The most important part of assessing the capacity of your organization is discovering areas of weakness that you are not yet aware of. Once you are aware of a weakness, although sometimes daunting, it is often clear how to proceed. But it is the discovery of what you don’t know that requires a systematic approach to reviewing the capacity of your organization. While one approach to a systematic review is to engage an “expert”, this is sometimes not possible. There are other alternatives. Below are resources to carry out your own capacity assessment.
In the process of carrying out capacity assessments through the Power of We Capacity Building program, numerous participants contributed to the creation of a guiding set of questions to examine an organization. An organization, using those questions, can conduct an effective self-examination of its capacity. A small group of interested Board members or volunteers might serve as a Capacity Assessment Committee and utilize this outline as a guiding tool.
Another self-assessment tool, developed by McKinsey and Company for Venture Philanthropy Partners. The Marguerite Casey Foundation modified the Venture Philanthropy Partners self-assessment instrument and has their version available for download after filling out a form with your basic demographic information.
A Suggested Procedure
A capacity assessment is best carried out with a small team of two or three people who take on the task of leading the assessment. For example, they could be committed Board members or ardent supporters. Their role is to raise questions from a neutral perspective that the staff and Board leadership can attempt to answer. In the end the decisions about how to prioritize areas in which to build capacity and how to proceed should be decided by those who are involved in direct running of the organization. With the tools that have been identified above the starting questions will be clear, and committed supporters with some knowledge of your organization will be able to ask the kinds of follow-up questions that will help to focus on the areas where capacity building is required.