Engine of Impact Diagnostic

The Engine of Impact Diagnostic consists of a 10-15-minute survey in which you will answer questions about a nonprofit organization that does frontline work. This organization can be one that you know in your capacity as an executive, staff member, board member, donor/funder, or consultant, or in some other role. (This tool does not assess the performance of an organization in its role as a funder.) After completing these questions, you will receive an assessment of your organization’s performance in the seven essential areas of strategic leadership. As explained in the book Engine of Impact, by William F. Meehan III and Kim Starkey Jonker, these seven essentials—mission, strategy, impact evaluation, insight and courage, organization and talent, funding, and board governance—work together to enable an organization to achieve significant impact. Falling short in even one of these areas can hamper an organization’s ability to meet its goals and scale its impact. The diagnostic will also place your organization on the Readiness to Scale Matrix that Meehan and Jonker have developed. (They describe the matrix in detail in Chapter 8 of Engine of Impact.)

After you complete the survey, please consider inviting other stakeholders in your organization (including board members, management, staff, and donors) to complete it as well. In meetings or convenings, stakeholders can use their diagnostic results as a discussion starter. In many cases, the results might vary within an organization based on differing perspectives. Exploring such differences can help leaders and stakeholders gain clarity, work toward consensus, and develop a plan of action for improving their organization’s performance and impact.