Valid Email*Let's Get Started Please enter your email to continue. Section 1: Clarity of visionThese questions evaluate your view of who you are as a church, what your hope is and how your everyday activities and communications relate to that hope. Do you have a clearly stated hope for change or vision statement?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We do not have anything like this. We tried creating something but couldn't figure out what to do. We have this, but people have a hard time remembering what it is Yes we have something like this, but it is not really us. This is a 100% yes. Does everyone at your church understand how their role serves this vision?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Realistically, some of the work is just work and doesn't need to be fluffed up. There's a lot of grunt work that would be hard to connect to the primary goal. We have semi-regular meetings that re-cast vision to get everybody motivated. Our team leads can connect what they do for our vision. Every single person can tell you how their work contributes to our vision. Do you evaluate your programs/activities for whether or not they support your vision?*Please select the answer that best describes your church A lot of things are on auto-pilot. So long as the team believes they are on track, we trust their motivation. There are older programs/projects that may not, but they have other benefits. All new programs are evaluated against our vision to ensure that they move us forward. Existing programs are evaluated at regular intervals to check that they still help. Is your vision communicated to all people connected to your church?*Please select the answer that best describes your church It's somewhere our website. We use it to answer our phone, it's in our email signatures, stuff like that. We use it in the lead of most correspondence, and as a tagline on for a lot of things at church. We make sure that our staff is ready to connect it when they talk to people. Every letter, email, and phone conversation actively includes our vision and how we are working on it today. Have you ever stopped a good idea because it didn't fit into your hope for the future?*Please select the answer that best describes your church If it's a good idea, why would we stop it? We try to make it work in order to not kill enthusiasm. If it doesn't further our vision, it's not a good idea and will be treated as such. We try to help the person realize how their idea doesn't contribute. We have frank discussions with people about why their idea is good but doesn't fit. Section 2: Playing Well With OthersNetworking isn't just a buzzword for the corporate world. This section assesses how well you see yourself working with each other, organizations and your community. How aware are you of other people, other ministries, organizations, businesses in the community, working to help others grow in their faith or serve needs in the community?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We have a unique idea and we're pretty sure nobody else sees it like we do. We have researched other groups, but mostly to see what they're up to. We know people at other organizations, but don't talk to them often. We frequently communicate with others to find the best ways to realize our hope. We actively look for ways to work together to get more done. Are you actively partnering with businesses or other organizations to better help the communities around your church*Please select the answer that best describes your church We haven't found any organizations we would think to partner with. It's hard to partner on things, because most organizations aren't like us. We haven't settled on who would take the lead on something like that. We have worked in tandem with other organizations. We've found local projects that others were leading, and are lending support. Can you clarify a unique approach or advantage that is distinct from similar organizations?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Many organizations are exactly like us. We can usually talk a donor into the idea that we have a unique approach. We have a connection or resource that gives us an advantage. We have shared our advantage to give access to other, similar organizations. We have identified advantages in other organizations and have an active exchange with them. Do you know how your strengths and weaknesses compare to other organizations?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We concentrate mostly on working our strengths. Exposing our weaknesses to other organizations could be very damaging. We know what we're good at, so we stay out of areas where we would not be of help. We actively refer to other organizations when something is a better fit. We cooperate with other organizations to complement one another's strengths. Are “wins” primarily celebrated internally, or are they shared across your community?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Why would we celebrate someone else's win? If our name is not publicly associated with major wins, our funding will dry up. When we win, we win. When somebody else wins, at least some good is done. We are all on the same team. When someone else wins, it moves us all toward hope. We actively share credit and responsibility with other organizations in our space. Section 3: Knowledge of AudienceHere, we address your relational understanding of the people connected to your church. How much do you know about your audience?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We have their email address because they filled something out. We know the active ones, but it's too hard to keep track of the small ones. We keep demographic info in a database for future communication. We track attendance & giving to get broad motivational data. We ask why people participate and how we can be of further help. Do you know what motivates individuals to participate or to give?*Please select the answer that best describes your church They're probably just looking for a tax write-off. We're a church, why wouldn't they attend? If we keep up the personal relationship, they'll keep participating. We've clearly communicated our hope for the future. We have a personified profile of our database, complete with story and motivational data. How much do you know about the people served by your church?*Please select the answer that best describes your church They're pretty far away, so that's more of an abstract idea. It's not logistically feasible to have that kind of interaction. We track progress of individuals and groups toward our goals. We take time to make sure that our programs actually meet the needs we think they do. We've overcome barriers to ensure steady, 2-way communication. Do you have a clear understanding of their needs?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Our program provides a specific service, but we can't guarantee that it suits everyone. We know that we only serve specific people, and we try to be clear about that. We have a stated need that we believe we are filling. We regularly ask for feedback to see if we need to make adjustments. Our services programs are designed in partnership with those we participate. How do you equip your congregation to be ambassadors beyond the weekend experience?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We assume that they will tell people what's going on in their lives. We ask them to please invite others. We provide them with materials that they can share with friends. We give them stories to tell about the good that has been done. We tie all communication to our hope, and ensure that they know how they are a part. Section 4: AdaptabilityThese questions will give us an idea about the flexibility of both your infrastructure and programs, including how swiftly you're able to change course or reimagine your strategy. How quickly can you create or change messaging?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Decisions like that are made by the board. We have a quarterly review of events that might change how we want to present ourselves. There is a regular meeting to address our messaging & programs and how we can best communicate it. We have a process for creating responses to changing events. We have a rapid-fire process for creating, approving, and publishing new information. Do you have a plan to publicly respond to relevant cultural news or events?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Our operations aren't really affected by the news cycle. We would prefer to respond after more careful consideration. We provide quick commentary on social media. When something directly affects us, we email our database. We have a point person and a process for determining response. How do you determine if a legacy program is no longer of use?*Please select the answer that best describes your church So long as people are willing to do it, there's no reason to stop. We stop when it's no longer a net positive for participation. Many projects were started by board members, staff or key members, so it's important to keep them involved. When someone leaves, we evaluate the programs that they were involved in. We regularly evaluate existing programs and weigh them against our defined hope. How do you determine if a program or approach is something that you should lead or support?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We only lead projects, support activity is not in our plan. Even if someone else is more suited, we do need the exposure and will still lead. If another person or organization is better positioned, we abandon the project to get out of the way. We compare programs to our hope and only work on opportunities that uniquely suit us. We compare programs to our capabilities, and support other organizations when appropriate. In a time of crisis or immediate need, how quickly can you respond?*Please select the answer that best describes your church In the short term, we prefer to stay silent until we have official word. We escalate crisis management to the board. It's not as fast, but it's more reassuring. We find out what others are doing and try to learn from their response. We contact other organizations about our response and ask them to join us. We have someone positioned to quickly evaluate a situation and determine an appropriate short-term response. Section 5: EffectivenessIt's time to talk results, particularly the way they're measured by your organization and how those measurements affect future strategy. How clearly defined are your measures of success?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Our goal is to simply to help as many as possible. Our measures are more abstract, since hard numbers can be difficult to back up. We are aware of normal results in our space, but don't always have reasons when we differ. We evaluate projects by metrics to decide if they should be continued. We compare metrics and motivational data to craft new programs. How well do you understand past successes?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We try a lot of things, and some have worked. Our past successes are mostly attributable to specific people. When a program is successful, we try to duplicate it as closely as possible. When a program is successful, we ask questions to find out why. We use past success data to construct and evaluate new initiatives. Do you have a process for diagnosing failure?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We try a lot of things, some are bound to fail, so you keep trying. Typically we don't talk about the failures, it's bad for morale and fundraising. We discuss why a project failed, but it usually comes down to people and timing. Our past failures were from trying to do things we weren't good at, so we've pulled away from similar ideas. We have a documented process where everyone gives feedback so we can look for early warning signs. When you run a campaign, how clearly can you track results?*Please select the answer that best describes your church Fundraising and awareness campaigns are usually a shotgun approach. We track year over year totals and major donors. We look for industry averages to find out if we're performing as well as others. We track open rates, conversions per contact, and other relevant metrics. We define a hoped-for activity for each campaign, and track that as a primary metric. How often do you solicit feedback?*Please select the answer that best describes your church We don't actively solicit feedback, because usually it just invites complaints. We check in when we haven't heard from someone in a while. We ask our major donors about their hopes for the direction of the organization. We run online surveys semi-regularly. We prepare questions that could have hard answers, and target a specific cross-section to get honest feedback. Last StepPlease enter your information hereName* First Name Last Name Organization* Email* Phone*
