ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENTS
Ongoing evaluation is critical to the continued success of any program. Through the services of trained consultants, ACAM members complete comprehensive on-site assessments to determine whether increased collaboration, new learning and growth in services resulted from their participation.
ACAM also enables ministries to evaluate their own programs by offering specialized training, one-on-one coaching, organizational assessment tools and the services of an external evaluator. Participants review specific client outcomes and capacity building efforts in order to develop actionable goals and indicators that better measure community impact.
ACAM and its members designed and implemented the Nine Elements Assessment Tool (NEAT©), an evidence-based system for assessing nonprofit organizational capacity. The project team that designed NEAT© included three categories of stakeholders: 1) executive directors representing the nonprofits that would use the system, 2) the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries (ACAM), and 3) external evaluators who facilitate the assessments.
ACAM builds nonprofit capacity to increase organizational
sustainability and help groups proactively respond to growing
and changing community needs.
ACAM is part of the growing field of management support organizations (MSOs) that assist nonprofits in developing capacity. MSOs like ACAM have a challenging role with responsibilities to two sets of clients: the nonprofits to which they provide capacity building assistance and the funding community, which expects measurable results from their investment in these programs. The active involvement of nonprofits in “setting the agenda” for capacity building is challenging but important to creating effective programs. Organizational development requires commitment and the nonprofits involved must be confident that the expected outcomes are relevant for their organizations. Their input on content and format can help ensure that the program is customized to fit their context and needs, a factor that can increase program impact. Both ACAM and its nonprofit members are equally charged with identifying goals that that are achievable, but also exciting to funders and board members.