Capacity building involves strengthening nonprofit organizations so they can better achieve their missions. Types of capacity building include:

1. Helping nonprofits assess their needs for capacity building - so they can receive the services that will most help them meet current challenges and grow healthily,
2. Providing consultation, technical assistance and access to information or other resources needed to meet challenges and grow, and
3. Offering direct financial support, to increase fiscal stability and build the organization's infrastructure.

These services can enhance nonprofit functioning in many areas, such as administration, finance, human resources, technology and facility management.

DSYF'S INITIATIVE

In 2007 Dwight Stuart Youth Fund began a Capacity-Building Initiative, which grantmaking functions are described in our Grantmaking section.  In this section we present Capacity Building News and Youth Services News (updated quarterly), and a set of information resources to help local youth-serving nonprofits.

CAPACITY BUILDING NEWS - Resources for Youth-Serving Agencies in Los Angeles County

News

Project Grantsmanship is a partnership of Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, the Annenberg Foundation, California Community Foundation, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and the Grantsmanship Center. The partner foundations underwrite 90 percent of the tuition for eligible nonprofit leaders to attend The Grantsmanship Center’s five-day Grantsmanship Training Program.  Click here for further information and to register.

Publications

Embracing Cultural Competency: A Roadmap for Nonprofit Capacity Builders No how-to manual exists on cultural competency. And, compared to other topics in nonprofit management, little exists on the skills and strategies needed to address racism and inequity. Building cultural competency is an ongoing journey that nonprofit leaders choose to take because they know the end result will be a more inclusive, connected, and effective organization. Contributing authors help readers grapple with the urgent issues that can transform capacity builders into change agents in the nonprofit sector. To access, click here.

Funding Learning Networks: Lessons from Third Sector New England’s Capacity Building Fund From 2004 to 2012, Third Sector New England and clusters of nonprofit organizations joined in a unique grant program designed to further social change through united effort. In this report, readers will learn lessons from 8 years of grantmaking in the area of nonprofit networking and explore the design of the CBF program where nonprofits planned, learned, and built relationships that would enable them to work together to achieve common goals. This report will be available in early Spring, 2013. Sign up now and receive a link to download the report as soon as it is available. To access, click here.

Getting Started With Data-Driven Decision Making: A Workbook A recent report showed that, although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number were doing very little to actually measure their work or use data to inform other decisions. What to measure? Why measure it? What are the metrics? How to communicate the results throughout the organization? How to use data to plan? This workbook will help answer those questions and make and it's free. To access, click here.

Grantee Magazine publishes health stories affecting California and also includes information about grants from the California Wellness Foundation. To access, click here.

Managing Volunteers: Balancing Risk and Reward This booklet contains information to help better manage volunteers. Topics covered include volunteer recruitment, screening and selection, as well as training, supervising and disciplining volunteers. It includes a brief explanation of volunteer liability and types of coverage available. (18 pgs) To access, click here.

More Bang for the Buck Three nonprofit organizations found ways to streamline their work while driving down their costs per outcome, the true measure of productivity. Lower costs per outcome show that a nonprofit's drive for efficiency and investments in people and processes create more bang for the buck. To access, click here.

Nonprofit Communications, With and Without a Content Strategy This article shows how and why communications can be more effective with a content strategy. To access, click here.

Only Bad Restaurants Go To Scale Generally, people in nonprofits are good at taking on myths and sacred cows. But perhaps the least examined of these myths is the one about "going to scale." This OpEd takes a closer but brief look at the conventional wisdom in this area. To access, click here.

Organizational Development Organizational development helps a nonprofit increase its long-term health and performance by building the capacity of and supporting the people who make up the organization. The process usually begins with an organizational assessment. The quantitative and qualitative information gained through assessment helps the staff, board, community members and other stakeholders identify what is working well, what can be improved in an organization and any barriers to effectiveness. To access this article, click here.

Seven Turning Points: Leading Through Pivotal Transitions in Organizational Life To remain strong and effective, nonprofit organizations cannot remain static. If they are to move to a new level of effectiveness, they must periodically adjust their leadership, management, structure, governance, and operating style to fit their changed circumstances. The author calls these adjustments "turning points." To access, click here.  

Ten Biggest Mistakes that Boards and Executives Make is an article by Jan Masaoka, the title of which says it all. To access, click here.

Treasurers of All-Volunteer Organizations: Eight Key Responsibilities More than half of the nonprofits in the United States are all-volunteer organizations. This publication is a succinct guide for the 600,000 + treasurers of such organizations. To access, click here.

Venture Forth! The Essential Guide to Starting a Moneymaking Business in your Nonprofit Organization Building on the experience of many organizations, this handbook presents a time-tested approach for finding, testing, and launching a successful nonprofit business venture. Download the first chapter free, and get information on buying the complete book. To access, click here.

When Kids Volunteer: Liability Basics Whether kids sell cookies or help clean up a park, they are welcome volunteers. This article discusses how nonprofit staff can learn the basics of how to protect kids and the organization when it comes to liabilities (at the end of the article is a link to a sample waiver) To access, click here.

Events

Donor Management Systems Best Practices is an online training seminar. An organization has a donor management system, but how to get the most out of it while maintaining it for optimal efficiency? It’s important to keep data useful and clean, but how to do that—and how to take advantage of all the hidden gems that are in there to make  data truly work for the organization? Join this webinar to learn about donor management software best practices, including customizing the system to an organization’s needs, cleaning data, defining data standards and coding, and training staff to enter and extract data efficiently. The webinar will be held March 21, 2013 from 1 pm to 2:30 pm (EST) and the fee is $40. Click here.

Other Resources

Leadership Awards The James Irvine Foundation is now receiving nominations for the 2014 Leadership Awards. These awards recognize individuals who are advancing innovative, effective solutions to significant issues in California. Nominees may be working in any field – such as education, health, public safety, economic development or the environment – in the public, private or nonprofit sector. The Foundation provides each award recipient with $125,000 to support his or her work benefiting the people of California. At least $100,000 is designated for core support of the leader’s project or organization, and up to $25,000 may be used for professional or organizational development. The deadline for nominations is April 5, 2013. The website provides criteria and eligibility requirements. To access, click here.  

Nonprofit Job Description Toolkit Once an organization has defined the role it needs to fill, and the skills, experience, and level of education required, it’s ready to embark on the process of writing a job description. The job description is the primary vehicle for announcing the open position to external and internal audiences, and is a valuable tool for finding candidates best-suited to an organization's needs. This toolkit makes the process understandable and simple to do. To access, click here.

Nonprofits Talking Taxes is an interactive website that covers what nonprofits need to know about the California budget and how it affects education, healthcare and public safety. There are also links to other sites that further define the word usage and meaning of various tax-related documents. To access, click here.

YOUTH SERVICES NEWS - Resources for Youth-Serving Agencies in Los Angeles County

Publications

Older Teens Need Flexible, Creative Programs After School This is the conclusion reached at a recent conference attended by public officials, educators, youth program leaders, nonprofit workers and funders in teams representing 57 different cities around the country. Research was presented that showed that after-school programs boasting the best retention rates provided teens with at least five varied opportunities for leadership and sustained those opportunities for at least 12 months, To access, click here.

Events

Hollywood Half Marathon This event will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2013 at 6:00 am starting at 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA. Funds will be raised to benefit the L.A. Youth Network, a shelter that serves L.A.’s homeless youth, ages 12 to 17. More information about the marathon and the shelter is available. To access, click here.     

Other Resources

Focusing on Outcomes for Youth: Self Sufficiency The Exchange is an online newsletter at the National Clearinghouse for Families and Youth website. The current issue focuses on problems of runaway and homeless youth that are addressed in articles, audio articles, and links to other sources. To access, click here.

Hire L.A.’s Youth is a website that strives to match summer job or internship opportunities for seekers 16 to 21 years old with local employers.  Sponsorship to a job can be donated, and job skills workshops are offered to applicants. To access, click here.

SparkAction is a website that encourages youth to voice their concerns about issues in their lives from politics to poverty, and to exchange ideas. It also provides videos with tutorial trainings and many other features. To access, click here.

Youth Disaster Preparedness and Recovery is a website that offers advice to young people about preparing for and recovering from disasters, including hurricanes, floods and others. There are also tips on how to help their communities and families as well as themselves. To access, click here.

Webinar on the Benefits of Dual Enrollment A recent James Irvine Foundation webinar on the benefits of career-focused dual enrollment drew nearly 200 attendees from around the country, including college and high school administrators and faculty, as well as federal, state and local policymakers. A recording of that webinar is available. To access, click here.  

REFERRAL RESOURCES

Capacity-building services are available from various organizations and individuals throughout Los Angeles County. Some are offered on a fee-for-service basis. Other services are offered at reduced cost or free of charge to nonprofits (often because they are underwritten by a third party), or are offered directly by a funder (foundation, business, individual donor, religious institution or government agency) that pays for them.

Any youth-serving nonprofit wishing to build capacity needs to identify the right resources to assist in that process. One referral source for this purpose is the Resource Directory for Nonprofit Capacity Building in Los Angeles County (ninth edition, 2012), which describes funders, consultants, management support organizations and other resources that can help build capacity.  To download a free copy of this Directory, click here.

ASSESSMENT RESOURCES

To build capacity, nonprofits first need to do a careful needs assessment, looking at the organization as a living system and figuring out a strategy for how to strengthen it. Basic questions about capacity building, which any nonprofit might use to start a discussion among staff or board, are the following:

1. What kinds of needs for improvement do we have at the present time?
2. Are we ready to build capacity to meet these needs better?
    - Do we have the resources (financial, personnel, etc.) to undertake capacity building?
    - Are we agreed among staff, board and executive director about the need for capacity       building and the right way to do it?
    - Is anything else happening in our organization or in the community that we should       take account of in planning for capacity building? (other major changes or
      capacity-building efforts happening at the same time, a crisis or problem that
      is absorbing all our energy, etc.)
3. Who will lead the capacity-building work inside our organization?
4. How will we find the capacity-building information or technical assistance to help us?
5. How will we know when we succeed?

Specific subject areas in which capacity building may be needed include: