Capacity-Building

“20 Questions Directors Should Ask About Strategy,” by Dr. Chris Bart, CA, The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, 2006. This monograph offers a structured framework through which directors can fulfill their new responsibilities in terms of “developing, assessing, approving, monitoring and changing” their organization’s strategy. Although written for corporate board members, the information put forth is equally applicable to nonprofit boards.

“Building Adaptive Capacity: The Quest for Improved Organizational Performance,” Carl Sussman, research paper, 2003. This paper defines three forms of capacity (programmatic, organizational, and adaptive) and how to balance them. It examines how to build capacity both internally and externally.

“Building Community Capacity to Meet Public Needs,” Lydian Altman-Sauer, Margaret Henderson, and Gordon Whitaker, Popular Government, Winter, 2005. Link to article provided with permission of the School of Government, copyright 2005. This copyrighted material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the School of Government, CB# 3330 UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3330; telephone: 919-966-4119; fax 919-962-2707; Web address: www.sog.unc.edu. This article identifies benefits that local governments receive from working with small community nonprofits, challenges that these nonprofits often face in developing internal strength, reasons that governments help address these challenges, and strategies that governments use to provide such assistance.

“Business Plans for Nonprofits,” BoardSource 2009. This article gives a quick 2-page outline for how to write a business plan for a nonprofit. Additional resources are cited. Reprinted with permission from www.boardsource.org . BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, is the premier resource for practical information, tools, and training for board members and chief executives of nonprofit organizations worldwide. For more information about BoardSource, call 800-883-6262 or visit www.boardsource.org . BoardSource © 2009. Text may not be reproduced without written permission from BoardSource.

“Evaluating Capacity-Building Efforts for Nonprofit Organizations,” Paul Connolly and Peter York, OD Practitioner, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2002. This article explains how nonprofit organizations, consultants, funders, and evaluators can evaluate capacity-building activities.

“Everyday Leaders: Building the Adaptive Capacity of Nonprofit Organizations,” Anne Sherman, TCC Group newsletter, Winter, 2005. This article defines adaptive capacity and adaptive leadership and outlines strategies for building adaptive leadership capacity. NOTE: you will need to scroll down to find the Winter 2005 edition of this newsletter, and you will be asked to register (free) in order to view the article.

“Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations” DIOSA Communications, July 29, 2010. Forty tips on how nonprofits can best leverage Facebook.

“Five Ways Leaders Can Leverage Evaluation as a Learning Tool” by Peter York, TCC Group, August 2010. The author outlines five ways to use evaluation as a learning tool: 1) by helping organizations to engage in organizational learning, 2) by using the evaluation tool of logic modeling to begin strategic planning, 3) by using evaluation information for decision making, 4) by garnering support from funders and donors, and 5) by establishing community leadership and credibility.

“Getting Social Media Right: A Short Guide for Nonprofit Organizations” by Richard Steele, Sivan McLetchie, and Chris Lindquist, The Bridgespan Group, October 26, 2010. This report lays out a rubric the authors call the "Seven C's" of social media: Cause, Communication, Community, Collaboration, Costs, Capital, and Competition. The rubric helps nonprofits evaluate the effectiveness of their social media efforts.

“Leveraging Social Media in a Nonprofit Job Search,” Bridgestar 2009. Don’t let the title of this article fool you! The article is an interview with Beth Kantor of Beth’s Blog and includes many ideas about how to use social media that are not just for the nonprofit job seeker.

“Living into Your Strategic Plan: A Guide to Implementation That Gets Results,” by Jacquelyn Hadley, Laura Lanzerotti, and Adam Nathan, Bridgespan, June 23, 2011.
This guide is intended to help an organization stay on track with the implementation of a new strategic plan. It breaks the process down into the following six steps: 1) Translate Strategic Goals into Actionable Initiatives, 2) Create a Blueprint for Change, 3) Mobilize the Team, 4) Align Finances to Support Implementation, 5) Monitor Progress, and 6) Revisit Your Strategy and Repeat the Process. It also includes a number of helpful templates, such as one for a communications plan and one for a board-level dashboard. Each step has at least one template.

“Measurement as Learning: Executive Summary,” by Jeri Eckhart-Queenan and Matt Forti, Bridgespan, April 25, 2011. This article offers five key lessons to guide the development of an effective approach to performance measurement: 1) begin with the end in mind, 2) anchor measurement in the organization’s theory of change, 3) create a culture of measurement, 4) ensure all contributors benefit, and 5) get better at measurement over time. You can download the full article and find additional resource links within this summary.

“Merging Wisely,” by David La Piana, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2010 (http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/merging_wisely/). David La Piana is by far the leading expert in the field of nonprofit mergers, collaborations, and other types of strategic alliances. In this article he looks at the pros and cons of mergers and other types of nonprofit partnerships.

“New Sustainability Model to Aid Nonprofits,” by George T. Dillon and Matthew M. Wilkins, Environmental News and Views, May 2005. In 2004, the Internal Revenue Service issued a ruling that provided a model by which tax-exempt organizations may safely enter into joint ventures with for-profit corporations without fear of losing their exemptions or being subjected to the unrelated business income tax. This article briefly outlines this model and discusses the benefits for both for profit and nonprofit organizations. The revenue building potential of this model provides nonprofits with a significant measure of sustainability and financial freedom.

“Nonprofit Job Sites Directory,” by Tom Battin, Blue Avocado, December 15, 2009. This article gives a quick overview of a comprehensive directory of nonprofit job sites. A link to the full directory is included in the article. Reprinted with permission from Blue Avocado, a practical and light-hearted magazine for nonprofits. Subscribe free by sending an email to editor@blueavocado.org or at www.blueavocado.org.

“Outrun the Recession,” by Alan Tuck, Don Howard & William Foster, Stanford Social Innovation Review, December 10, 2009. This article reviews seven characteristics of nonprofits that are surviving the recession. Each characteristic is accompanied by a specific example of a nonprofit that is currently engaged in implementing that particular trait. It contains great ideas for making the best of these tough times.

“Scaling Impact” by Jeffrey Bradach, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2010. In this article the author asks the question, “How can we get 100x the impact with only a 2x change in the size of the organization?” He then discusses the following tools and strategies: converting bricks to clicks, building networks, developing talent, blending service with advocacy, altering attitudes and behaviors, and strengthening the sector.

“Stacking the Deck in Favor of a Successful Strategic Planning Effort” by Fred Nichols, Distance Consulting LLC, July 7, 2010. This article is based on an interview the author had with Harvey Bergholz, one of the foremost experts in strategic planning. Nichols extracted five tips from the interview that will increase the likelihood of success in a strategic planning effort: 1) customize the process, 2) forge the link to implementation early on, 3) don’t over engineer the process, 4) don’t waste valuable meeting time, and 5) be very clear about the meaning of “strategic” and the role of the consultant, if you’re using one.

“Strategic Alliances: 8 Questions to Ask,” by Cass Wheeler, The Nonprofit Times, January 1, 2010. If your organization is considering some kind of strategic alliance, this article will help you think it through.

“Strategy Assessment on the Run,” by Mario Capozzoli, i team new England consulting, LLC, 2009. This article lists five questions designed to help nonprofit managers stop, take a breath, and put new ideas, strategies, techniques, and approaches through their paces. These questions are a powerful catalyst for strategic thinking.

“Strongly Led, Under-managed,” by Daniel Stid and Jeff Bradach, The Bridgespan Group, 2008. This article is an excerpt from the original, which can be found on the Bridgespan website. It focuses on the three leverage points of getting to strategic clarity, anchoring strategic clarity in a few key metrics, and building and aligning the senior leadership team.

“The Effective Organization: Five Questions to Translate Leadership into Strong Management,” by Kirk Kramer and Daniel Stid, Bridgespan Group, May 3, 2010. Research shows that to be fully effective, an organization must demonstrate strength in each of the following areas: leadership, decision-making and structure, people, work processes and systems, and culture. In this article, the authors present survey results of 42 nonprofits and offer concrete managerial advice for strengthening the five core organizational elements in pursuit of becoming a more effective organization. This advice comes in the form of five key questions to ask.

“Ten Essentials for Getting Values From Values” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business Review Blog, June 14, 2010 (http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/06/ten-essentials-for-getting-val.html/). The author discusses ten essential ingredients that make values work to produce organizational value

“Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders” by Richard A. Mittenthal, TCC Group, 2002 (http://www.tccgrp.com/pubs/planning.php). This publication is a great guide for anyone undertaking a strategic planning effort. In addition to outlining ten key considerations that make for successful strategic planning, there are also helpful sidebars covering topics such as the definition of various terms used in strategic planning, components of an effective strategic plan, and how consultants can help. (NOTE: In order to download this document, you will need to register with the TCC Group. The download is free.)

“The Death of Planning?” by Shelly Kessler, Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal, May 2010. There is a lot of talk these days in the consulting field about whether or not there is validity in conducting major strategic planning endeavors, given the rate at which things change nowadays. The author discusses that what the real buzz is all about is changing the planning mindset to be more fluid and adaptable.

“Two Approaches to Strategic Planning: How to Engage Your Board in a Strategic Discussion,” by Rebecca Alvarez, NP Strategies, April 2009. This article offers two equally effective but very different ways to approach strategic planning, outlining the pros and cons of each, in addition to discussing pitfalls to avoid.

.“What’s Wrong With Charitable Giving – And How to Fix It,” by Pablo Eisenberg, Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2009. Mr. Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., concisely outlines nine changes foundations can implement to make a difference for nonprofits and the people they serve.

Updated February 2, 2012