Just saw this coming across the Wire: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-guard-youth-foundations-sixth-annual-challenge-champions-gala-highlights-nations-critical-dropout-epidemic-117332738.html
The National Guard Youth Foundation seems to be doing a few things right, from a non-profit cadet program standpoint. Tracking how many "graduates" they have from their cadet program annually, for one (and capitalizing on that figure as a mark of success). And holding a major national fundraising gala to support their cadet programs for another.
It made me curious, so I pulled down a copy of the foundation's 2009 tax returns. In 2009, that one-night gala raised over $305,000 for their cadet program.
Makes you wonder why our "CAP Foundation" still hasn't taken flight three or four years after being fully chartered and stood up, huh?
Measuring success is important and I wish CAP did more of it, though it is somewhat easier to accomplish for a program like Youth Challenge which is more of a 1 shot deal than something like CAP where you could be a cadet for over a decade.