Online Self-Assessment FAQ
The self-assessment is an online tool for nonprofit leaders who want to measure their organization’s adherence to the benchmarks in the Standards for Excellence code.
The Standards for Excellence code, also known as the Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector, is a set of best practices that provides a structured approach to building capacity, accountability, and sustainability in a nonprofit organization.
Mission, Strategy, and Evaluation
Leadership: Board, Staff, and Volunteers
Legal Compliance and Ethics
Finance and Operations
Resource Development
Public Awareness, Engagement, and Advocacy
A nonprofit will need 20 to 30 minutes at a minimum to complete the self-assessment.
Nonprofit leaders often find that they may need to check with colleagues in their organization to complete the self-assessment. As a result, the self-assessment sometimes cannot be completed in one sitting. Nonprofit leaders can save their work and return to the self-assessment at any time.
When a nonprofit completes the self- assessment, it will receive a report that documents how their organization currently measures up with respect to meeting all the benchmarks.
Many nonprofits share the report with their staff or board leadership and use it to define and prioritize action areas.
Nonprofits often use the report as a first step towards Standards for Excellence accreditation since it clearly lays out areas that need attention from the organization.
An organization's results will be shared with the Standards for Excellence Institute but will not be released unless it provides permission to do so. Results may be reported in the aggregate without identifying the organizations participating.