What Does Your Nonprofit Actually Need?

Why Ghost Writer Created the Orbit 360° Organizational Assessment

Knowing something isn’t working is one thing. Knowing what to fix is another.

Maybe you think your organization needs more funding. Or a more engaged board. Better systems. Stronger messaging. More staff. More volunteers.

Or maybe it doesn’t.

That’s where a nonprofit organizational assessment can help. Before you invest limited time, money, and capacity into fixing a problem, it helps to know whether you’re solving the right one.

Don’t misunderstand us: you probably know your organization better than anyone. You know the mission, the programs, the people you serve, and the challenges you’re facing. But you’re also answering the donor email, preparing for the board meeting, worrying about the budget, reviewing the grant application, and dealing with whatever unexpected problem landed on your desk this morning.

That proximity gives you invaluable insight. It can also create blind spots.

The Problem You See Might Not Be the Problem You Need to Solve

We’ve seen organizational leaders pour time and energy into finding more grants and chasing exciting opportunities when they weren’t actually grant ready. We’ve seen nonprofits struggle to raise money because of an unengaged board, disconnected systems, or simply not enough capacity.

And we’ve seen passionate organizations ready to invest significant time and money into solving the problem they could see, without first determining whether it was the problem they most needed to solve.

That got us thinking differently about how we start working with new clients. Many nonprofits come to Ghost Writer asking for help with the problem they can see. But we realized that figuring out what you actually need is part of the expertise a consultant should bring to the table. You deserve the opportunity to step back and see your own work from a 10,000-foot view. And when we can take that step back together, we all get a clearer picture of what’s working, what isn’t, and where the best solutions might be.

Why We Created the Orbit Nonprofit Organizational Assessment

So, we built the process we wished we could do at the beginning of every client relationship. The Orbit Assessment is a 30-day, 360-degree look at your organization that gives us all the chance to zoom out before zooming in. The goal isn’t simply to identify problems. It’s to understand how all the pieces of your organization fit together.

To get that complete picture, our team takes a deep dive into the different components that make your organization work:

• Leadership and organizational structure

• Board engagement and governance

• Programs and impact

• Grants and funding

• Fundraising and donor development

• Marketing and communications

• Systems and infrastructure

• Policies and processes

• Data and evaluation

• Planning and organizational priorities

• Existing strengths, resources, relationships, and opportunities

• And, most importantly, how all of these pieces interact.

How the Orbit 360° Assessment Works

We start by talking with your leadership team and gathering input from board and staff members when needed. We review organizational documents, marketing materials, board notes, annual reports, and more. Then each member of our three-person team takes a closer look through a different lens: one focused on fundraising and development, one on organizational structure and board engagement, and one on community engagement and marketing.

That means the same information is being considered from different angles. Something our fundraising expert notices may connect to a challenge our organizational or marketing expert sees somewhere else. By bringing those viewpoints together, we can connect the dots and give you a much more complete picture of what’s happening across your organization.

An Assessment That Looks for Strengths, Not Just Problems

It’s important to understand: the Orbit isn’t a test. When you hear the word “assessment,” you might immediately flash back to high school or college, but don’t worry. We aren’t here to give you a grade or point out all the things you’re doing wrong.

In fact, we look just as intentionally for what’s working. You may have more strengths, resources, relationships, and good practices than you realize. Many of our clients tell us that the Orbit helped them see those strengths in a new light and gave their leadership team some much-needed encouragement. Sometimes the opportunity isn’t to build something new at all. It’s to make better use of what you already have. We believe the best recommendations build on your assets, rather than simply giving you a list of deficiencies to fix.

From Assessment to a Practical Nonprofit Roadmap

The real benefit of the Orbit? Clarity. At the end of the process, you receive a board-ready report with short-, mid-, and long-term action steps to help get you where you want to go, along with helpful resources for putting those recommendations into action. You’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of what to tackle first, what can wait, what you can handle in-house, and where it makes sense to bring in help.

Most importantly, we don’t want to hand you a laundry list of everything that could be better and send you on your way. The goal is for you and your leadership team to understand what matters most and feel confident about what to do next.

Useful Expertise, With or Without an Ongoing Commitment

We also want you to hear this: our expertise should be useful even when ongoing consulting isn’t the right fit. We know every nonprofit is different, and not everyone needs or has the budget for an ongoing consulting relationship. Maybe you have the internal capacity to put our recommendations into action yourself, but you need an outside perspective and a roadmap to help you get there. Or maybe you’re simply not ready to make a bigger investment until you have a better understanding of what you really need.

That’s another reason we created the Orbit. We wanted a meaningful, stand-alone way for you to access our team’s collective expertise, regardless of what comes next. The Orbit report should be valuable whether you continue working with Ghost Writer or take the roadmap and run with it yourself.

When Orbit Is Just the Beginning

On the flip side, the Orbit also makes us better partners when you do continue working with Ghost Writer. Because we’ve already taken that deep dive, we aren’t spending the first several months of our relationship figuring out who you are and how your organization works. We already understand your goals, history, strengths, challenges, people, systems, and priorities. That means we can hit the ground running with a relationship that is way more intentional and customized to what you actually need.

Maybe you’re leading a nonprofit with limited time, money, and capacity. (Let’s face it, most are!) Maybe you’ve wondered whether bringing in a nonprofit consultant would be worthwhile, or you know you need some help but aren’t quite sure where to start. That’s exactly where the Orbit can help.

In about a month, you’ll walk away with a roadmap that helps you understand what to work on first, what can wait, and, just as importantly, what not to prioritize right now. You’ll have an outside perspective on where you are today and a practical path for where to go next.

You Don’t Have to Know What You Need Yet

You don’t need to have all the answers before asking for help. Sometimes you just need the opportunity to get out of the weeds, see the bigger picture, and figure out what makes sense from there. That’s why we created the Orbit: to give you the perspective to see where you are, the clarity to decide what comes next, and a path to help you get there.

Ready to get started? Reach out through the form on our website or shoot us an email at doingwhatmatters@ghostwriterquill.com. We’d love to learn more about your organization and see if Orbit is the right place to start.