Oct 21, 2025
Groundworks is proud to announce what will be our most impactful project to date: The New Mexico Nonprofit Capacity Assessment - a free and confidential tool for nonprofits to assess their organizational capacity. This point-in-time assessment tool analyzes organizations and provides recommendations based on 8 key criteria common to all nonprofits:
- Financial Management
- Adaptive Capacity
- Strategic Planning
- External Communication
- Board Leadership
- Operational Capacity
- Mission Orientation
- Staff Management
In addition to the utility of the NMNCA for nonprofit users, their input has a direct impact on a rich data set of sector statistics. This gives Groundworks the ability to create reports based on location, issue area, organizational strengths and challenges, service demographics, and more.
As of posting this article, more than a hundred NM organizations have already completed the NMNCA as part of the Accessing Public Funds project. Developed in collaboration with Northwestern University’s Network for Nonprofit Social Impact with support from Project ECHO and LANL, this powerful tool has the potential to impact policy development and strengthen our state in partnership with our members and their work. With support from LANL, Groundworks is planning a 2025-2026 longitudinal study that will explore NMNCA data in context with sector outcomes, funder focus, training engagement, and more.
We look forward to exploring our growing data set to learn more about the strengths and challenges of nonprofits serving New Mexico. If you are a nonprofit leader serving New Mexico, please complete the assessment to receive your point-in-time report and contribute to our knowledge and ability to support the sector.