Organizational Development
Support for Organizations of all types, sizes, and capacities
Organizations are like people: they need a check-up once in a while, and the check-up might lead us to making some intentional changes. In partnership with the Hudson River Watershed Alliance (HRWA), River Network identified the needs of organizations in two distinct stages: new/young organizations, and established/growing organizations. With funding provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, through the Hudson River Estuary Program, HRWA & River Network collaborated on producing a suite of resources to help organizations respond to common startup and growing pains. These resources are enthusiastically provided for any organization to assess their needs and address development hurdles.
Board members of the Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative gather to organize a workplan for the organization.
Organizational Checklists
For an overview of topics, and initial assessment prompts, organizations are invited to utilize one, or both, of the organizational checklists below. Download the checklists to access linked resources and more information.
Organizational Health Checklist
This checklist is meant for organizations that are new/young, or in a state of transition. Topics on this checklist include determining/assessing a mission statement, choosing a leadership model, defining roles and responsibilities, introductory finance and budget considerations, and basic workplanning.
Organizational Growth Checklist
This checklist is meant for established organizations that are experiencing growth or change. Topics include an introduction to communications and marketing, legal and financial infrastructure, policies to support effective leadership, evaluation systems, and community assessment guidance.
Organizational Health: Self-Paced Learning Series
To build on the topics listed on the Organizational Health Checklist, River Network produced a self-paced learning series, which features short videos accompanied by downloadable templates and worksheets. This learning series covers all of the topics identified for new/young organizations, or organizations in transition.
Episode 1
The first episode in this series reviews the checklist topics, and dives into building and assessing a mission statement. Included is a downloadable mission statement worksheet.
Episode 2
The second episode covers leadership and decision-making models, which are critically important in young organizations that are often volunteer-run or founder-funded. A summary of each decision-making model is available for download.
Episode 3
The third episode details the process of defining roles and creating effective position descriptions, as well as using position descriptions for recruiting new people to join your organization. A position description template and example, as well as an organizational inventory, are available for download.
Episode 4
The last episode in this series covers two topics that are highly connected: budgeting and workplanning. These tend to be topics of high need for all organizations. Both topics are covered at an introductory “101” level, meant for organizations without this kind of infrastructure already. Available for download are a workplan template and a budget template.
Coming Fall 2025…
River Network will be producing a second self-paced learning series based on the Organizational Health Checklist, meant for established organizations experiencing growth or change. Subscribe to our River Voices newsletter to gain access to this series when it’s released!
