OrgAnizational Capacity Assessment
Conducting a nonprofit organizational assessment can be a useful step in supporting or launching organizational capacity development. An organizational capacity assessment provides a framework that facilitates individual reflections and helps stakeholders identify shared concerns and priorities. Using an assessment tool provides a common language to discuss difficult organizational issues and focuses the conversation on the questions within a tool rather than opinions of specific individuals. An assessment tool can also be used to monitor progress to organizational capacity milestones.
Assessment tools typically look at organizational capacity components including vision and strategy; board, staff, and volunteer leadership; programs and services; funding; marketing and communications; finance and infrastructure; and learning and innovation.
There is an array of nonprofit organizational assessment tools to choose from. We choose the right organizational assessment tool for an organization by first understanding the organization’s context and then selecting the right tool to match. The tool we use will depend on the size, stage in the organizational life cycle, appetite, structure, culture, and needs of each client.
Organizational assessment tools we use and draw from include: