Discourse, Reporting and Learning. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, U.K. (Recipient of Best Book Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action).
Ebrahim, A. 2016. “The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability, ” in D. Renz (ed), The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management (fourth edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 102-123.