A quarter of IPN Assessments
What we've seen, what we plan ahead
The IPN Assessments feature we launched in January is an offering with multiple benefits to different ecosystem players. Let’s begin with the nonprofits who can take such assessments.
For such organisations, an IPN Assessment first provides an overview of their maturity in the org development area (for example, M&E or Fundraising). If a nonprofit then wishes to act on the identified improvement areas, the platform highlights multiple options and gives clear recommendations, based on the nonprofit’s maturity level.
So far 150+ nonprofits have taken one or two ( of currently available) assessments on IPN. Together, they have completed close to 200 assessments. About 25% of these attempts are motivated by curiosity: they want to know where they stand. The rest want to act to improve their maturity levels.
Across the two available assessments, the distribution of maturity levels looks as follows:
Analytics of this nature also highlights the value of IPN Assessments for others in the capacity building (CB) ecosystem: Intermediaries (who offer CB-related programs and services) and donors (keen on CB-related contributions).
The insights from IPN assessments can reveal micro-patterns within a growing dataset. For instance:
60% of the organisations have no dedicated budget allocated for M&E
Only 40% of the organisations have an effectively designed LFA for majority of their programs
Only 35% of organisations use a standardised set of digital tools for data collection
And since IPN also collects detailed NGO profiles, we are able to slice this further based on other attributes like Annual Budget, Number of employees, etc. For above three indicators, if we look at organisations with annual budget of less than 2 Cr, we see the following pattern:
70% of such organisations have no dedicated budget allocated for M&E
Only 35% of such organisations have an effectively designed LFA for majority of their programs
Only 23% of organisations use a standardised set of digital tools for data collection
For ecosystem players invested into the theme of nonprofit capacity building, such insights can be highly beneficial. Capacity Building intermediaries can choose to focus more on areas of need; donors can allocate more resources to areas at the intersection of a large need and high impact. To this end, we plan to share (near the end of the year) a “State of the Sector” report on capacity building.
As more users take these assessments, benchmarking also becomes a possibility. We’ll be able to tell a nonprofit where they stand on a relative scale, in comparison to other nonprofits of a similar size or budget, for instance.
Feedback from early adopters of IPN Assessments highlights what’s working:
“The exercise was very helpful to plan short term and long term strategy for our organisation."
“It provided clarity, boosted confidence in our approach, and offered actionable steps for improvement”
“It helped us to understand the different aspects of M&E and in depth understanding about its relevance.”
While this feedback is positive, platform analytics reveal a low usage of generated recommendations. Users have expressed a need for guidance and handholding to translate generated recommendations into concrete implementation. Making this work through a self-service model will need further thinking and redesign.
The IPN Assessment journey is still in its early stages. We have exciting plans for the year ahead, including more assessments, customised recommendations, and an NGO dashboard that provides an org-level overview. Stay tuned for more updates!