Impact

Because you scored a out of 39 on Impact, we recommend you do an audit on the effectiveness of your program and services. We have no doubt you want to increase the impact you have on your community! This starts by increasing your organization's self awareness. Consider tracking the following categories:

• Beneficiary Outcomes: Track changes in the lives of the people or communities served. This could include improvements in education, health, economic status, etc., depending on your organization's mission.
• Success Stories and Testimonials: Qualitative data from those directly impacted by your work can provide powerful insights into its effectiveness. Anytime stories are shared of individuals, they should be done with permission and in a way that is not exploitive. Pay special care when sharing stories across cultures to ensure they are handled in culturally sensitive ways.
• Program Reach: The number of people or communities served, including metrics like the number of services provided, resources distributed, or events held.
• Progress Toward Goals: Measure progress on specific milestones or objectives outlined in the organization’s strategic plan.

Personal Wellbeing

Because you scored a out of 39 on Personal Sustainability, we recommend you consider your personal wellbeing.

Having intentional boundaries in ministry and nonprofits can be particularly challenging, given the emotional investment and often limited resources. Here are three tips for ensuring you are taking care of yourself:

1. Set Boundaries and Delegate Tasks

This work often requires wearing many hats, but overextending yourself can lead to burnout. Set clear boundaries around work hours and responsibilities, and delegate tasks when possible. By sharing responsibilities with colleagues or volunteers, you can ensure that no single person bears too much weight.

2. Prioritize Self-Care and Mental Health

Make self-care a priority by scheduling regular breaks, practicing mindfulness, and engaging in activities that rejuvenate you outside of work. Address your mental health by seeking professional support when needed. Engaging in hobbies, exercise, or socializing outside the workplace helps maintain balance.

3. Reconnect with Your Purpose

Feeling disconnected from the mission can lead to discouragement and burnout. Revisit the reasons why you started in the first place. Celebrate small wins and acknowledge the impact your work is making, no matter how incremental. Reconnecting with the positive outcomes can reignite your passion and remind you of your purpose.

4. Be aware of racial/ethnic challenges.

To BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) leaders navigating the weight of racial and cross-cultural tensions, burnout is a reality that can feel both overwhelming and isolating. The relentless pressures of representing your community, educating others, and fighting against systemic inequities can take a heavy toll on mental, emotional, and physical well-being. It’s important to recognize that your resilience and leadership, while powerful, do not require self-sacrifice. Prioritize rest, self-care, and finding spaces of support where you can recharge, connect with others who share your experiences, and process the complexities of your role. Your well-being matters as much as the work you do.

Balancing these strategies can help you recover from or prevent burnout.

Are you at risk of burn-out?

Because you scored a out of 39 on Personal Wellbeing, we're worried you might be experiencing burnt out.
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Burnout is common due to the emotional intensity, long hours, and often resource-constrained environments. Please consider doing a deep evaluation on whether you're feeling burnt out, and reach out to someone for help. You are not alone. You can reach out to joe@cityviewcolumbus.org and we will try to connect you with whatever resources we can.

Here are some common symptoms of burnout in this field:

Physical Exhaustion: Constant fatigue, even after resting. Frequent headaches or muscle pain. Sleep disturbances (insomnia or oversleeping).

Emotional Exhaustion:Feeling emotionally drained or overwhelmed. A sense of detachment or feeling “numb” to situations that would typically elicit emotion. Irritability or mood swings.

Reduced Performance and Motivation: Decreased productivity or quality of work. Difficulty concentrating or making decisions. Lack of motivation, even for tasks you once enjoyed.

Cynicism and Detachment: Becoming overly cynical or negative about work or your organization mission. Feeling disconnected from colleagues or beneficiaries. Distancing oneself emotionally from work responsibilities.

Sense of Ineffectiveness: Feeling like efforts are not making a meaningful impact. Doubting your ability to perform well or contribute to the cause. A sense of helplessness or feeling “stuck” in your role.

Decreased Job Satisfaction: Lack of enthusiasm or passion for the work that previously inspired you. Increased frustration with organizational processes or leadership.

Mental Health Strain: Heightened anxiety or stress levels. Feelings of depression or a persistent low mood. Increased feelings of isolation or withdrawal from social interactions.

Racial/Cultural Exhaustion: The relentless pressures of representing your community, educating others, and fighting against systemic inequities can take a heavy toll on mental, emotional, and physical well-being especially when serving in a cross-cultural environment.


These symptoms, if left unaddressed, can lead to long-term health issues and negatively impact personal well-being and your organization's success. Please take this seriously and know that help and recovery is possible!

Leadership Development

Because you scored a out of 39 on Leadership Development, we recommend you do an audit of your leadership development processes.

Recruiting and deploying new leaders is crucial for ensuring continuity and long-term impact. For organizations struggling with recruiting, training, and deploying leaders, here are four tips to consider:

1. Alignment

• Identify Mission-Driven Candidates: When recruiting new leaders, prioritize individuals who are passionate about your mission and have a deep understanding of its core values. Look for candidates who have demonstrated commitment to similar causes or have a track record of purpose-driven work.
• Cultural Fit: Ensure that new leaders align with your work culture, as leadership has a strong influence on organizational tone. Conduct interviews that explore not just their professional skills but their ability to uphold and embody your values.

2. Diversity and Skill Sets

• Seek Diverse Perspectives: Bring in leaders with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences (e.g., race, gender, professional experience). A more diverse leadership team fosters creativity and innovation, and better reflects the communities served by your organization.
• Balance Between Skills and Potential: Look for leaders with a balance of specific skills (e.g., financial management, strategic planning, fundraising) and leadership potential. New leaders don’t need to have every skill but should have the ability to grow and adapt within your organization.

3. Onboarding and Mentorship

• Structured Onboarding: Provide new leaders with a well-defined onboarding process that includes clear expectations, an introduction to key stakeholders, and an understanding of your goals, operations, and culture. Effective onboarding helps new leaders integrate quickly and effectively.
• Pair with a Mentor: Assign a mentor from within your organization to guide the new leader during the initial months. Mentorship ensures that new leaders receive ongoing support, feedback, and insights that help them navigate challenges and make informed decisions.

4.  Development and Accountability

• Invest in Leadership Development: Offer continuous learning opportunities for new leaders through workshops, conferences, and professional development programs. This demonstrates the organization’s commitment to growth and equips leaders with the skills needed to address evolving challenges.
• Set Clear Goals and Performance Metrics: Establish clear, measurable goals for new leaders and regularly review their progress. Providing feedback and accountability helps leaders stay aligned with your mission while fostering growth in their leadership capabilities.

By focusing on mission alignment, diversity, structured onboarding, and ongoing development, nonprofits can successfully recruit and deploy leaders who will drive the organization forward and contribute to its long-term success.

Financial Sustainability

Because you scored a out of 39 on Financial Sustainability, we recommend you look deeper into the financial health of your organization to discover potential weaknesses and places for growth and take steps to balance your budget. 

Here are a few tips for increasing your Financial Sustainability: 

• Increase Fundraising: fundraising can take a 100 different forms, but one of the ways to balance your budget is to increase your income. Ideas on fundraising and strategies for each context are often a part of a coaching and consultation process. 
• Streamline Ministries: By making strategic cuts in a budget, an organization can invest their energy into growing. Much like a fruit tree needs to be prune to produce better fruit, often organizations need to make cuts in order to grow. 

Here are a few metrics to consider in doing a financial sustainability audit.

• Program Expense Ratio: The percentage of total expenses spent on programs compared to administrative and fundraising costs. A high program expense ratio generally indicates that your organization is effectively channeling its resources toward its mission.
• Fundraising Efficiency: The cost to raise each dollar. This metric highlights how much it costs your organization to attract donations (i.e., $0.15 spent for every $1 raised). This metric can also be used to track the amount of time spent to raise funds. Are you spending more than 50% of your time fundraising, thus lowering your ability to serve more people?
• Revenue Growth: Tracking the organization’s income growth over time through donations, grants, or other revenue streams to ensure financial sustainability.
• Operating Reserves: The number of months your organization can continue operating without new income. This reflects its financial stability and preparedness for unforeseen disruptions.
• Diversity of Revenue Sources: A healthy nonprofit should not rely on a single income stream (e.g., one major donor or one event). Tracking the diversity of funding sources (grants, individual donations, corporate sponsorships) helps ensure long-term sustainability.

Culture

Because you scored a out of 39 on Culture, we recommend you take time to evaluate your organization's relationship to those closest to it.

Determining if your culture is healthy is crucial for the long-term success and well-being of both employees, volunteers, and your organization. Here are four key points to evaluate a nonprofit's work culture:

1. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

• High Morale and Job Satisfaction: A healthy work culture is reflected in how engaged and satisfied employees feel. Regular employee satisfaction surveys, feedback mechanisms, and informal check-ins can gauge whether staff feel motivated, valued, and connected to your organization's mission.
• Low Turnover and High Retention: High employee retention and low turnover rates often signal a positive work environment where staff feel supported and have growth opportunities.

2. Open Communication and Transparency

• Clear and Open Communication: A healthy culture encourages open, two-way communication between leadership and staff. Employees should feel comfortable expressing ideas, concerns, or feedback without fear of repercussions.
• Transparency in Decision-Making: Leadership should be transparent about organizational decisions, finances, and changes that affect staff. Open communication fosters trust and a sense of inclusion.

3. Work-Life Balance and Well-Being

• Respect for Boundaries: A healthy nonprofit culture respects employees’ work-life balance by setting realistic workloads and expectations, offering flexible schedules when needed, and ensuring staff can disconnect from work after hours.
• Support for Mental Health and Well-Being: Providing resources such as mental health support, wellness programs, and recognizing signs of burnout are key indicators of a caring and balanced work culture.

4. Collaboration and Teamwork

• Strong Collaboration Across Teams: Healthy nonprofit cultures foster teamwork and collaboration, where staff feel comfortable sharing ideas and working with each other. There should be an emphasis on mutual respect, cooperation, and inclusiveness in decision-making.
• Recognition and Appreciation: Regularly recognizing and celebrating staff contributions, whether through formal rewards or simple acknowledgments, encourages a positive and collaborative atmosphere.

By focusing on engagement, communication, work-life balance, and teamwork, a nonprofit can foster a healthy, thriving work culture that drives both individual and organizational success.

Flexibility & Innovation

Because you scored a out of 39 on Flexibility & Innovation, we recommend exploring more carefully your organization's strengths and weaknesses in this area.

Measuring your organization's flexibility and innovation is essential to ensure it can adapt to changing environments and continuously improve its impact. Here are three key metrics to assess these areas:

1. Speed of Decision-Making

Different cultures have different relationships to time. Cultures that value deference and collaboration would rather move slowly to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Others might move too quickly, leaving leaders and stakeholders behind. When assessing your speed of decision making be sure to keep in mind the biases and assumptions that come from your cultural background relating to time. 

• Time to Respond to Changes: Track how quickly your organization can adapt to new opportunities, challenges, or external shifts (e.g., policy changes, economic shifts, community needs). A shorter time frame from decision-making to action reflects organizational flexibility, taking into account the unique cultural expectations reflected in your organization.
• Crisis Response Time: Measure the speed and effectiveness of your organization's response during emergencies or unexpected events. This metric shows how well the organization can pivot and address urgent issues.

2. Number of New Programs or Initiatives Launched

• Program Innovation: Track the number of new programs, services, or initiatives developed and implemented within a given period (e.g., annually). The frequency and scope of new offerings indicate your organization's ability to innovate and address evolving needs.
• Program Adaptation: Measure how existing programs are modified or expanded based on feedback, evaluation, or emerging trends. This shows your organization's capacity to innovate within its current framework.

3. Employee and Volunteer Participation

• Staff and Volunteer Idea Generation: Measure the number of ideas for innovation submitted by staff and volunteers, as well as how many of those ideas are implemented. This metric reflects an organizational culture that encourages creative thinking and adaptation.
• Professional Development Participation: Track the percentage of staff and volunteers engaging in professional development or training related to innovation, technology, or emerging trends. High participation rates show your organization’s commitment to staying ahead of changes happening amongst similar organizations.

These metrics provide insight into an organization's capacity to adapt to changing circumstances, develop innovative solutions, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Communication & Marketing

Because you scored a out of 39 on Communication & Marketing, we recommend you do an audit of your communication & marketing using these metrics:

• Website Traffic and Online Engagement: Track the number of visitors to your organization’s website, time spent on the site, and conversion rates (e.g., donations made, newsletter sign-ups).
• Social Media Reach and Engagement: Monitor followers, shares, likes, and comments on social media platforms to assess how well your organization is communicating its mission and attracting supporters.
• Media Coverage: Positive or meaningful media exposure can signal effectiveness and amplify your organization’s impact.
• Email List: Track the number of email subscribers over a period of time.

Strategy & Vision

Because you scored a out of 39 on Vision, we recommend you further develop your 3-5 year strategic plan.

Developing a 3-5 year strategic plan is crucial for guiding your organization toward its mission while addressing future challenges and opportunities.
Here are four tips to help in the development of a strategic plan:

1. Engage Stakeholders Early and Often

• Involve Diverse Voices: Include staff, board members, volunteers, beneficiaries, donors, and community partners in the planning process. Gathering a wide range of perspectives ensures that the plan reflects the needs of those your organization serves and leverages internal and external expertise.
• Use Surveys and Focus Groups: Collect data and feedback through surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one interviews to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Stakeholder involvement fosters buy-in and commitment to the final plan.

2. Focus on Mission-Driven, Measurable Goals

• Align with Mission: Ensure that every goal and objective directly supports your organization’s mission. Clearly define what success looks like and focus on outcomes that have a meaningful impact on the community or cause you serve.
• Monitor Trends and Challenges: Analyze trends that are happening amongst similar organizations, donor behavior, regulatory changes, and community needs to inform the strategic direction. Consider how emerging technologies, partnerships, or shifts in funding could affect your strategy.

3. Consider using one of these strategic planning tools:

1. SMART Goals: Create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This approach helps keep the plan realistic and allows progress to be tracked over time, ensuring accountability and adaptability.
2. Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations align efforts and measure progress toward strategic objectives. The process involves setting clear, ambitious Objectives that define what you want to achieve, and measurable Key Results that track progress toward those goals. Objectives are qualitative and inspire direction, while Key Results are specific, quantifiable, and time-bound, providing a clear way to assess success. OKRs promote focus, transparency, and alignment by ensuring that teams are working toward the same high-level goals while regularly tracking and adjusting efforts based on progress.
3. SWOT Analysis: Evaluate the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. This helps identify your organization’s capacity and where strategic investments or adjustments are needed.
4. SCORE Analysis is a strategic tool used to assess an organization's internal and external environment to identify key factors that can impact its success. It stands for Strengths, Challenges, Opportunities, Responses, and Effectiveness.
   • Strengths: Internal attributes or resources that give the organization an advantage.
   • Challenges: Internal or external difficulties the organization faces, which may hinder progress.
   • Opportunities: External factors or trends that the organization can leverage for growth or improvement.
   • Responses: Actions the organization can take to address challenges or capitalize on opportunities.
   • Effectiveness: A measure of how well the organization’s responses lead to the desired outcomes.

4. Ensure Flexibility and Regular Review

• Build in Flexibility: The strategic plan should be adaptable to change. As your organization evolves, the plan must allow for adjustments without deviating from the core mission. Incorporating regular progress reviews ensures that the organization can pivot as needed.
• Set Milestones and Timelines: Break down long-term goals into smaller, manageable milestones with clear timelines. This helps maintain momentum, track progress, and allows for continuous improvement.

By focusing on stakeholder engagement, mission alignment, data-driven analysis, and flexibility, your organization can create a strategic plan that is both visionary and practical, guiding its growth and impact over the next several years.

You might also measure your board's involvement in strategic planning:

• Strategic Planning Involvement: The board should actively participate in setting and reviewing your organization’s strategic plan, ensuring that it aligns with the mission and is realistic and actionable.
• Monitoring Strategic Goals: Track the board’s oversight of your organization’s progress toward achieving its long-term goals. This includes reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) tied to the strategic plan.
• Adaptability and Decision-Making: Evaluate how well the board navigates challenges, makes timely decisions, and adapts to changing circumstances that can be seen amongst similar organizations.

A coach/consultant can help organizations of all sizes develop a strategic 3-5 year plan.

Board & Administration

Because you scored a out of 39 on Board & Administration, we recommend you measure the effectiveness of your board.

As a reminder, "board" here is being used in a generic sense, referring to top-level leaders who are responsible for the direction and well-being of the organization. Depending on the church or nonprofit, this might refer to administrative board, advisory team, board of directors, elders, deacons, session, vestry, charge conference, board of trustees, council, and other official and unofficial top-level decision making bodies in you organization.

Measuring the effectiveness of a board is essential for ensuring strong governance and leadership. The board plays a critical role in providing strategic direction, financial oversight, and accountability for the organization. Here are key metrics and areas to evaluate when assessing a nonprofit board’s effectiveness:

1. Board Engagement and Participation

• Attendance Rate: Track attendance at board meetings and other events. A high attendance rate indicates that board members are engaged and committed to their roles.
• Committee Participation: Measure how actively board members participate in committees (e.g., finance, governance, fundraising). Strong participation suggests that board members are contributing meaningfully to the organization’s success.
• Preparation and Contribution: Evaluate how well-prepared board members are for meetings (e.g., reviewing materials in advance) and the quality of their contributions to discussions and decision-making.

2. Board Diversity and Composition

• Skills and Expertise: Assess whether the board has a diverse range of skills, expertise, and backgrounds that align with the needs of your organization. This could include financial, legal, marketing, or sector-specific knowledge.
• Demographic Diversity: A diverse board (in terms of race, gender, age, geographic location, etc.) is better equipped to represent the communities your organization serves and bring different perspectives to decision-making.
• Term Limits and Succession Planning: Evaluate whether there are clear processes for rotating board members and grooming new leadership. Healthy turnover and strong succession planning contribute to board effectiveness and prevent stagnation.

3. Board-CEO/Executive Director Relationship

• Communication and Support: Regular, open communication between the board and the CEO/Executive Director is key. Assess how often the board meets with leadership and whether it provides adequate support, guidance, and feedback.
• Performance Evaluations: The board should regularly evaluate the CEO’s or Executive Director’s performance. This assessment should be formalized and tied to organizational goals and performance metrics.

4. Board Governance and Oversight

• Adherence to Bylaws and Policies: Assess whether the board follows established governance policies, including bylaws, conflict of interest policies, and procedures for decision-making and oversight.
• Financial Oversight: The board should actively review and approve the budget, monitor financial statements, and ensure that resources are being used appropriately. Strong financial oversight is a key measure of board responsibility.
• Risk Management: Evaluate the board’s involvement in identifying and mitigating risks. This could include overseeing legal compliance, insurance coverage, and crisis management strategies.