When I work with river groups around the state, one of the most frequent questions I get is "how does our group compare to other river groups?"  

My answers are based on my conversations and work with many river groups around the state, but also data that River Network has helped us gather over many years.  

River Network created an organizational assessment form several years ago to help collect information about river groups such as number of board members and budget size. Data from 210 local and watershed-level nonprofit groups throughout the U.S. revealed that those that were provided training have more staff, more donors and more volunteers. Most importantly, the results also indicated that stronger, healthier organizations were more effective in protecting rivers and watersheds - they have more "on-the-ground" activities and in-stream outcomes including site clean ups, safer water to swim in and to drink, and improved watershed ecosystems.   

During the past year River Network has been revising its organizational assessment tool. The online tool, is a two-part diagnostic survey for river and watershed groups across the country. It is designed to:

• assist organizations in the identification of priority organizational development needs; 
• assess organizations' programmatic capacity to effectively engage and support the implementation of on-the-ground projects;and,
• assess the progress over time of the growth in operational capacities.

River Alliance is encouraging all of our river groups to use this assessment tool to help your organization take a look at your current strengths and also areas for improvement. If you completed the "short form" in the past, this will look very familiar.   Only one person in your group needs to complete the first part of the assessment, the status report. The second part, the internal assessment, can be completed by your entire board of directors.  

You can take a look at the questions in advance in a Word document located here. 

River Network assures the confidentiality and will not share the data with funders or use it to assess an organization's ability to participate in a program. We do hope that you will share your reports with us at River Alliance so we can work with your group to further your goals.  

Please give it a Try!