Knowledge
A capacity building framework
McKinsey, the management consultancy, conducted case studies on 13 nonprofit organisations that engaged in capacity building over a 10 year period. The research led to the creation of the ‘Capacity Framework’ which defines seven essential elements of nonprofit capacity The elements are:
- Aspirations: An organisation’s mission, vision, and overarching goals, which collectively articulate its common sense of purpose and direction
- Strategy: The coherent set of actions and programs aimed at fulfilling the organisation’s overarching goals
- Organisational Skills: The sum of the organisation‘s capabilities, including such things (among others) as performance measurement, planning, resource management, and external relationship building
- Human Resources: The collective capabilities, experiences, potential and commitment of the organisation’s board, management team, staff, and volunteers
- Systems and Infrastructurer: The organisation‘s planning, decision making, knowledge management, and administrative systems, as well as the physical and technological assets that support the organisation
- Organisational Structure: The combination of governance, organisational design, inter-functional coordination, and individual job descriptions that shapes the organisation’s legal and management structure
- Culture: The connective tissue that binds together the organisation, including shared values and practices, behaviour norms, and most important, the organisation‘s orientation towards performance.
They saw these elements as being related in the following hierarchy:
They used this research to develop a Capacity Assessment Grid which provides a model of excellence against which organisations can assess their capacity. It can be used to identify areas of capacity requiring most attention.
The Grid can be downloaded from http://www.vppartners.org/