From Fragility to Resilience: What Our Health Checks Reveal

From Diagnosis to Development

The Health Check process gives each participant more than a score. It gives them a roadmap.

For some organisations, the process reveals gaps in governance, such as informal boards, unclear roles, or limited succession planning. For others, it highlights operational weaknesses: policies that exist but are not embedded, financial systems that rely on spreadsheets, or HR processes that have grown informally around volunteers and freelancers.

These findings are not treated as failures. They are treated as starting points.

The purpose of the Health Check is to turn pressure into practical action: identifying what needs to change, what support is required, and what progress should look like by the end of the programme.

The Results: Clear, Measurable Growth

The evidence is consistent across all three Innovate Now cohorts. Organisations left the programme measurably stronger, not just in one or two areas, but across the board.

The average Health Check score climbed from 3.3 at baseline to 3.9 at follow-up on a 0–4 scale.

Every one of the seven thematic areas improved, showing a shift from informal, reactive practices to more system-supported, professional management.

A Panoramic View of Progress

The graph below tells the story at a glance.

Fig 1: Average Health Check scores across seven organisational pillars

The most dramatic improvements happened in the areas that unlock long-term sustainability:

Administration increased by 0.6
Paper-based, ad-hoc processes gave way to more digital-first operations with clearer, lived-in policies.

Financial Management increased by 0.6
Basic bookkeeping evolved into more proactive financial stewardship, with stronger controls, better planning, and greater attention to reserves.

Programme Performance Management increased by 0.5
Fragmented, output-focused tracking developed into more integrated, data-driven learning that could shape strategy and delivery in real time.

These score improvements translated directly into organisational change:

• 62% of organisations expanded their teams.

• 83% reported an increase in community impact within six months of completing the programme.

• 91% formed new partnerships, with over half explicitly aimed at advancing racial equity.

These results matter because they show that capacity-building is not abstract. When organisations strengthen their administration, finances, governance, and data systems, they are better able to grow teams, form partnerships, attract funding, and deepen their community impact.

A Deeper Look: The Preparedness Agenda

The Health Check framework has now been used across nine programmes and over 115 organisations. Our first public report, The Preparedness Agenda, presents the full baseline analysis across that broader portfolio, including non-profit organisations, for-profit businesses, grassroots groups, and more developed charities.

The report explains the methodology, domain definitions, and qualitative insights in full. It also shows why Health Checks are more than an internal monitoring tool. They are part of a wider preparedness agenda: helping Black and Global Majority-led organisations build the infrastructure they need to survive, grow, and lead.

Health Checks allow us to understand the sector more clearly. Follow-up assessments allow us to prove progress. Together, they give DiNN, our members, and our partners a shared evidence base for building stronger organisations and stronger communities.

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