Built for organizations that build communities
Every nonprofit deserves to know where it stands, and to decide where it is going.
Those were fair prices for the hours involved, and they put both engagements out of reach for most community-based nonprofits (the domestic violence shelters, the youth programs, the affordable housing groups and food banks that do the hardest work with the fewest resources), which has always struck me as the wrong way round.
What consultants often charge
Thousands
for an organizational assessment alone. Strategic planning can run much higher.
KindTru
$299, once
for both halves of that work.
Both halves
What KindTru does
Knowing where you stand
A confidential survey of your board and staff, read back to you in plain language with a plan attached.
Deciding where you are going
A check that names which kind of planning you actually need, and a retreat built from your own results.
Then fifteen minutes of Board Development at each regular board meeting, and check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days, keep the work going through the year.
Read the rest, in my words
For years I did this work as a consultant, and I saw that consultants often charged in the thousands for an organizational assessment, with strategic planning running much higher. Those were fair prices for the hours involved, and they put both engagements out of reach for most community-based nonprofits (the domestic violence shelters, the youth programs, the affordable housing groups and food banks that do the hardest work with the fewest resources), which has always struck me as the wrong way round.
So KindTru does both halves of that work for a one-time fee that is a fraction of either. Knowing where you stand: a confidential survey of your board and staff, scored across every key category of organizational health and read back to you in plain language with a plan attached. Deciding where you are going: a check that names which kind of planning you actually need, a retreat built from your own results, and a printable toolbox for the conversations a plan requires. Then fifteen minutes of Board Development at each regular board meeting, and check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days, keep the work going through the year. The savings come from systematizing the interpretive work that used to take dozens of consultant hours, rather than from leaving anything out.
Why it costs what it does
Priced for access
A fraction of the usual cost
Because access matters more to me than margin.
Confidentiality built in
In places where weaker protections would have been cheaper and nobody would have noticed.
Assessment data is never sold
Or used for anything beyond what the privacy policy describes.
Read in full
I built KindTru this way on purpose. I price it at a fraction of what this work usually costs because access matters more to me than margin. I built the confidentiality architecture to protect the organizations KindTru serves, in places where weaker protections would have been cheaper and nobody would have noticed. And KindTru will never sell assessment data or use it for anything beyond what the privacy policy describes.
The organizations KindTru serves are mission-driven, and I hope KindTru is too. When a domestic violence shelter trusts it with honest answers about its governance, that trust is the thing I most want to keep.
The framework
Built on a framework you can read
I grounded every category in the academic and practitioner literature on what makes nonprofits effective, and every question carries a written note explaining why it is asked. You can read the framework itself: it is the free guide, Building a Thriving Nonprofit.
Key categories
Governance and money through programs, equity, technology and community.
Contextual dimensions
How we tell a rural food bank's year from an urban workforce program's.
Maturity levels
Foundational, Emerging, Established and Advanced, each described in words.
- Mission and Purpose
- Governance
- Leadership and Talent
- Strategy and Planning
- Financial Health
- Fundraising
- Programs and Quality
- Evaluation and Learning
- Community Engagement
- Equity and Inclusion
- Culture and Communication
- Risk and Compliance
- Operations and Infrastructure
- Technology and Data
- Digital Capacity
- Communications and Brand
- Advocacy and Policy
- Growth and Scaling
Targeted assessment questions. Each respondent only sees the questions relevant to their role, drawn from a much larger research-backed bank.
More about the framework
The KindTru Framework covers the key categories of organizational health, drawn from a research framework that runs from governance and financial stewardship through equity, technology, community engagement and advocacy. I grounded every category in the academic and practitioner literature on what makes nonprofits effective, and every question carries a written note explaining why it is asked.
In my experience, scoring an organization is the easy part. Reading the score in context is what takes judgment, and it is where a generic benchmark usually goes wrong. A rural food bank with a $200K budget is not facing the same year as an urban workforce development program with $2M in revenue, so we classify organizations across a set of contextual dimensions and calibrate what we recommend to the organization actually in front of us.
The survey goes to board members and staff alike, each seeing the questions that fit their role, and the report reads everyone's answers together. In my experience people describe an organization most honestly when they know their answers will not be traced back to them, so no one's responses are ever attributed, and the report never says which group rated anything higher.
The founder
Who's behind this
Jeff WardFounder of KindTru
The sector that does the most for the world often has the least to do it with.
- Arthur AndersenAn early assignment at domestic violence resource centers in Chicago.
- After law schoolA community economic development project in Chicago.
- Private practiceOrganizational assessment and planning for nonprofits.
- Community boardsDeciding at nine in the evening, not only advising.
- DukeTaught the Community Enterprise Clinic.
- KindTruAn attempt to reach many more organizations.
One of my earliest assignments at Arthur Andersen (my first “grown-up” job) sent me to a network of domestic violence resource centers in Chicago.
It was my first real look at how a nonprofit actually runs, and I wasn't much use at first, but I saw quickly that the real expertise rested with the people doing the work and serving those in need.
Read the whole letter
And this has stayed with me ever since: the people doing the most consequential work I had ever encountered did it with less of everything than any organization I'd been trained to advise. Less money. Less staff. Less time. Less room to be wrong.
I've now spent decades trying to be useful to organizations like those. After law school I worked with a community economic development project in Chicago, helping neighborhood nonprofits and small businesses find steadier footing. I keep a small practice of my own so the work never becomes theoretical, and at one point I went back to school myself, for a certificate in nonprofit leadership, because it seemed wrong to keep advising this sector without studying it the way its own leaders do.
I've also sat on the other side of the table, on the boards of community nonprofits. That's where I've learned the most, and in the most challenging ways. It's one thing to advise a board. It's another to be the one deciding at nine in the evening, with people and communities you care about counting on you.
At Duke I taught the Community Enterprise Clinic, where my students and I helped community organizations get formed, governed, and stronger. A university clinic exists because expert help costs more than a community organization can pay, so an institution finds a way to give it away. That was my answer for a long time, and it's a good one. My students and I could reach a few dozen organizations in a year.
KindTru is my attempt to reach many more, so that more organizations can thrive, and serve their communities from steadier ground. The organizations doing the most shouldn't have to spend what they can least afford to find out what they need.
All the best to you,
Jeff Ward
jeff@kindtru.org
If you're doing this work, I'd like to hear from you: about your motivations for doing what you do, about your experience with KindTru, or simply about your organization and the great work it does.
KindTru is an independent project and is not affiliated with Duke University.
Values
What I believe
Access over exclusivity
I have come to think that says more about how the help is priced than about the organizations.
Clarity over flattery
Honest, I hope, in the way a colleague is honest with you, which is not the same as harsh.
Action over diagnosis
Everything KindTru produces is meant to end in something specific: a board conversation, a priority chosen, a grant application, a retreat you can run, a check-in ninety days from now.
Yours to carry forward
The point was never for you to need us again next year.
What I mean by each
Access over exclusivity
The organizations doing the most important work in their communities are often the ones least able to afford professional help. I have come to think that says more about how the help is priced than about the organizations, and KindTru is my attempt to price it differently.
Clarity over flattery
An assessment that tells you what you want to hear will not do you much good. So I designed every layer (the survey questions, the way findings are written, the confidentiality protections) to give you an honest picture rather than a comfortable one. Honest, I hope, in the way a colleague is honest with you, which is not the same as harsh.
Action over diagnosis
A report that sits on a shelf helps nobody, and I have written a few of those myself. Everything KindTru produces is meant to end in something specific: a board conversation, a priority chosen, a grant application, a retreat you can run, a check-in ninety days from now.
Yours to carry forward
The point was never for you to need us again next year. You keep everything, the planning tools are built to be run by your own people, and if a year from now you are having better conversations without thinking about KindTru at all, that seems to me like the work going well.
Ready to see where your organization stands, and decide where it is going?
The assessment and the planning work, one purchase, everything included.
Questions? hello@kindtru.org