Performance assessments now available free for charities

Performance assessments now available free for charities & community organisations

NZ Navigator is a free online assessment tool providing charities and community organisations a tailored report card of how they are faring.

According to Marion Blake, Platform Trust’s CEO and chair of the group involved in putting NZ Navigator together, it provides a fantastic opportunity for organisations to come to grips with their strengths and weaknesses and gives them an idea of how they can improve their performance.

“NZ Navigator as a tool enables organisations to demonstrate their effectiveness and impact as well as giving them resources and feedback so they can look to improve their functioning in areas such as leadership, governance, relationships, direction, finances, administration, communication, etc. It scores each of the areas on a 5-point scale and tells them whether the organisation is ‘thriving’, ‘successful’, ‘viable’, ‘vulnerable’, or ‘at risk’.”

“It provides you a meaningful report and guides you on what you need to do next, plus it gives you a comparative benchmark report so that you can assess your effectiveness against other organisations.”

“At the latest count, there are around 97,000 not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand. About 27,000 of these are registered charities. This tool gives all of them the opportunity to jump online and assess where they are at and where they need to be.”

NZ Navigator will also help promote public trust and confidence in the community and voluntary sector, she says. “People need to know that the organisation they are giving money and time to is self-aware and confident in its capability to deliver. The tool will point organisations to how they
can show greater credibility and legitimacy with the donating and volunteering public and should help to better position them with funders and clients.”

NZ Navigator is online and free to use at www.nznavigator.org.nz . A number of organisations have already used the tool and completed their first assessment.

Community partners including the Platform Trust, ANGOA (Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Aotearoa), Social Development Partners, Bishop’s Action Foundation and the Department of Internal Affairs, together own NZ Navigator. Charities Services of the Department of Internal Affairs has funded the first stage of development. Nine community organisations provided
input into the design, development and implementation of NZ Navigator during 2013. The software developer is Rabid Technologies Ltd.

ENDS

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