How to Evaluate Capacity Building Efforts

This section can provide guidance to those who are both wondering how to evaluate capacity building activity and those seeking insights about what others examine when evaluating capacity building. Below we showcase reports that evaluate the capacity building activities in specific regions so that readers can understand how the evaluation of existing capacity building activities can impact the prioritization of future capacity building. Below you will also find reports that address how to evaluate capacity building and suggestions for specific tools nonprofits can use to evaluate their own capacity building needs, as well as to evaluate the outcomes of capacity building projects.

Before analyzing whether capacity building has been a success, it is important to recognize the distinction between capacity building and technical assistance:

When a nonprofit receives technical assistance, most often an outside specialist is hired to perform tasks that the nonprofits does not have the capacity to perform itself. When the technical assistance specialist leaves, the nonprofit still does not have the capacity to perform that function or accomplish the outcomes that the technical assistance enabled.

In contrast, when a capacity building project is completed, the nonprofit has gained the ability to achieve certain outcomes on its own, both now and into the future.

Evaluating Capacity Building Activities

• The David and Lucile Packard Foundation OE Goldmine Research Project (2011): Sixty‐six percent of 169 grantees said that a capacity building grant had "significant" or "transformational" and measurable impact on the nonprofit's delivery of program services.
• The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy Teles and Schmitt (2011).
• Evaluation of Capacity Building: Lessons from the Field Alliance for Nonprofit Management (2003).
• The Evaluation of Capacity Building Grants, Graves and Culbreath, FSG Social Impact Advisors (2003).
• Evaluating Outcomes and Impact: a scan of 55 leadership development programs, Reinelt, Sullivan, Foster (2003).
• Fortifying LA's Nonprofit Organizations: Capacity-Building Needs and Services in Los Angeles County; for the Weingart Foundation by TCC Group (2010). 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.
• An assessment of Capacity Building in Washington State, prepared by The Giving Practice a consultancy of Philanthropy Northwest for a group of seven funders (2009).

Tools for Evaluating an Organization’s Capacity Building Needs:

• Self-Assessment Tool by the Drucker Foundation.
• Capacity Benchmarking Tool for Faith and Community-Based Organizations developed by the Administration for Children and Families.
• Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool developed by the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
• Eleven Evaluative Thinking Bulletins by The Bruner Foundation
• Point K Learning Center by Innovation Network. (Free registration required.)
• TCC Group has developed a Capacity Building Self-Assessment tool
• Outcomes Measurement Toolkit developed by the Administration for Children and Families for its grantees.
• Evaluation Exchange by the Harvard Family Research Project.

More resources on self-assessment and evaluating outcomes.

Resources on evaluating advocacy activities.