Resources in this section provide strategies, tools, and research related to building capacity in nonprofit organizations.
3 Capacity-Building Activities Your Nonprofit Needs
Turnaround Life (2019)
NonProfitPRO
Describes the importance of capacity building for nonprofits and presents a list of three capacity building activities an organization should engage in. The three activities are peer learning, leadership development, and collaboration planning.
Building Capacity for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Lessons From Two Years of Organizational Effectiveness Grants
Sudarkasa & Wei (2019)
Discusses how nonprofits can build capacity around diversity, equity, and inclusion and presents the results of an evaluation of how organizations used grants to improve organizational effectiveness.
Building Capacity for Sustained Collaboration
Grant, Wilkinson, & Butts (2020)
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Details how foundations and nonprofits are working together to expand their collaboration capacity and increase their impacts. The article also reviews a model for supporting collaboration and presents several case studies of local initiatives.
Building Capacity to Influence Public Policy: How the Annie E. Casey Foundation Is Equipping Nonprofits to Advocate More Effectively
Valerio (2019)
GrantCraft by Candid
Examines the KIDS COUNT initiative by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is made up of 53 State-based child advocacy organizations. The resource describes how the foundation uses a capacity building approach with three key components: an assessment that organizations can use to gauge their capacity, an online resource hub, and technical assistance.
Capacity Building for Nonprofits
Gomez (2018)
Neon One, LLC
Explores capacity building for nonprofits and describes how organizations can create a capacity building strategy. The article lists four steps: assess your needs, assess your resources, develop your strategy, and monitor for progress and roadblocks.
Capacity Building in the Nonprofit Sector
Ohio University (2019)
Reviews why capacity building is important for nonprofits and presents the seven dimensions of capacity building: vision and impact, guidance and leadership, program delivery, resource generation, internal operations and management, evaluation and learning, and strategic relationships.
Five Elements for Success in Capacity Building
Taylor & Bartczak (2019)
PND by Candid
Presents a list of five recommendations for successful capacity-building for nonprofits: commit for the long term, co-create solutions with stakeholders, strengthen the ecosystem, support technical and adaptive capacities, and ground capacity building in equity.
Strengthening Capacity Building in the Nonprofit Sector
Drake & Hildebrand (2017)
Defines capacity building for nonprofits and reviews two basic approaches it can take: a focused intervention and a developmental intervention. The website describes the differences between them and discusses how capacity building is associated with financial growth in the nonprofit sector.
Unpacking Capacity Building
EchoHawk (2019)
Nonprofit Quarterly
Highlights practices of capacity building in Tribal communities and discusses ways that philanthropy could better support this effort by staffing their organizations with people from the communities they serve and including people from diverse backgrounds at their executive and board member levels.
What Is Capacity Building?
National Council of Nonprofits
Emphasized the importance of capacity building for nonprofits and provides a list of resources related to nonprofit capacity building. The resources cover topics such as using a network approach to capacity building, keys to effective capacity building, supporting grantee capacity, supporting nonprofit leadership, and more.