How SCORE works

The SCORE assessment examines organizational stewardship across six capacities and 36 dimensions - six dimensions per capacity. You rate four focused statements within each dimension. SCORE interprets those responses using nonprofit organizational research, capacity-building benchmarks, and observable health signals, which together inform four stages of stewardship: Survive, Stabilize, Build, and Steward.

The Six Capacities

A nonprofit is an interconnected organizational system: it needs a clear identity, people who can mobilize the work, accountable stewardship, sufficient operating capacity, evidence of effectiveness, and healthy ways of working together. SCORE separates these functions so strengths in one area do not conceal fragility in another, then examines how the six capacities reinforce - or constrain - one another.

Mission

Examines whether the organization has a shared understanding of why it exists, whom it serves, the change it seeks, and the boundaries that provide identity and decision criteria for every other capacity.

Governance

Examines how the board protects the organization’s mission, assets, legitimacy, and long-term interests through fiduciary oversight, strategic stewardship, risk accountability, succession, and executive partnership.

Leadership

Examines the systems leaders use to convert mission into coordinated action by setting direction, aligning people, making decisions, delegating authority, enforcing accountability, and building continuity beyond one person.

Culture

Examines whether observable norms - including trust, communication, collaboration, learning, inclusion, values, and sustainable pace - enable people to apply the organization’s strategy and systems consistently over time.

Resources

Examines whether financial, fundraising, workforce, technology, facilities, and operational systems provide enough infrastructure and resilience to sustain the work without recurring crisis or burnout.

Execution

Examines how the organization defines intended outcomes, aligns programs, measures results, learns, adapts, and communicates impact so meaningful mission progress is distinguished from activity or output volume alone.

The assessment process

  1. 1

    Assess Your Organization

    Rate specific statements about how your organization currently operates across SCORE’s six capacities: Mission, Leadership, Governance, Resources, Execution, and Culture.

    Every question is a rating of how consistently a practice is integrated in the organization. Where it helps, you can add brief notes to provide context behind your answers. The assessment typically takes 20–30 minutes and can be completed in one sitting or saved and resumed.

  2. 2

    SCORE Analyzes Your Organization

    SCORE groups your rated responses by dimension and evaluates the resulting patterns against research-informed nonprofit practices, capacity-building benchmarks, and observable organizational health signals.

    The developmental stage summarizes that analysis. SCORE also checks for strengths, benchmark gaps, critical risks, cross-capacity constraints, and conflicting signals. “Not sure / N/A” responses are excluded from scoring.

  3. 3

    Receive Your Mission Stewardship Report

    The Mission Stewardship Report organizes findings by capacity and developmental stage, then connects those findings to evidence and organizational health signals.

    Here is how your report is broken down:

    • Capacity Stage Profile
    • Evidence & Confidence
    • Strengths to Protect
    • Constraints & Risks
    • Next-Stage Priorities
  4. 4

    Put Insight Into Action

    SCORE turns those priorities into a 12-Month Stewardship Plan with clear owners, quarterly actions, and success measures.

    The plan focuses leadership attention on the highest-leverage moves for the year so the organization can act on the report, not just review it.

Continue