Abstract
Central to the discussion of strategies for achieving sustainability within non-profits is the interpretation of the contribution of concepts such as growth and profit to success measures. This qualitative study examines how leaders of non-profit organizations view the concepts of profit (efficiency) and growth within the context of their organizations, particularly when certain types of resources are considered. It is a follow-up to an initial quantitative analysis of historical IRS data for 147 animal shelter non-profit organizations that compared metrics for these concepts to similar metrics produced from commercial venture analyses (Authors hidden, 2011). From this initial sample, 30 CEOs were randomly selected and interviewed via phone about their perceptions of strategy, growth versus profit, their use of financial metrics, and how they define growth in the context of their organization. The results indicate that the CEOs themselves may not have strategic control over their resources as over half of leaders reported a strategy that did not match the outcome. Additionally, definitions of growth varied greatly, as did the metrics CEOs use to track performance.