Thriving Networks Assessment

The Thriving Network Assessment helps community development associations, their boards, and leadership maximize resources and strategically plan for greater impact. Through that assessment, we identify organizational strengths and ways to deploy resources, address challenges, and prioritize what really matters to their network.

The assessment process systematically takes the association’s board and senior staff through these 12 operating areas:

1. Policy & Advocacy

2. Research & Thought Leadership

3. Membership

4. Member Capacity Building

5. Communications

6. Financial Stability

7. Internal Management

8. Organizational Leadership

9. Impact Measurement

10. Partnership

11. Movement Building

12. Association-to-Association Networking

The Process

  • The association board and staff individually participate in a robust online survey to draw out the network’s strengths and priorities.

  • Alliance staff leverage additional information provided by the association’s leadership and insights gleaned from our extensive national network of community development associations to carefully filter the results and pinpoint key takeaways.

  • Alliance staff leads the network’s board in a dynamic discussion (3-4 hours) to reflect on and react to these key takeaways.This discussion can be incorporated into a board retreat.

  • Alliance staff crafts a comprehensive report, highlighting crucial insights and outlining potential next steps to capitalize on the association’s newfound understanding of their strengths and priorities.

 

Testimonials

“The assessment process brought to light three areas to focus on in our strategic plan and helped us identify unnecessary projects. This process, especially the facilitation at our board retreat, brought opinions out of some board members who don’t usually share.”

Stephanie Prange Proestel
Board Chair, Community Development Network of Maryland
Deputy Director,Housing Initiative Partnership

“There are so many resources and trainings out there for our member CDCs and other community-based organizations, but they’re not designed for us as a state network organization. This tool was invaluable to us, really focusing on our unique role we play in our state's community development system.”

Iris Clark Jones
Board Member, Florida Alliance of Community Development Corporations
Vice President–Community Reinvestment Officer, Seacoast Bank

For more details and sample assessments, contact Program Manager Ha Nguyen at [email protected]