Organizational Assessments & Solutions

The purpose of an organizational assessment is to help your organization build a strong internal structure and systems that empower you to effectively deliver services and programs. 

An organizational assessment gives your board and staff the opportunity to review internal systems and practices for management and governance across five to seven key function areas. Assessments are meant to identify both the organization’s strengths and where it might need improvement. Often, organizational assessments are a way to get underneath the issues interfering with the work of the organization – the first step in improving the organization, addressing lifecycle issues, or determining exactly where the problems might be.  

Here are a few of our key steps for the assessment process:

• Gathering information on the organization’s governance and management practices by reviewing key documents.
• Working with the executive director, board, and others to identify a group of stakeholders to interview about the organization’s strengths, challenges, and priority areas for improvement.
• Compiling data into a written report that documents the consensus reached by the organization and recommendations for strengthening it; for full transparency, we often present the information from this report to the board and staff. 
• Meeting with the board chair and executive director to evaluate the assessment process and to offer any further recommendations for strengthening the organization’s capacity.