Assessment Introduction

 

MaxCI Assessment Tool™: Functions & Levels

A Comparative Growth & Development Analysis

MaxCI Assessment Tool™: Functions & Levels is an analytical tool used to assess an organization's health and growth potential. Its purpose is to help you manage a more successful not-for-profit. Using your input, Functions and Levels provides a clear diagnosis of your organization’s health, reveals where it is on its growth cycle relative to its potential, and gives you a plan for achieving that potential. Here's how it works.

Every organization carries out fundamental business activities. We have divided them into nine categories, called Functions:

    1. Mission

    2. Board of Directors

    3. Business Plan

    4. Administration

    5. Financial

    6. Programs and Services

    7. Marketing

    8. Fund Development

    9. Volunteers

Organizations sometimes have trouble performing well in all categories. You may have a fiercely committed volunteer base, for example, but keep your finances "organized" in a shoe box. This is where Levels come in. Levels describe the different stages of growth in each Function—from the greenest beginnings (shoe box) to the most masterful state of sophistication (accrual accounting, cost/income centers, etc).

In the example above, your Level for the Volunteer Function might be in the 60-90% range, while your Level for the Financial Function would likely be in the 15-20% range.

To determine what Level you're at in any given Function, you will be presented with several scenarios and asked to choose the one that best describes your organization. The responses you give us for each of the nine functions will be analyzed together to form a baseline for your organization's development. This baseline helps us understand where you shine… and where you could use a little polish.

Once the assessment is complete you will receive a report, called Assumptions & Recommendations. This is an organizational road map—like a GPS—to help you improve and operate according to your optimal potential. It tells you where you are, you decided where you want to go, and it will help you get there.

The results will bring a sharper focus to your organization and invigorate your board of directors and staff. Not-for-profit organizations are more successful and better-funded when managed efficiently. Peak performance and maximization of contributed funds are management and ethical imperatives.

The Assumptions and Recommendations report includes ten scores: one for your organization as a whole, and nine subscores—one for each of the nine business Functions. The organizational score is ipsative, meaning it compares your organization to itself—to its potential, not to other organizations.

The comparative scores for each of the nine business Functions can be quickly reviewed to help you focus on those Functions that need the most attention.

Following the scores, you will see a set of Assumptions & Recommendations that will take your organization to the next Level of growth—onward your potential—in each of the business Functions.

The greater the number of people from your organization that take the assessment, the more accurate and useful the results will be (provided that each asssment is taken individually, without influence from others). Rest assured that the assessment results are confidential; no one else in the organization will see your results, and vice versa.

The people at MaxCI thank you and wish you continued success in serving your community.