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.
Paauwerfully Organized Organizational Assessment Tool
—Website, free
This website provides four short online surveys to assess your individual capacities. The first tool, "Business/Professional Organizational Assessment", will be particularly useful for organizations that would like their employee to participate and assess themselves individually so to do an overall portrait of staff strenghts and weaknesses. It particularly focuses on efficiency and effectiveness at work, using the available tools for doing business.
http://www.orgcoach.net/assessment.htmlProvincial Health Services Authority - Telehealth Readiness Assessment Protocol
—PDF, free
"Telehealth is the use of communications and information technology - often videoconferencing - to deliver health and health care services, information and education where participants are separated." This short protocol help communities who use telehealth to verify their level of preparedness in using the technologies and communications tools to provide health services. This assessment tool could also be useful to other organisations who use videoconferencing in remote areas.
http://www.phsa.ca/NR/rdonlyres/93E2CE88-13DA-47BC-91A9-1F3D95D8FB9A/0/MFNHO_Readiness_Assessment_Protocol_FINAL_Nov051.pdfTechnical Assistance for Community Services (TACS) - Nonprofit Financial Management Self-Assessment Tool
—PDF, free
This short offline survey can help non profit evaluate their financial performance with regard to the following areas: financial planning, execution, recording, reporting, and monitoring.
http://www.nonprofitoregon.org/sites/default/files/uploads/file/Fin%20Mgmt%20Self%20Assessment.pdfThe Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT)
—Website, 350 USD or less
The Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) is an online, survey-based tool designed to collect information from key decision-makers in your organization and create prioritized recommendations for building organizational capacity.
Built on decades of experience and research in capacity building, the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) measures a nonprofit’s effectiveness in relation to four core capacities – leadership, adaptability, management, and technical capacity – as well as organizational culture. The CCAT comprises 146 questions and takes 30-45 minutes to complete. The survey is completed by all key senior leaders (including representation from board
members) of an organization. The assessment culminates with a final report that provides nonprofits with lifecycle placement, an analysis of strengths and challenges in the core capacities and sub-capacities, as well as prioritized recommendations for building organizational capacity and increasing organizational effectiveness. Nonprofits also have the unique opportunity to benchmark their CCAT scores alongside those of peer organizations, drawing on data from over 5,000 participating organizations.
TCC Group offers CCAT interpretation sessions, which include a facilitated conversation to deepen a nonprofit’s understanding of the CCAT findings and develop a personalized action plan.
The Corporate Fund Board Self-Assessment Kit
—Website, free
"The Corporate Fund offers a Board Self-Assessment Kit which allows non-profit boards to assess their effectiveness in a variety of areas. The kit asks board members to rate their board in 12 different areas, ranging from Board-Staff roles to External Relations Practices. Tallying results can give a board a picture of where their strengths lie and what areas to focus on for improvement." The pdf user guide is detailed and well organized. While this assessment requires some planning and some time, you will undeniably find benefits to its conduct.
The Cultural Competence Self Assessment Protocol for Health Care Organizations and Systems
—Website, free
"This offline tool is to be used by health care providers, including hospitals and clinics, to conduct organizational assessments of their cultural competence. It is particularly useful for services involving racially and ethnically diverse populations. The protocol's questions are organized according to four cornerstones of cultural competence: a health care organization's relationship with its community; the administration and management's relationship with staff; inter-staff relationships at all levels; and the patient/enrollee-provider encounter. The protocol's format requires actively engaging a broad spectrum of health care staff and encourages the use of focus groups with patients/enrollees. In all, the tool will help a health care organization to assess what it does well in providing care to diverse populations, where its gaps lie, and how it could create an agenda for improving its services."
http://erc.msh.org/mainpage.cfm?file=9.1g.htm&module=provider&language=EnglishThe Managing for Results Self-Assessment Tool - Government of Canada
—Website, free
"Results-based management is a life-cycle approach to management that integrates strategy, people, resources, processes and measurements to improve decision-making, transparency, and accountability. The approach focuses on achieving outcomes, implementing performance measurement, learning and changing, and reporting performance." The Managing for Results Self-Assessment Tool helps organizations, government departments, or other agencies to improve their ability to attain desired results. The tool can also be downloaded in pdf format form the website to consist into a 43 pages document. Also available in French.
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/mmpa-emgm/mmpa-emgm01-eng.aspThe Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) Organizational Self-Assessment Tool
—PDF, free
This short offline survey will help non-profits quickly assess the overall status of their organization through looking at its culture, human resources, financial planning, etc. The scoring is clear. On its website, the TCA has also put available other resources for non-profit arts and cultural organizations in Texas and beyond. The resources cover six topic areas: Fundraising & Development, Programs & Exhibitions, Cultural Tourism, Marketing, Advocacy, Leadership Transitions, and Nonprofit Basics. These other resources can be consulted at address or through this other.
http://www.arts.texas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Organizational-Self-Assessment-Tool.pdfTurning Point Performance Management Self-Assessment Tool - Public Health Foundations (PHF)
—PDF, free
This tool aims to help public health organizations identify where they need to improve their overall performance through evaluating their level of readiness and accountability, the standards, indicators, and data that are collected/used to monitor processes, the reporting of progress and the quality improvement. Complementary resources and tools are available on the Public Health Foundation (PHF) website at www.phf.org.
http://www.phf.org/resourcestools/Documents/PM_Self_Assess_Tool.pdfUNDP Participatory Organizational Evaluation Tool (POET)
—Website, free
To be used by Southern CSOs and their partners, this tool is framed on the PROSE methodology (Participatory, Results-Oriented Self-Evaluation). It will help you measure your organizational capacities and consensus level in seven capacity areas: human and financial resources management, equitable participation, sustainability of program benefits, partnerships, organizational learning and strategic management/governance. The 63 pages user guide is available in pdf format from which you can print your necessary worksheets.
