A Guide to Organizational Capacity Assessment Tools
Finding and Using the Right Tool for the Job
A memo for funders, consultants and nonprofits on choosing and using organisational capacity assessment tools. Informing Change reviewed 91 assessment tools, checklists and guides for the Hewlett Foundation. Sections cover methodology, what a good assessment experience looks like, cross-cutting lessons, how to select a tool and specific situations for using one. A companion spreadsheet database lists the tools. Its main finding is that the process around a tool matters as much as the tool.
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How to cite
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2017). A Guide to Organizational Capacity Assessment Tools: Finding and Using the Right Tool for the Job. https://hewlett.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/A-Guide-to-Using-OCA-Tools.pdf
Related in the library
- 1.2C003
Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool
A self-assessment spreadsheet that nonprofits complete to rate their own capacity. Developed by the Marguerite Casey Foundation from The Conservation Company's Capacity Assessment Grid, it covers 4 areas: leadership, adaptive, management and operational capacity. It includes instructions for filling it in and a scoring calculation, so organisations can benchmark progress over time. Grantmakers also use the results to understand grantee capacity and track its growth during a grant.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 1.2C004
Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT)
A survey-based capacity assessment that a nonprofit's leaders complete to rate the organisation across a set of capacity areas, producing scores that show strengths and gaps. Social Venture Partners and other funders use it to open a conversation with grantees about where to invest in capacity. Social Venture Partners International hosts version 1 as a free Excel workbook.
ClassicTool or templateFree - 1.2C005
Capacity for Conservation
A free online platform for conservation organisations that want to assess their strengths, plan their development and find learning resources. Built by BirdLife International and Fauna & Flora, it includes self-assessment and planning tools on organisational development and resilience, a resource library of over 260 tools and case studies, an eLearning hub with over 40 courses and an archive of recorded webinars. Teams use it to assess themselves and then follow up with matched resources.
CurrentKey online resourceFree - 1.2C007
Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment
A guide for Pact staff, partners and other organisations that want to run Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA). The OCA is a participatory, strengths-based method and tool that helps an organisation measure its capacity, rank its organisational challenges and put improvement strategies in place. The guide sets out how a facilitator prepares and runs the process with an organisation. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence.
CurrentTool or templateFree - 1.2C008
Bridgespan Organizational Effectiveness Framework survey
An online team survey on Org360 that runs a Bridgespan-based organisational assessment for nonprofits. It has 85 questions and takes about 34 minutes. Areas include strategic clarity, governance, financial sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion, with rating questions and open reflection questions. Leaders, board members and staff respond, and Org360 produces an automatic report with strengths, gaps and a development plan. It is free to use after sign-up.
Start hereEmergingTool or templateFree with sign-upNonprofit Builder tool - 3.1C028
Boards of Directors and Governance Systems
A practical guide to strengthening NGO boards, first written in Spanish for organisations in Latin America, where board development tools adapted to local culture and language were scarce. The English version followed requests from outside the region. It walks through board roles, structures and governance systems in practical steps, with tools that boards and executive directors can apply to their own organisation.
Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree
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