What is Capacity-Building Support?

Promotes a nonprofit’s long-term sustainability and effectiveness.
Funds things like infrastructure, tech, leadership development, communications and strategic planning.

Staff burnout. Frequent turnover. Amazing programs that hardly anyone knows about. Outdated technology that’s slowing down service delivery. These are just a few of the challenges that can plague under-resourced nonprofits.

If a nonprofit is constantly fundraising and executing projects, it’s hard to take a step back and assess what’s needed to be most effective and to sustain operations over the long term—and harder still to actually address those needs, unless there’s support to do so. Capacity-building support is aimed at filling this gap, giving nonprofits the resources to learn, strategize, update their infrastructure, and grow so that they can fulfill their mission for years to come.

Capacity-building support covers things like:

Investments in technology or facilities.
Strategic assessments.
Strategic planning.
Leadership development and training.
Organizational development.
Board development.
Hiring coaches, facilitators, and trainers for staff professional development and improving organizational culture.
Developing a strategic communications plan to spread the word about the nonprofit’s good work.
Networking and building relationships with other nonprofits.

Program or project grants rarely cover the fundamentals needed to sustain and grow an organization. General-operating support can be used to build a nonprofit’s capacity, but when funds are already stretched thin, it’s all too easy for long-term concerns to get back-burnered in the face of immediate needs. Dedicated capacity-building support can make a huge difference in enabling a nonprofit to invest in the equipment, training and planning that will allow it to effectively fulfill its mission now and in the future.

Capacity-building support can come in the form of a grant or gift of money. Some funders also offer capacity-building support in the form of organizing convenings or trainings for their grantee partners, such as a networking or professional development event for multiple grantees working in the same field.