Compassion Kansas: Strengthening community and faith based organizations through capacity building

The project completed at the Wichita State University Department of Psychology. Presented at the 3rd Annual Capitol Graduate Research Summit, Topeka, KS, 2006Beyond the intention to “do good” in the community, non-profits sometimes struggle to realize this goal due to a lack of organizational capacity. Capacity is defined by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations as the ability of an organization to fulfill its mission (i.e. possessing technical resources, leadership ability, fund development skills, etc). Compassion Kansas is a statewide initiative of the Self-Help Network: Center for Community Support and Research that is designed to build the capacity of Kansas faith- and community-based organizations (FBO and CBO, respectively) to better serve Kansans in need. The evaluation of the impact of Compassion Kansas efforts with FBO/CBOs involves the following: a baseline organizational assessment that measures various elements of capacity; an intervention that involves a mini-grant of up to $10,000 to support capacity building needs, the organizational assessment, access to online resources, and customized technical assistance from SHN staff; and a multiple year follow-up using the organizational assessment. The purpose of the current poster is to describe the organizational assessment and intervention used in Compassion Kansas to build the capacity of Kansas FBO/CBOs