SEEDing Sustainability is a two-part self-assessment that pinpoints areas of latent potential, where targeted capacity-building investments will add the most value.

How well are NYWF grantee partners performing in relation to industry standards?

Where can creative attention be focused to unleash capacity and resources they already possess?  

In April-May of 2015, five NYWF grantee partners tested SEED's newly digitized five-minute Capacity Quiz. Individual consultations were offered to discuss findings. All five leadership teams then opted to take a deeper dive. Within a week they completed the more comprehensive self-assessment. This captures consensus ratings on 40 practices for high performance and sustainability.  We met a second time to explore baseline data (against which future capacity gains can be measured) and immediate growth opportunities.  

SEED has developed this technology to inform capacity-building investments.  Our shared interest is to leverage creative attention and resources for maximum return on investment (ROI).  We do not know of another approach that so finely and efficiently pinpoints growth opportunities to achieve sustainability.  

For the Foundation, aggregate data will be more meaningful and instructive across a larger sample of grantee partners. Averaging across only five organizations does not allow for much differentiation nor expose patterns.  This report is offered as a glimpse of the rich information that a fuller sample will reveal in the future.