The field of education has been shaken by announcements from prominent foundations (Annenberg Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Atlantic Philanthropies) that higher education will no longer be a high-priority funding area, due, in part, to a lack of measurable results (Marcy, 2003). Similarly, the nonprofit sector has been taken aback by an article in the "Harvard Business Review" in which authors Bill Bradley, Paul Jansen, and Les Silverman (2003) contend that adopting specific management practices from the business world and creating best practices could save nonprofits $100 billion or more per year. Nonprofits now face the challenge of demonstrating effectiveness in meeting social needs, while funders face the equivalent challenge of ensuring that scarce dollars are invested in the most effective programs. Higher education faces similar challenges, as revealed in the incomplete grade given to states in the area of student learning in the report "Measuring Up 2004" (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education). Both sectors share analogous tribulations when trying to measure effectiveness. In this article, the author uses nine principles of good practice for assessing student learning, as described by Hutchings, and Erwin's characteristics of successful assessment programs (Hutchings, 1993; Erwin, 1991), as a framework to highlight the similarities between outcomes assessment by nonprofit service providers and assessment of student learning by institutions of higher education.