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Introduction
The Philadelphia Foundation is dedicated to the stewardship of contributions made by hundreds of donors,
living and deceased, who for nearly 90 years have entrusted their funds to us to be invested wisely and
distributed for the benefit of the community. The Philadelphia Foundation serves to broaden the base of
philanthropy in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties. It actively develops,
manages and allocates resources, in partnership with donors and grantees, to build on community assets and
to promote empowerment, leadership and civic participation among underserved groups. The Foundation
practices and encourages diversity, equity and inclusiveness as fundamental values of community.
The Philadelphia Foundation Organizational Effectiveness (OE) Assessment is a self-employed tool that helps
nonprofit organizations to identify capacity strengths and challenges, and to establish organizational
effectiveness goals. As such, the Foundation is making this tool available primarily as a diagnostic and
learning tool. In addition, the OE Assessment Tool can be used by any nonprofit to assess and track growth in
organizational effectiveness over time. As TPF works with nonprofits using this tool, the Foundation will be
able to deepen its understanding of the capacity of its grantees and better inform our donors who want
information about charitable causes.
PLEASE NOTE: Your responses on the OE Assessment Tool will not be connected to funding decisions. The OE
Assessment Tool is designed to 1.) inform your organization; 2.) assist program officers in understanding your
organizational effectiveness needs and priorities; and 3.) serve as a guide in the development of a successful
grant applicant's organizational effectiveness work plan.
In completing the tool, you will be rating your organization on a variety of organizational capacity elements.
The capacity elements are clustered into four dimensions of nonprofit organizational capacity:2
1. Leadership Capacity - the ability of organizational leaders to inspire, prioritize, make decisions, provide
direction,
2. Adaptiveand innovate.
Capacity - the ability of a nonprofit organization to monitor, assess, and respond to internal and
external changes.Capacity - the ability of a nonprofit organization to ensure the effective and efficient use of
3. Management
organizational
4. Operationalresources.
Capacity - the ability of a nonprofit organization to implement all of the key organizational and
programmatic functions.
Instructions
This workbook contains four separate worksheets -- one worksheet for each dimension of organizational
capacity -- and additional pages for general information about your organization and persons involved with
this assessment, a summary table, and a summary chart. You should see the various worksheet tabs at the
bottom of the screen; click on the tabs to view each worksheet.
For each capacity element (on worksheets 1-4), identify the description that best describes your organization's
status or performance. You are likely to discover that, with some elements, your organization will not fully
match any of the descriptions; in these instances, simply identify the description that is most suitable or
accurate for your organization. Your honesty is essential. Because the data will be used to help the Foundation
understand the evolving capacity of its grantees, it is better to underestimate than overestimate your
organization’s capacity. With an accurate portrait of the capacity of grantees, the Foundation will be better
equipped to provide assistance in the most critical areas.
To input your selections, select the yellow cell to the right of each capacity element. Then select the down
arrow and choose from the list that appears. If a capacity element does not apply to your organization (e.g.,
some organizations do not have revenue generation activities nor the intention to create them), select "N/A".
You must select a capacity rating for each element, as failing to do so will impact your summary scores.
If there is a capacity rating that you are unsure about or you feel that your organization ranks somewhere in
between, please use the comment section included at the bottom of each capacity worksheet to elaborate on
your concern or capacity rating.
As mentioned above, the Assessment Tool includes 4 capacity elements broken down into various dimensions.
On the Summary Table worksheet, you will notice a "priority" column. Use this column to indicate the capacity
elements that your organization is most interested in strengthening.
To print multiple worksheets at once, press and hold the CTRL key while clicking on the worksheet tabs at the
bottom of the screen. After you have selected the worksheets you want to print, press CTRL-P. When finished,
right-click on any one of the selected worksheet tabs, and select "Ungroup Sheets".
1
The Philadelphia Foundation Organizational Effectiveness Assessment Tool is a derivative product of the Capacity
Assessment Tool created by McKinsey and Company for Venture Philanthropy Partners (www.vppartners.org), and
published in Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations (2001). It was modified, reorganized, and assembled in
electronic format for The Philadelphia Foundation (www.philafound.org) by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning
(www.omgcenter.org), and is used with permission from Venture Philanthropy Partners.
Connolly, P. & York, P. Building the Capacity of Capacity Builders: A Study of Management Support and Field-building
2
Organization
Age of Organization
Use this space to briefly describe the impact your organization's services has on its constituency
and community. (150 words or less):
Name
Title
Name
Title
Name
Title
Name
Title
Name
Title
1.0 Vision No clear vision Somewhat clear or Clear and specific Clear, specific, and
2
articulated; little specific understanding understanding of what compelling
shared understanding of what organization organization aspires to understanding of what
of what organization aspires to become or become or achieve; organization aspires to
aspires to become or achieve; held by only a held by many within become or achieve;
achieve beyond the few, or “on the wall,” the organization and universally held within
stated mission but rarely used to often used to direct organization and
direct actions or set actions and set consistently used to
priorities priorities direct actions and set
priorities
1.0 Overarchin Vision (if it exists) not Vision translated into a Vision translated into Vision translated into
3
g Goals explicitly translated concrete set of goals; small set of concrete clear, bold set of (up to
into set of concrete goals lack at least two goals, but goals lack at three) goals that
goals, though there of following four most two of following organization aims to
may be general (but attributes: clarity, four attributes: clarity, achieve, with specific
inconsistent and boldness, associated boldness, associated time frames and
imprecise) knowledge measures, or time measures, or time concrete measures for
within organization of frame for measuring frame for measuring each goal; goals are
overarching goals and attainment; goals attainment; goals are universally known
what it aims to achieve known by only a few, or known by many within within organization and
only occasionally used organization and often consistently used to
to direct actions or set used by them to direct direct actions and set
priorities actions and set priorities
1.0 Overarchin Strategy is either non- Strategy exists but is priorities strategy has Clear, coherent
Coherent
4
g Strategy existent, unclear, or either not clearly linked been developed and is medium- to long-term
incoherent (largely a to mission, vision, and linked to mission and strategy that is both
set of scattered overarching goals, or vision but is not fully actionable and linked
initiatives); strategy lacks coherence, or is ready to be acted to overall mission,
has no influence over not easily actionable; upon; strategy is vision, and overarching
day-to-day behavior strategy is not broadly mostly known and day- goals; strategy is
known and has limited to-day behavior is universally known and
influence over day-to- partly driven by it consistently helps drive
day behavior day-to-day behavior at
all levels of the
1.0 Board Membership with organization with broad
Some diversity in fields Good diversity in fields Membership
5
Compositio limited diversity in of practice and of practice and variety in fields of
n& fields of practice and expertise; membership expertise; membership practice and expertise,
Commitme expertise; drawn from represents a few represents most and drawn from the full
nt a narrow spectrum of different constituencies constituencies relevant spectrum of
constituencies relevant relevant to to the organization; constituencies relevant
to the organization; organization; some solid evidence of to the organization;
little or no relevant evidence of commitment to includes functional and
experience; commitment to organization’s success, issue area expertise;
commitment to organization’s success, vision, and mission; proven track record of
organization’s success, vision, and mission; regular, purposeful learning about the
vision, and mission is regular meetings are meetings are well- organization and
unclear; meetings are well-planned and planned and addressing its issues;
sporadic and/or attendance is attendance is consistently
attendance is adequate; occasional consistently good; demonstrated
sometimes poor subcommittee regular subcommittee commitment to the
meetings meetings organization’s success,
mission, and vision;
regular, purposeful
meetings are well-
planned and
1.0 Board Roles of legal board, Roles of legal board, Roles of legal board, Legal board,isadvisory
attendance
6
Governance advisory board, and advisory board, and advisory board, and board, and strong;
consistently
management are management are clear; management are clear managementregular meetingsworkofwell
unclear; board rarely board functions and function well; together form clear
focused subcommittees
scrutinizes budgets, according to by-laws, board reviews budgets, roles; board fully
holds CEO/ED reviews budgets, and audits, IRS and state understands and fulfills
accountable, or occasionally sets filings; size of board set fiduciary and policy
operates according to organizational direction for maximum duties; size of board
formal procedures and targets, but does effectiveness with set for maximum
not regularly review formal nomination effectiveness with
CEO/ED performance, process; board co- rigorous nomination
monitor potential defines performance process; board actively
conflicts of interest, targets and actively defines performance
scrutinize audits, or encourages CEO/ED to targets and holds
review IRS and state meet targets; annual CEO/ED fully
filings review of CEO/ED’s accountable; board
performance, but board empowered and
1.0 CEO/ED
not prepared to hire or prepared to hire or fire
Limited experience in Some relevant Significant experience Extensive and varied
7 fire CEO/ED CEO/ED if necessary;
Experience nonprofit management; experience in nonprofit in nonprofit experience in nonprofit
board periodically
& Standing few relevant management; some management; many management; many
evaluated
capabilities from other relevant capabilities relevant capabilities distinctive capabilities
sectors (e.g., for-profit, from other fields; some from other fields; clear from other fields;
academia); little evidence of innovative evidence of innovative exceptional evidence of
evidence of innovative thinking and thinking; solid innovative thinking and
thinking; limited understanding of the understanding of the approaches;
recognition among sector; occasional sector; some comprehensive and
peer organizations recognition among recognition as a deep understanding of
peer organizations leader/shaper among the sector; regularly
peer organizations recognized as a
leader/shaper among
1.0 CEO/ED Some difficulty building Responsive to Actively and easily peer organizations
Constantly establishing
8
Organizatio trust and rapport with opportunities from builds rapport and trust successful, win-win
nal others; micromanages others to work with others; effectively relationships with
Leadership projects; shares little of together; generally encourages others to others, both within and
/ own experiences as confident in others’ succeed; shares outside the
Effectivene developmental/coachin ability to be successful; relevant experience organization; delivers
ss g tool; inconsistent shares own experience and expertise, yet consistent, positive,
attention to and expertise; visible gives others freedom and reinforcing
organizational vision commitment to to work their own way, messages to motivate
organization and its try out new ideas, and people; finds or creates
vision grow; shows constant special opportunities to
commitment to promote people’s
organization and its development; lives the
vision; inspires others organization’s vision;
around vision compellingly articulates
path to achieving vision
that enables others to
see where they are
going
1.0 CEO/ED Somewhat Able to cope with some Quickly assimilates Possesses keen and
9
Analytical & uncomfortable with complexity and complex information exceptional ability to
Strategic complexity and ambiguity; able to and able to distill to synthesize complexity;
Thinking ambiguity; some ability analyze and core issues; welcomes makes informed
to analyze strategies periodically generate ambiguity and decisions in
strategies comfortable dealing ambiguous, uncertain
with the unknown; situations; develops
develops robust strategic alternatives
strategies and identifies
associated rewards,
risks, and actions
1.1 CEO/ED Difficulty considering Draws appropriate Uses sound financial Exceptional financial
0
Financial financial implications of conclusions after judgment; solid judgment; deep
Judgment decisions; limited studying the facts; understanding of understanding of
understanding of basic understands basic financial concepts; complex financial
financial concepts financial concepts; regularly considers concepts; has keen,
gives some financial impact of all almost innate sense for
consideration to decisions financial impact of all
financial impact of decisions
1.1 Community Organization is not Community presence Known within the
major decisions Widely known within
1
Presence & known or regarded as a somewhat recognized, broader community the community, and
Standing player in the and organization is beyond actively engaged in a
community or the field regarded as a player in constituents/members; system-wide approach
in which you work. Few the community; some is knowledgeable and that includes the larger
members of the members of the responsive to community and/or
community (e.g., other community actively community needs; sector including cross
nonprofit leaders, engage with members of larger sector collaboration.
government organization; community (including Community leaders
representatives, and community leaders some highly respected always call on
academics) engage occasionally call on members) actively organization for its
with organization; organization for its engage with input on issues
community leaders input on issues organization; important to the sector.
rarely call on important to the community leaders
organization for its community or your often call on
input on issues field of work organization for its
important to the input on issues
Comments: Type comments here.
community or your important to the
field of work community or your
field of work
Please proceed to the Summary Table to review your responses and select priority capacity
elements for your organization.
The Philadelphia Foundation
Organizational Effectiveness Assessment Summary
Capacity Level Priority
Rating Capacity
Elements
INDICATE THE
CAPACITY
ELEMENTS Capacity
Select any Capacity Element link YOUR ORG. IS Dimensio
below MOST n
to return to that section in the Tool INTERESTED IN Averages
STRENGTHENIN
G (PLACE AN 'X'
IN THE
APPROPRIATE
CELLS)
1. LEADERSHIP CAPACITY
Operational Capacity
LeadershipN/A
Capacity
Adaptive Capacity
N/A
ManagementN/ACapacity
OperationalN/A
Capacity
Management Capacity
Adaptive Capacity
Leadership Capacity