Research
Results:
Nonprofit Capacity Assessment
Many Indiana nonprofits find themselves in need of Capacity Building and Technical Assistance to respond to the challenges and opportunities facing them. However, the meanings of these concepts vary widely and grantmakers find it difficult to develop grant opportunities that effectively meet the needs of nonprofits.
To develop a common understanding of capacity building and technical assistance, we are surveying several waves of Indiana nonprofits about their capacity building and technical assistance needs.
- In Phase II, now completed, we surveyed almost 400 arts and culture organizations at the request of the Indiana Arts Commission. For more information about our final report see: Indiana Arts & Culture Capacity Assessment, Final Report, 2010.
- Subsequent phases will include nonprofits responding to our 2002 Indiana nonprofit survey and may include other segments of the nonprofit sector in Indiana.
Top | About the Survey | Phase I | Phase II | Contact Information
About the Nonprofit Capacity Assessment Survey
A broad-based Project Advisory Board is working with the project team to create linkages to related and complementary efforts, identify key policy implications of the survey findings, and insure effective dissemination of results as they become available. The survey is based on our 2002 Indiana Nonprofit Survey by asking some of the same questions.
Information from the survey will:
- Assure Indiana nonprofits that Indiana grantmakers have solid information about the capacity building challenges Indiana nonprofits face and about the utility of key strategies for addressing these challenges.
- Aid Indiana grantmakers in developing a framework for appropriate grantmaking strategies to address needs for capacity building and technical assistance.
- Demonstrate to Indiana policy makers (Phase III) how major management and organizational practices have changed for Indiana nonprofits since the benchmark survey in 2002.
- Facilitate more effective collaboration among Indiana nonprofits and between Indiana grantmakers and the nonprofits they support.
Key topics include:
- Management challenges: Includes questions about the extent of challenges in managing specific aspects of operations and governance, human resources, marketing, networking and advocacy, financial resources, and information technology to assess capacity building needs in these areas.
- Types of assistance: Includes questions about the relative utility of various types of funding, technical assistance, and peer assistance in addressing major types of management challenges and capacity building needs.
- Organizational components: Includes questions about the types of organizational components currently in place.
- General information: Includes questions about the year of establishment, mission, most important programs/activities, changes in demands for services/programs, and whether involved in formal collaborations or informal networks.
- Human & financial resources: Includes questions on paid staff, use and importance of volunteers, amount of revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, changes in these, reliance on major revenue sources, and whether any revenues from specific sources.
Top | About the Survey | Phase I | Phase II | Contact Information
In Spring 2007, we completed a survey of 91 charities that are affiliated members of the Indiana Grantmakers Alliance (a membership association of grantmaking executives, staff and board members that seeks to promote legal, ethical, efficient and effective grantmaking) and/or Indiana grantees of Lumina Foundation for Education. This work was also completed in partnership with the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
Click here to see information about our statewide report, Nonprofit Capacity Assessment: Indiana Charities, 2007, based on this survey.
If your nonprofit organization is one of the many Indiana nonprofits that responded to this survey, we are very grateful for your participation and we THANK YOU for taking the time to do so. Please rest assured that all information from the survey will be kept in the strictest confidentiality. We have selected, at random, two nonprofit organizations that responded to the survey to receive a free associate membership with Indiana Grantmakers Alliance ($80 value each, which you may decline without us informing Alliance of your decision). We have also sent a summary of our findings to all respondents who request it.
Top | About the Survey | Phase I | Phase II | Contact Information
We have now completed our final report based on a survey of 385 grant applicants to the Indiana Arts Commission and its regional partners. This work is undertaken in partnership with the Commission, the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
Click here to see more information about the Indiana Arts & Culture Capacity Assessment survey and our final report.
If your nonprofit organization is one of the many Indiana arts and cultural organizations that responded to this survey, we are very grateful for your participation and we THANK YOU for taking the time to do so. Please rest assured that all information from the survey will be kept in the strictest confidentiality.
We will shortly send a summary of our findings to all respondents who requested it and, upon request, will also provide each with a tailormade confidential report showing how the responding organization compares to other similar organizations on a number of key dimensions. We have already selected, at random, twelve organizations that responded to the survey to have their organization profiled for one month on the Indiana Arts Commission's web page.
Top | About the Survey | Phase I | Phase II | Contact Information
Contact InformationIf you have questions about Nonprofit Capacity Assessment, please contact the project director, Professor Kirsten Grønbjerg, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 1315 East Tenth Street, Bloomington IN 47405, Phone: 866-726-0030, Email: nonprof@indiana.edu.
Updated: June 23, 2010
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