CCAT Briefing for Vermont Nonprofts

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Welcome to the BBVT Briefing Call on

Using the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT)

March 7, 2012

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What is Benchmarks for a Better Vermont (BBVT)?

•A Federally funded grant project to strengthen Vermont nonprofits and expand their impact through performance measurement.

•Employs Results-Based Accountability™ framework, from the book Trying Hard is Not Good Enough by Mark Friedman

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Funding from Corporation for National and Community Service to

six statewide capacity builders:

Marlboro College Graduate School, lead partnerCommon Good Vermont

Vermont Community FoundationUnited Way of Chittenden County

United Ways of VermontSerVermont

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BBVT’s “Ladder of Opportunity”

Common Good Vermont Nonprofit Conference –

Tuesday, March 20 – Seats still available in Newport and Bennington

Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT)

BBVT Performance Institute

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BBVT Performance Institute

• 15 nonprofits with budgets under $2.5 million

• 3 cohorts: education, healthy lifestyles, economic opportunity

• 75 hours of engagement over 15 months

• Organizations will master performance measurement skills, and create individual and shared indicators

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BBVT Collaborators Circle

•Expands the reach of BBVT beyond 15 nonprofits

•Brings together private and public funders, key consultants, state government leaders, and businesses committed to supporting nonprofits.

•Bring experience in performance measurement and indicators of health and well-being to help develop shared measures for broad use

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Overview of the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT)

•An on-line questionnaire providing a “360 assessment” of your agency’s strengths and areas for improvement – 45 minutes to take, and an instant report

•A report highlighting where to start in strengthening your nonprofit’s effectiveness

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CCAT is a national research-based model of organizational effectiveness developed by Peter York and Paul Connolly at TCC consulting group in Philadelphia.

CCAT has been used all over the country – for example, by a broad group of nonprofits in the Los Angeles area, organizations in the arts sector, and many nonprofits across New Hampshire.

It not only gives you a picture of your organization -- It also creates data for the state of Vermont. Your participation is important because it can give us guidance about how to make the most helpful investments in Vermont’s nonprofits.

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Why use the CCAT?

•As a tool to start conversations about continuous improvement and benchmark progress each year

•As a starting point for strategic planning, board and staff development, annual workplans, and fundraising

•As a way to present your case to funders

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How does the CCAT fit with the BBVT Performance Institute?

•Gives a global picture of how to strengthen your agency•Specific CCAT questions focus on building a culture of continuous learning•You must take the CCAT to qualify for the Performance Institute. Scores will be one part of the selection process, and participants will re-take the CCAT one year later.•Assembling all CCAT results will show us a picture of statewide needs and gaps in capacity-building help

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What do we mean by “capacity”?

•The ability to deliver on your mission

•NOT an assessment of specific programs and services

•YES an assessment of the systems and processes that make that possible

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Examples:

•NOT “Is our hotline working well?”•YES “Do we have a system for knowing whether it’s working well, defining what ‘working well’ means, and using the learning to improve our hotline?”

•NOT “Did we meet our fundraising goals this year?”•YES “Do we have the leadership and systems to keep fundraising on track? Does our board need more training?”

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What are the four “core capacities”?

Technical capacity (p.s. - not technology!)

Management capacity

Leadership capacity

Adaptive capacity

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Technical Capacity

The ability of a nonprofit organization to implement all of the key organizational and programmatic functions Examples:Marketing and communication, technology, legal skills, fundraising, earned-income generation, accounting, and facilities management.

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Management Capacity

The ability of a nonprofit organization to ensure the effective and efficient use of organizational resources Examples: Financial management, service delivery, program evaluation and replication, outreach and advocacy.

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Leadership Capacity

The ability of board and staff leaders to create and sustain the vision, inspire, model, prioritize, make decisions, provide direction and innovate, all in an effort to achieve the organizational mission Examples: Board and staff visioning, inspiring, directing, prioritizing, innovating, decision-making, leadership transitions, internal communication.

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Adaptive Capacity

The ability a nonprofit organization to monitor, assess, respond to and create internal and external changes Examples:Community needs assessment, organizational assessment, program evaluation, strategic planning, collaborations and partnerships.

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What else does the CCAT measure?

•Your organization’s life cycle stage

•Your organization’s culture

•And what they both say about where to focus your internal development efforts

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Who should take the CCAT?Any organization that wants to learn about itself and is able to take the time to do the survey, and to have ongoing conversations that make good use of the results. Survey questions best fit agencies with some staff, and budgets of $100,000 or more.

Who should not take the CCAT?An agency facing short-term survival questions, an internal crisis, severe cutbacks or financial struggles, leadership transition within the past or coming 3 months, major re-structuring, program expansion, a large grant, or merger.

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Who is eligible to take the CCAT through BBVT?

•75 Vermont nonprofits may take the CCA T this spring at no cost, thanks to generous underwriting by the Vermont Community Foundation and National Corporation for Community Service

You must:

•Have an annual budget of under $2.5 million.

•Have attended the Vermont Nonprofit Conference on March 20th.

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What if we’re too large, miss the 75 slots, or just aren’t ready yet?

•You can still take the CCAT now, or later this year – by paying a substantially discounted fee of $200.

•Depending on future funding, additional free slots may become available at a later date.

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How do we sign up for the CCAT?

•Attend the Vermont Nonprofit Conference on March 20th

•Sign-ups begin on March 21st by going to the BBVT website

www.bbvt.marlboro.edu

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How does the CCAT survey work?

•Pick a “lead person” in your agency who will receive the CCAT log-in code, fill out some background information about your agency, and organize 3 – 7 participants in your agency who will fill out the survey.

•Your agency’s participants fill out the on-line survey – about 45 minutes.

•Once all participants are finished, you will immediately receive your report wit results and recommendations.

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Who in our agency takes the survey?

•Pick 3 – 7 participants who know your organization well enough to answer a broad range of questions.

•These should be your top leaders – for example, the executive director, 2-3 senior managers, and 2 board members.

•An agency with few staff might include more board members.

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What happens after we take the survey?

Whether or not you apply to the Performance Institute, you’ll get:

•Recommendations in the report for what to try next

•A debriefing workshop this spring to help you interpret and prioritize your results

•A “Best Practice Guide” on how to build strengths in each of the four Core Capacities

•Online resources from the TCC Group, www.tccgrp.com

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What can we do to prepare?

The most important thing is this:

Discuss as a board and staff whether you are ready ready and excited about learning,

and how you will create the time over the coming year to explore and act on the results –

even if you just pick 2-3 areas to focus on.

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Questions?

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For more information, contact:

Anne Lezak, Project CoordinatorBenchmarks for a Better Vermont

(802) [email protected]

or visit our webpage,www.bbvt.marlboro.edu