What we found

Nonprofits of the Northwest are driven by a clear cause. They are focused on their mission and aligned in their core work to their mission. The strength of organizational and team culture they create is, in the perceptions of the respondents, exemplary. The data reveal the organizational clarity and health of culture to energize and advance their cause.

There is a gap between how nonprofits rate the strength of their mission, strategy, and culture effectiveness and the challenges they report in resource and people capacity. They see their organizations as being focused, healthy, and effective, but they also struggle having the funding and people they need to function well.

Evaluating and communicating sector and subsector impact is challenging. Organizations are not adequately evaluating the impact of their programs beyond outputs and activities. Evaluation is the lowest rated capacity of the survey. Building expertise and developing habits to prove and improve their impact using evaluative data of all kinds is an obvious need for capacity-building.

The long-predicted leadership deficit is here. The survey reveals succession planning is a continued, if not growing, challenge for nonprofits. The capacity to develop staff into leaders is also a need for nonprofits. If nonprofits in the Northwest are to thrive into the future, capacity for developing current and future leaders will need to be a focus for capacity-building.

One of the greatest needs for nonprofits in the Northwest continues to be the sufficiency and diversity of funding. Whereas the capacity for financial management is rated relatively strong, the capacity for fund development is lagging. Nonprofit leaders see a need for strengthening their fund development competencies and funder relationships. In open-ended questions about the greatest barriers and greatest needs for capacity in all 10 domains, leaders commonly cited the need for sufficient financial resources. Leaders of nonprofits see capacity funding as the critical key to strengthening capacities of all kinds.

Nonprofits that are small, early stage, and culturally specific report the greatest needs for capacity-building across many of the ten domains represented in the survey. All nonprofits have the opportunity to develop in areas of capacity to be more effective. To uplevel all nonprofits, investment will need to be offered to small, early stage, and culturally specific organizations.

Involvement with the nonprofit state associations corresponds to a higher capacity across all domains. Nonprofits that engage with the programs and services of the nonprofit state associations demonstrate a higher level of capacity than average. This finding suggests that the community, content, camaraderie, and support of the nonprofit state association aligns with capacity.

Culturally specific organizations rate substantially higher than the average in (a) engaging communities that have been historically underserved and underrepresented, (b) applying policies and practices that advance inclusion and belonging with historically marginalized communities, and (c) using the lens of power and privilege to examine and advance the work. There is an opportunity for the sector to learn from the expertise of these organizations.

Amidst the relative strengths of partnership capacity, the data reveal possibilities for improvements in cross-sectoral work. There is yet untapped potential for nonprofits to work together with public and private sector organizations and agencies to achieve significant and durable impact in and for communities.

The survey reveals an opportunity for nonprofits to be better mobilized to make a difference in public policy by exercising strategic influence. Mobilizing the collective influence of nonprofits to influence societal systems, structures, and policies is an area for capacity-building consideration.

The survey demonstrates strength of capacity in each of the ten domains. The survey shows Northwest nonprofits as competent, resourceful, skilled, and able. They have developed capacity in critical areas of nonprofit effectiveness that explain the scale, scope, and depth of impact they are having in communities throughout the Northwest.

There is remarkable consistency in the data across all five states. In very few instances, there are small differences in the ratings between the states. Mostly, however, the data show similarities in the perceived strengths and areas of need in capacity.