Needs and Strengths Assessment

How to Do a Boss Needs and Strengths Assessment for a Nonprofit Organization

Projects. The very word makes some nonprofits scurry around and try to develop something trivial out of thin air to look like they are doing something. Or, sadly, to develop something that they may not need just because there is grant funding out there for that type of project. The former is referred to as draining the money, and the latter is coined chasing the money. Before you even get to projects, you need to make sure your nonprofit has a strong, clear mission and vision statement, has conducted a SWOT analysis, has reviewed lessons learned, and has SMART objectives and goals. If you don’t know what I am talking about, please refer to my other podcasts!

Now you are in a great place in your strategic planning to actually identify the best projects that will support your mission and vision and meet the needs that your nonprofit addresses for your target demographic.

Woo-hoo! So, should you jump on grants.gov and see what the federal government is funding so that you can develop projects around where the money is? Honestly, don’t do that.

First, develop your projects that are centric to your mission and vision. Then go grant hunting. We will get into more grant specifics after this strategic planning segment, but don’t dismiss how important it is to first get all your ducks in a row. Otherwise, even if you do get that funding, you may not be able to sustain it or meet the objectives.

Believe me, I’ve seen those organizations that just chase the money and some of them do get the grants awarded, but that is not necessarily a good thing. I have seen organizations give money back to funding sources because they cannot meet the objectives due to the project never being aligned with their mission and vision or meeting their beneficiaries’ needs.

That’s where the good old business plan comes into play. The secret is, if you have been following this Strategic Planning series, then you have already developed a chunk of your business plan. But before you start listing your projects and dumping a bunch of money into them, let’s stop and take a breath and do a Needs & Strengths Assessment. I know, one of you just swore and the other one rolled their eyes. I know you are itching to get out there, but if you really want your project to succeed and not have to restart it twenty times, then this step is vital.

Needs and Strengths Assessment – What it is

First, you need to identify the needs and strengths that your beneficiaries or target demographic faces. Many nonprofits and organizations only utilize a Needs Assessment to understand the challenges and be aware of what projects are actually needed and leave out the strengths segment.

But savvy, productive nonprofits implement a Needs & Strengths Assessment to identify the particular barriers and strengths for their beneficiaries or target priority. The difference between the two is that the straight-up Needs Assessment is only focused on the challenges and the lack of resources. This approach does not take into account the strengths in the community and what is working.

When you know the positive aspects of what works in a community, you know what to leverage and grow. This approach is more solution-oriented and reduces risks of coming up with designs that might not work to solve problems.

For example, a Needs Assessment might just be a survey listing all the barriers that your beneficiaries face, so you are still kind of in the dark of what could work. Sure, you know what you need, but you still do not have a clear picture of what might work. A Needs & Strengths Assessment may also include questions to find out what strengths exist in the community (or for the individual or target), and possible open-ended questions for focus groups to create a platform for brainstorming solutions.

Don’t Duplicate Projects

Another item that might manifest through your Needs & Strengths Assessment could be that there are already other nonprofits doing projects that you think are needed. Let’s face it, just because you thought of a project doesn’t mean the same type of project isn’t already out there.

You may find out that another nonprofit is already facilitating a service/project that would meet the needs of your community, but your beneficiaries face transportation challenges to get to those services. That information would be very important, as you could then see if it would be more efficient for your organization to conduct similar services in your geographic area, or if providing transportation to existing services in other areas would be more beneficial/economical.

The Methods

A Needs & Strengths Assessment may take many different forms depending on your resources (time, money, and people). Typical methods include written or online surveys, focus groups, observations, testimonials, phone surveys, and so forth. But altogether there are similar designs as the end results of finding out the needs and strengths are the same. These characteristics include:

• A pre-set list of questions
• A pre-determined sample of the number and types of people to answer these questions chosen in advance
• The results of the survey are utilized for a call-to-action of actually addressing the needs and levering the strengths
• Can be shared on your website or with partners
• Support grants and other funding requests

Conducting a Needs & Strengths Assessment will help your nonprofit increase credibility among partners, provide support when applying for project funding from funding sources, and enhance relationships with your beneficiaries. How often do organizations think they know what their beneficiaries need (but never ask)? And then develop a project that only fails, and the staff become discouraged and blame it on the beneficiaries. Ouch. Yes, that happens. Understanding needs and strengths are vital in formulating projects. Do not assume you know what is needed without conducting an assessment…we all know what ASSUME stands for. Rather, find out what people need and what they find useful.

But I don’t have the money

Conducting a Needs & Strengths Assessment does not need to cost a small fortune. Sure, extensive research can cost a pretty penny, but finding out basic needs and strengths does not need to entail hiring a Survey Consultant for $50,000. The Assessment can be as simple as drafting together some questions, then sitting in a group with your beneficiaries, and asking them the questions. You could even draft out the questions and send out out the survey through Survey Monkey (free for less than 10 questions) or through Google Docs (free with unlimited questions and includes super cool graphs with the results).

What Questions? Wait, isn’t that a question?

First, you will want to identify what you want to find out.

For example, if diabetes is a huge epidemic in your community, you m...