Review and Renewal
Review and Renewal is vital to a group’s sustainability. One must always question why a group exists and whether the goals and objectives are the same as those of the group when it first formed. It is vital to keep evolving.
Keeping the work going
The health and development Community ToolBox has a lot of useful planning tools on sustaining the work initiative (including case studies) and implementing a social marketing effort. Visit
http://ctb.ku.edu
Organisational Assessment Tool
This 9-part Nonprofit Organizational Assessment Tool can help guide a group discussion about an organization's operations. This group discussion ideally should include board members, staff, volunteers, and service recipients, but could be used as a self-assessment tool by anyone associated with a nonprofit organization.
The nine areas are:
- Strategic Planning,
- Resource Development,
- Board Development,
- Marketing,
- Financial Empowerment,
- Social Entrepreneurship,
- Volunteer Involvement,
- Strategic Alliances, and
- Outcome Measurement.
The Tool was developed by the Non Profit Management Education Center at the University of Wisconsin, USA:
www.uwex.edu/
Measuring community well being
Just, vibrant and sustainable communities – a framework for progressing and measuring community well being is a booklet published by Local Government Services of Australia. It can be ordered through their website and is available through the DIA library.
www.lgcsaa.org.au
Developing local communities.
There is practical advice from Te Puni Kokiri on building skills and developing local communities at
http://www.tpk.govt.nz/community/default.asp
Social network analysis software
Orgnet has useful mapping tools: eg Knowledge Continuity Management: keeping the knowledge in the organisation at
www.orgnet.com
(Urban) renewal - toolkits and case studies
The Urban renewal project has good toolkits and overview on sustainable development, toolkits on planning for the future and case studies at
www.renewal.net
Board and governance
Check out the Governance & Management how-to guide on this site.
Keeping in the public eye
A continuing communications and marketing plan is vital. The new Community Resource Kit (available at CABs and public libraries and soon-to-be online) has an excellent "communications section" which makes sure your group continues to get good coverage.
Suggest a resource
We would like more resources, covering strategic planning, organizational refocusing and similar subjects - please suggest a resource.