Cases

This tool was created by JNPOC together with World Vision Japan and NPO Support Centers nationwide as part of the NPO Training and Capacity-Building Project, which targeted groups working towards recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster.

The disaster’s unprecedented scale led to growing expectations for nonprofits able to respond to the specific post-disaster needs in the recovery process. This tool was created against the backdrop of a sudden increase in funding for local nonprofit activities, which at the time were exhausted due to capacity vulnerabilities given the extent of the tasks they faced. As time passed, many groups were no longer able to sustain their activities for finance and human resource-related reasons due to waning interest in the disaster. This checklist was compiled to help problem-solving in nonprofit leadership development and to strengthen the capacities of local nonprofits, so they can engage in sustained and multifaceted activities.

Nonprofit organizations

Projects:

1. Ability to Consolidate (plan of activities for single year/medium to long-term, reach consensus)
2. Ability to Propose (mission, vision, positioning map, plan)
3. Ability to Anticipate (grasp financial resources, strengthen financial footing, financial planning and management)
4. Ability to Sustain (understanding membership, organizational management to gain credibility)
5. Ability to Move Forward (internal management, strategy-building, efficiency, developing independent sources of revenue, human resource development and leadership)
6. Ability to Nurture (developing diverse human resources, motivation within organization, becoming equipped for risks)
7. Ability to Involve Others (understanding particular skills of volunteers, volunteer coordination and management)
8. Ability to Work with Others (evaluation of partnership projects before, during and after)
9. Ability to Review (pre-project evaluation policymaking, evaluation implementation, applying evaluation results to future projects)
10. Ability to Explain (understanding need for accounting, accounts structure, tax matters)
11. Ability to Communicate and Disseminate (the prerequisites, purpose, method, information organization, design and outcomes of communication and publicity)

Simplified version:

1. Mission, vision and strengths
2. Project planning
3. Management of human resources
4. Organizational management and governance
5. Fund management and accountability

Yes

• Full list: Self-assessment Check Sheet (Supplement to the 15 Capabilities for Nonprofit Leaders Workbook)?: PDF
• Simplified version: 15 Management Capabilities to Improve NPOs (beta version)?: PDF

None

150 min. (15 min. for simplified version)

Self-assessment covering 12 fields - Yes or No for 10 items for a total score of 120 (maximum of 120 points)

• Understand the organization’s strengths and weaknesses through the number of checkmarks among the ten items per field.
• Understand the organization’s overall footing through the total number of checkmarks.
• Observe the organization’s changes and improvements by using the tool regularly, every few months.

Original workbook created July 27, 2013
Check sheet created around spring of 2014

About 6,000 copies of original workbook distributed (5,963 as of December 16, 2015)