The questions that every organisation continuously faces during its growth and development are related to how to assess in which areas it needs organisational strengthening. What are the areas in which the organisation is working well and has an advantage over others, and where it is not working well enough and needs to improve? One way to assess this is by conducting assessments and self-assessments through which organisations review their capacities and opportunities for development.
In order for civil society organisations (CSOs) to identify their capacity and resilience to be competent, efficient, effective and accountable independent actors, the Civic Resource Centre prepared an Organisational Capacity Self-Assessment Tool within the project: "EU Support to the Civil Society Resource Centre - Phase 2".
This tool is intended to inspire and guide organisations in identifying their organisational capacities in ten categories: (1) Strategic Management, (2) Project Management, (3) Governance and Structure, (4) Human Resources, (5) Organisational Values, Commitment and Culture, (6) Administration and Finance, (7) Media and Public Relations, (8) Collaboration and Partnerships, (9) Advocacy Capacities and (10) Service Delivery Capacities. The last two categories are optional and the score for these two categories does not count towards the overall score for the organisation.
We recommend that the self-assessment be done through a participatory process that involves the legal representative or a person he/she designates, together with the people responsible and relevant for the categories being assessed. For example, category 7 is assessed by the legal representative together with the persons responsible and relevant for media and public relations. We recommend that the assessments and comments explaining why you have assessed yourself in this way be based on a previously conducted discussion in the groups formed for the assessment of the different categories. It is important to provide a comment/explanation for each question as to why you rated yourself that way (especially if you are between two grades), because that way you will best contribute to strengthening your awareness of the real needs for the development of your organisation.
When developing the Self-Assessment Tool, the Integrated Organisation Model (IOM), the McKinsey Capacity Assessment Grid and the customised organisational assessment tool developed by the Macedonian office of the Technical Assistance to Civil Society Organisations (TACSO) project were taken into account, as well as other relevant methodologies and tools for CSOs’ self-assessment.
It is important to note that the results of this tool will show how the organisation sees itself in the above ten categories. To obtain the most complete and realistic picture of the situation, the organisation should also take into account how other external actors see and evaluate it. Therefore, in addition to this self-assessment instrument, as well as other self-assessment instruments and tools in other categories and areas that are relevant specifically to the organisation itself, organisations should also use tools for assessing the situation by external actors and constituents of the organisation.
The Civic Resource Centre (CRC) will not publicly publish the individual results of the self-assessment by organisation, nor share them with other organisations or stakeholders. The CRC may publish the summarised results of the self-assessment at certain time intervals. The published summary results of the self-assessment will provide a picture of where the organisations believe they need to strengthen their capacities, what their strengths and weaknesses are. The published summary results can be used by various stakeholders working in the field of civil society support and development.
The Organisational Capacity Self-Assessment Tool is available only in Macedonian language.
For any questions related to the self-assessment, please contact: [email protected]