Innovation has become a buzzword for nonprofit organizations seeking to obtain funding, improve service delivery, and enhance performance. In this research, we asked one question: how can nonprofit organizations be more innovative? To answer this question, we conducted surveys among a random sample of 2,000 nonprofit organizations with a revenue above $250,000 in the United States from April to August 2017. In total, 306 organizations returned surveys and 293 surveys

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Katherine R. Cooper This document discusses challenges and strategies for using data in coalitions to improve outcomes. It describes how some coalitions have struggled to collect and make use of data. However, it also provides examples of coalitions that have successfully used data to monitor performance and see what is working. The document emphasizes that moving from simply reporting data to actively learning from

By: Katherine Cooper In recent years, funders and consultants have emphasized building nonprofit capacity – that is, the processes, practices, and people that a nonprofit has at its disposal that enables it to produce, perform, or deploy resources to achieve its mission. Many organizations have developed their own tools for assessing capacity; however, despite having a variety of available options, nonprofit leaders struggle to measure capacity. This is in part

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Sophia Fu, Katherine R. Cooper, Jennifer Ihm Despite a body of scholarship that focuses on the characteristics of both within-sector and cross-sector partnerships for nonprofit organizations at the collaborative dyad or whole network level, we know little about the patterns of relationships that a focal organization maintains with other organizations at the meso-level. This research drew upon surveys from 520 nonprofit organizations and employed

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Katherine R. Cooper, Andrew Pilny, Macarena Pena-y-lillo The Nonprofit Capacity Instrument is a free, confidential assessment backed by science. Nonprofit leaders, foundations, and consultants can use the instrument with confidence. This online tool compares your survey responses to those of over 1000 nonprofits. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and based on your responses, a full report including your scores and the

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Katherine R. Cooper, Andrew Pilny, Macarena Pena-y-lillo Nonprofits are guided by internal efforts and external mandates to build capacity. However, scholars and grant makers are hampered by varied definitions of the concept, competing but untested models, and the lack of a reliable and valid measure. This research defines nonprofit capacity as the processes, practices, and people that the organization has at its disposal that