In the Pursuit of Practical Solutions and “Satisficing” Performance: The Case of Israel’s Nonprofit Human Services

Evaluating performance in nonprofit human services remains an ongoing empirical and conceptual challenge. Here, we introduce the concept of "satisficing" to capture the influence of intra- and inter- organizational factors on performance. We contend that the combination of organizational age and size, which shapes an organization’s complexity and dependency, will define the balance between social and economic criteria. Further, we contend that this definition will ultimately enable nonprofit human services to reach a satisficing level of management practices. More importantly, we contend that a practical compromise between social and economic performance determines whether satisficing performance is possible though practical solutions so that both effective attainment of the organizational mission and efficient management practices are possible with little risk of goal displacement.