Organizational development helps a nonprofit increase its long-term health and performance by building the capacity of and supporting the people who make up the organization. The process usually begins with an organizational assessment; quantitative and qualitative information gained through assessment helps the staff, board, community members and other stakeholders identify what is working well, what can be improved and any barriers to effectiveness. TSNE’s Director of Consulting Services, Heather Harker, lays out the basics in her article Considering Organizational Development.

Below you will find web links to online resources on organizational development, as well as associations and a list of recommended books. 

Web Resources

• Free Management Library: Organizational Change and Development
  Provides a general overview of organizational development; written for both nonprofits and for profit organizations
• Interchange International, Inc.
  Resources on change management, including brief descriptions of the stages of the change cycle
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
  Provides organizational development resources specifically geared towards community development corporations; resources include training and conferences, a list of publications and software and online training materials
• Management Assistance Group
  Gross, Susan. 1983. “The 10 Most Common Organizational Problems: Getting to their Source”. Foundation News.
• Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
  Resources on Organizational Development for community organizations, nonprofits, and foundations
  • Philbin, Ann and Sandra Mikush. A Framework for Organizational Development: The Why, What and How of OD Work.
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy
  Hall, Holly. April 2006. “Getting Over Growing Pains: Life-cycle Analyses Helps Charities Deal with the Challenges of Aging.”

Associations

• American Society for Training and Development
  An international association that provides research, information, and publications on workplace learning and organizational development; the association is not specifically focused on nonprofits, but does provide a list of resource links for nonprofit organizations
• Organization Development Network
  An international membership association for organization development practitioners

Publications 

• Block, Peter. 2000. Flawless Consulting. NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
  Written for consultants; offers a whole systems approach and advice on organizational change and development for consultants
• Block, Peter. 1993. Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
• Brinckerhoff, Peter. C. Mission-Based Management (2000) and Mission-Based Management: An Organizational Development Workbook (2001). New York:  John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
• Holman, Peggy, Steven Cady, and Tom Devane, eds. 2007. The Change Handbook. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
• McNamara, Carter. 2005. Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development with Nonprofits: A Collaborative and Systems Approach to Performance, Change, and Learning. Minneapolis: Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
• Senge, Peter. 1999. The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. New York: Doubleday.
• Ross, Bernard, and Clare Segal. 2002. Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  Winner of the Alliance for Nonprofit Managements’s 2003 Terry McAdam Book Award