Best Practices - Capacity Building

Strengthening Organizations to Mobilize Californians: Lessons Learned from a Major Initiative to Build the Capacity of Civic Engagement Nonprofits
TCC Group, funded by The James Irvine Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
TCC Group evaluated the results of its work with the above foundations on a major capacity-building initiative for twenty-seven community organizing nonprofits in California to strengthen such key abilities as leadership, decision-making, communication and fundraising.

Organizational Capacity Building: Designing Effective CB Investments
TCC Group
Jamie Baxter of the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network and Latonya Slack of the James Irvine Foundation join TCC Group Senior Vice President Paul Connolly and Associate Director Susan Misra to discuss the steps funders should consider when designing capacity-building programs, offer tips on how to work with grantees, and share experiences and lessons learned in this webinar.

Fortifying L.A.'s Nonprofit Organizations: Capacity-Building Needs and Services in Los Angeles County (Full Report) and Executive Summary
Weingart Foundation
This report highlights findings from a comprehensive study of Los Angeles County nonprofits’ capacity building needs and resources, including multiple stakeholders’ perspectives to address key issues concerning the resources needed to grow,
thrive and accomplish their missions.

Core Capacity Assessment Tool
TCC Group
The Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) includes aggregate reports Los Angeles nonprofits by sub-sector (human services, arts and culture, health and education)

Growing Local Philanthropy: The Role and Reach of Community Foundations
Community Strategies Group and the Aspen Institute
This community field survey represents a first step in documenting the current status and trends related to geographic component funds (funds that are dedicated to serving specific geographic areas or communities, and that typically include local decision making and/or operating structures) and, more broadly, assessing how these funds affect the culture of philanthropy in our communities.

Building Capacity While Assessing It
Blueprint Research and Design
This article describes how three grantmakers, Social Venture Partners (SVP) Seattle, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Community Clinics Initiative (a joint project of Tides and The California Endowment), adapted the McKinsey Grid for organizational capacity assessment, and the success and failures with it.

Building to Last: A Grantmaker's Guide to Strengthening Nonprofit Organizations
The Conservation Company
This guide highlights components of effective giving, which include: laying a strong foundation, developing tools to build organizational effectiveness and how to set up a solid framework.

Capacity Building for Smaller Foundations: Shoes for the Cobbler's Children
Human Interaction Resource Institute
This article informs small foundations on how to increase access to capacity building resources in order to maximize their philanthropic resources and improve organizational operations and impact.

Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations
Venture Philanthropy Partners
Case studies provide insight into the subjects' various capacity-building efforts. The report delivers lessons in successful capacity building from the nonprofits interviewed and shares a framework for defining nonprofit capacity as well as tools to help measure a nonprofit's capacity level.