Evaluation in nonprofit organizations: A defense of perception as a managerial and scientific tool

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are subject to multiple pressures from their stakeholders. Stakeholders are at the same time the target of the organization's mission, the evaluators, the providers of resources and the demanders. This article is an essay that defends reciprocal perception as a managerial tool. The proposed intellectual path leads to the revalorization of stakeholder perception as a very useful practical and scientific tool for the management and study of NPOs. However, perception has limitations that the introduction of the concept of reciprocity can address.