Communications Self-Assessment Tool

Back in 2009, Cause Communications conducted a national survey to get a sense of the state of communications in the nonprofit sector. The findings identified key characteristics shared by the highest performing organizations. While there’s no magic bullet, we saw sound evidence that being strategic is effective:

1. Their leaders play an active role in communications.
2. They have donors that understand the importance of communications and
provide the resources to back it up.
3. Communications planning is done in concert with organization-wide planning.
4. They have the right staff for the right jobs, and get help when needed.
5. They master the basics and go beyond.
6. They evaluate their work to better gauge successes and areas for improvement.

Six years later, some of the details on the use of specific tactics has shifted but the overall findings still hold true. The findings were used to create a self-assessment tool that provides a picture of where you fit in relative to the field. It is completely anonymous and confidential, but the results can be useful to begin a conversation internally about how communications can be leveraged for the overall benefit of the organization and its goals. Answering a quick series of 16 questions yields an assessment your communications strengths and areas of opportunity. A full report on the survey and the self-assessment tool are at www.communicationseffectiveness.org[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Sidebar” orientation=”right” area=”sidebar-1″ background_layout=”dark” module_id=”blue” module_class=”blue” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]