Toolkit Listing

Practices to Infuse for Capacity-Building in Your Grantmaking –A Dozen

• • Source: Elevate NP Funders Community of Practice

• Date:    4-8-25                                   Link: dropbox

Summary: A tool providing six key questions for youth-serving nonprofits to determine their capacity-building readiness, covering organizational strengths, resource readiness, leadership, and desired outcomes

Principles of Capacity-Building for Grantmaking Organizations

• • Source: Elevate NP Funders Community of Practice

• Date:      4-8-25                                  Link: dropbox

Summary: A tool providing six key questions for youth-serving nonprofits to determine their capacity-building readiness, covering organizational strengths, resource readiness, leadership, and desired outcomes.

Collected Definitions of Capacity-Building

• Source:  Elevate NP Funders Community of Practice 
• Date:    April 2025      Link:  dropbox
• Summary:   A compilation of definitions that describe capacity building as strengthening capabilities and effectiveness (Elevate NP), the development of internal processes, plans, and people (Triangle), and the ability to monitor and respond to change, or adaptive capacity (TCC Group).

Essential Capacity Findings for Funders: Alignment of National & Local Research

• • Source: Elevate NP Funders Community of Practice

• Date:    11-4-24                                   Link:  dropbox

Summary:  A guide of essential conclusions for capacity building which includes three major national report findings which are in alignment with data  from Elevate NP’s early design process gatherings. Focus on contextual (meeting nonprofits where they are), continuous (recognizing the reality and resources needed for true organizational health) and collective elements (trust is critical). 

Introduction to Special Event Fundraising

Explore the purpose of special events and how to decide which type of event is right for you.

Planning Your Grant Budget

Walk through a budget example and get some answers to common grant budget questions.

Reimagining Capacity Building: Navigating Culture, Systems & Power

• • Source: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)

• Date:   2021      

• Link:  https://www.geofunders.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/GEO_2021_ReimaginingCapacityBuilding.pdf

Summary:  A guide calling for funders to implement more racially equitable capacity-building practices by centering equity, power, culture, and community voice to help nonprofits, particularly those led by People of Color, thrive.

Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity

• • Source: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)

• Date:  2016            

•  Link:  Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity: Core Concepts in Capacity Building

Summary:  An earlier GEO report offering principles to improve capacity-building practices, emphasizing the importance of supporting nonprofits to strengthen their leadership, management, and technical capabilities.

Five Elements of Capacity Building

• Source: Community Wealth Partners

• Date:  2018            

•  Link:  Five Elements for Success in Capacity Building   (link only)

• Summary:  Nonprofit organizations must be strong and healthy to consistently deliver effective programs that advance their mission. Research backs this up; a study on Meyer Foundation grants found that investments in capacity produced positive, long-term financial results for nonprofits, regardless of the type of capacity building grants provided. Many grantmakers recognize this pattern and invest in capacity building for their grantees. 

The five essential elements include:  Commit for the long-term, co-create solutions with stakeholders,  strengthen the ecosystem, support both technical and adaptive capacities, and ground capacity building in equity. 

A Toolkit for Funders: Great Funder-Nonprofit Relationships

• • Source: Exponent Philanthropy

• Date:  2018
• Link
• Summary: Helps funders understand the hallmarks of strong funder-nonprofit relationships, such as mutual trust and acknowledging power dynamics, and provides resources for improvement.   

Capacity Outcome Map

• • Source:   Wilburforce Foundation

• Date:   published in a GEO report

Summary:  A structured framework illustrating the desired outcomes or goals that capacity-building investment aims to achieve within an organization.

How Will We Know if Our Capacity-Building Support is Working?

• Source: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)
• Date:   2014                                                       
• Link
• Summary: An excerpt from The Smarter Grantmaking Playbook, offering four tips for assessing capacity-building impact, including starting with baseline information (e.g., TCC Group’s CCAT) and setting clear goals, honest conversations and 2-way evaluation.

Capacity-Building Quick Assessment Tool

• • Source: Dwight Stuart Youth Fund

• Date: 2023                                      

• Link
• Summary: A tool providing six key questions for youth-serving nonprofits to determine their capacity-building readiness, covering organizational strengths, resource readiness, leadership, and desired outcomes. Also listed are other np self-assessment tools.

TCBN Flyer Triangle Capacity Building Network

• • Source:   Triangle Capacity Building Network, Durham North Carolina

• Date: November 2025  

• Summary:  A growing collection of local funders in North Carolina focused on disrupting the status quo, changing the narrative, and doing things differently in the nonprofit sector and the community it serves, led by the Triangle Community Foundation.As a funder collaborative, we are committed to:
• Changing our philanthropic behavior by prioritizing funding to nonprofits for capacity building and organizational strengthening, and embracing participatory grantmaking, trust-based philanthropy, and full cost funding; 
• Reducing the power imbalance between funders and nonprofits through greater transparency and honesty
• Focusing on organizations led by and serving people of color that have traditionally been excluded or overlooked by power structures and funding cycles.

Link

Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia   (CCSI)  

• • Source:   The Coordinated Capacity Strengthening Initiative (CCSI) ) (formerly known as the Coordinated Capacity Building Initiative)

• Date: November 2025 update  

Summary:  a collaborative effort by a group of Greater Philadelphia regional funders, supported and amplified by the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, to enhance the impact of nonprofits in the region. 

Purpose and Goals: The primary goal of the CCSI is to invest in the collective impact of nonprofits by creating a more accessible, cohesive, and responsive capacity strengthening ecosystem. The initiative was launched in 2024 with a year-long, three-phase effort: research, strategy creation, and action planning. As of late 2025, the initiative is in its implementation phase. 

Action Phase: Following the research, a vision for a coordinated system was developed, focusing on building existing efforts rather than creating new ones. In September 2025, the initiative began seeking an organization or set of organizations to serve as the Coordinating Organization to act as the “backbone” of the CCSI. This entity will be responsible for curating and navigating opportunities, fostering collaboration, and advancing equity within the sector. 

For the latest updates and opportunities related to this initiative, visit the Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia website or its dedicated section on Collective Action.

Link