Building Capacity in Nonprofit Human Service Agencies Through Organizational Assessment During the Accreditation Process

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of organizational self-assessment as a tool to enhance organizational capacity in nonprofit human service agencies when it is performed as part of an accreditation process. Eighty-eight organizations completed a self-assessment pretest designed to measure capacity at the beginning of an accreditation process and then the same self-assessment posttest at the end of the accreditation process. The findings reveal that 59% of these organizations demonstrated an increase in capacity. Organizations identified their greatest capacity challenges. The findings mostly support the premise that organizational self-assessment is a beneficial process in building capacity.