What would count as progress
A measure computable from public data for most large charities, shown to track independently assessed effectiveness better than overhead does.
Why it matters
Telling donors to stop using overhead has been tried. The Overhead Myth persists partly because nothing equally simple replaced it.
Where to start
Candidate measures include published outcome data, the presence of independent evaluations, transparency about failures and feedback from the people served. Each has to be tested for whether it can be gamed. Open Form 990 data from Charity Impact Media provides source-linked spending records.