Self-Assessment Tools
You would like to assess how your organization is performing? You would like to improve, but you do not know which specific areas of your organization need to be upgraded? You need some tools to identify these areas? The OA Tools database is what you need!
We have included over 60 practical tools for you to be able to conduct your self-assessment, whatever your sector, your interest, or your experience. These tools are classified in the following database from which you can search for the ones most appropriate to your organization. You can search the ideal tool:
- by keywords
- by type of organization (profit, non-profit, donors/grantmakers, governmental agencies/organizations)
- by area of the Universalia IOA Model (organizational capacity, external environment, organizational motivation, organizational performance)
A description is provided for each tool, detailing the aspects of the assessment it is concentrating on and whom it addresses to. We hope you find the tool you need to conduct your assessment. Feel free to suggest us new tools.
We also suggest that you try the Universalia-IDRC Development Agency Performance web-based self diagnostic tool. This tool will help you rate your own organization's capabilities on a set of selected factors that influence performance, this in entire confidentiality. Upon the completion of the diagnostic assessment tool, you will receive a summary report via email. The results will give you an overview of where your organization is now and will establish what areas would be most useful for you and your individual situation to focus on.
Institutional Analysis Toolkit for Safety Net Interventions - World Bank
—PDF, free
Initially designed to be used by the tasks officers of the World Bank or similar institutions, others may adpat this toolkit to their specific purposes. The toolkit provides tools to assess and build the capacity of countries to ensure safety nets. Safety Nets are mechanisms that mitigate the effects of poverty and other risks on vulnerable households. Their effectiveness and efficiency depend on their accessibility, coverage, targeting, and the actual benefit amonf others. All of these elements depend upon the institutional and organizational design and environment of the programs. The 79 pages toolkit provides key questions in assessing and analyzing the organizational/country program and capacity. Part I describes the toolkit's theoretical foundations while Part II contains the actual tools (questionnaires and examples). A case study also illustrates the toolkit's application and requirement. The toolkit is comprehensive but general; it does not indicate what safety nets should be chosen for any particular country, and it does not reform the country's civil service.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&entityID=000090341_20041013152931Integrated Toolkit For Institutional Development - Mark Renzi and Management Systems International (MSI)
—PDF, free
This toolkit is intended to be used by the non-profits themselves to address the following shortcomings: inadequate measures of institutional capacity, difficulty diagnosing priority areas within an organization for improvement, lack of simple mechanisms to improve understanding by staff of the interrelated components of the organization, and inadequate mechanisms to compare institutional development across organizations. The Toolkit emphasizes participation, use of management systems, and the independence of the organization. The Toolkit provides both an analytic (table) and visual (graphic) presentation of results. Utilization of the Toolkit can also help provide a useful way to develop consensus and unite energies among the board, staff, beneficiaries, and donors.
http://documents.reflectlearn.org/Offline%20OA%20Tools/IntegratedToolkitForInstitutionalDevelopment_MSI_Renzi_1996.pdfInternational Development Research Center (IDRC) Self-Assessment Tools
—Website, free
This webpage details six different tools of assessment among which you might choose the one that applies the best to your need. The first one is the Five-easy-pieces Model, listing five questions you might want to answer through a group discussion to determine your organization performance. The second tool is used to determine the stakeholders that relates to your organization (stakeholder assessment). The third tool is the Performance-issues Worksheet to analyze the factors that influence your organization performance. The fourth tool consists of a Culture Audit. The fifth tool provides an example grid of Work Breakdown to help you define your agenda when doing your organizational assessment. The last tool is a Person-day Analysis which, like the fifth tool, is a model to use to plan your self-assessment.
http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-28257-201-1-DO_TOPIC.htmlJournal of Extension (JOE) Checklist to Assess Collaboration
—Website, free
This article provides a self-evaluation tool to assess the performance or utility of your "existing and forming" collaborative groups. You can find two main sections on this page: a short literature review on collaboration and the collaboration checklist (with its terms being defined and guidelines for interpreting your results). You might want to print the checklist section and distribute it to other collaborators. Collaborating groups can "rate their collaboration on key factors" that include "goals, communication, sustainability, evaluation, political climate, resources, catalysts, policies/laws/regulations, history, connectedness, leadership, community development, and understanding community."
http://www.joe.org/joe/1999april/tt1.htmlJournal of Extension (JOE) Tool to Assess the Worth of a Youth Organization
—Website, free
This article is the result of a research on youth organizations and their worthiness. You can find two main sections on this page: a short literature review on roles of youth organizations and a grid developed specifically to assess their worthiness. To evaluate your young organization, you might want to print the table and try to provide you own level of satisfaction to each of the questions included in it (ignoring the results of study data appearing in the table). Assessment include aspects that relate to youth preparation in becoming "intelligent, contributing members of society through the encouragement of civic duty and pride in work", to parental support, and to "development needs of young children and youth".
La Piana Associates - Tool for Assessing Startup Nonprofits: A due diligence supplement for grantmakers
—PDF, free
This guide helps grantmakers evaluate startup nonprofits, i.e. nonprofit organizations that have not operated long enough to have an established record and reputation or with little management experience. Funders can use this tool as a supplement to their standard proposal review process. The tool guides funders in further examining the startup "nonprofit's general outlook for organizational health and stability and in determining if its leaders have the capacity to set up the necessary management structures and systems to effectively implement and carry out the proposed project". The tool reviews the NGO on the following areas: communications, human resources management, finances, development and fundraising, leadership, and governance. Three additional worksheets are also provided so to identify defecting areas more clearly.
http://www.prolifica.org/uploads/startupassessmenttool.pdfLeading English Education and Resource Network (LEARN) - Rubric for Reform Implementation Tool - Self-Monitoring Progress in Successful Implementation of the Quebec Education Program (QEP)
—PDF, free
This link directs you to the Rubric for Reform Implementation Tool. Initially designed for the implementation of the Quebec Education Program (QEP), this tools can be used by any school that is implementing a reform. The tool has been developed to help schools and school boards monitor their progress in implementing curriculum reform. Through a 24 pages pdf document assessing 17 criteria of success (including community involvement, parent's role, school vision, leadership, time management, team building, pedagogy, technology integration, etc.) and different indicators for each of the four stages of implementation (initiating, exploring, establishing, and sustaining), you will be able to monitor your school's progress in implementing your school reform.
http://www.learnquebec.ca/export/sites/learn/en/content/reform/documents/rubric_for_qep_implementation.pdfMarguerite Casey Foundation Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool
—Excel Document, free
"The Marguerite Casey Foundation Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool helps nonprofits identify capacity strengths and challenges and establish capacity building goals. It is primarily a diagnostic and learning tool. Results from the Assessment can also help grantmakers deepen their understanding of the current capacity of their grantees as well as track their growth in capacity over time." Format of the tool is an Excel file. Indications are provided and entering the data in the tables is easy; final results are automatically compiled into a spreadsheet and a graph, allowing you to see how your organization is performing. "Essentially, the assessment helps the organization understand strengths and weaknesses of its leadership (leadership capacity); measure its ability to monitor, assess and respond to changes (adaptive capacity); measure its ability to utilize resources effectively (management capacity); and understand how well it implements key organizational and programmatic functions (operational capacity)."
http://documents.reflectlearn.org/Offline%20OA%20Tools/Marguerite%20Casey%20Capacity%20Assessment%20Tool.xlsMassachusetts Cultural Council Organizational Self-Assessment Tool
—Website, free
This comprehensive offline assessment tool will help any non-profit assess its performance with regard to the following areas: mission and vision; strategic planning and evaluation; programming; community participation; advocacy/public relations; marketing; financial health and planning, monitoring and reporting; fundraising; governance/board management; human resources; information technology systems; facilities management. Larger organizations will find the tool useful to identify strenghts and weaknesses. Small non-profit will use it to the skills needed as board develops and for recruitment. New organizations will use the tool to forecast future staffing, technology or development needs. Organizations in leadership or other transition will finally like it to clarify areas of needed growth and attention before a search begins.
http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/services/self_assessment.aspMassive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
—Website, FREE
"The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) movement has taken a course toward legitimacy in the business world. Employers are looking for life-long learners and MOOCs are providing employees the chance to prove they are just that."
