ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the three primary strategies through which capacity-building efforts foster organizational development in the community: strengthening existing organizations, helping existing organizations take on new functions or roles, and building new organizations. It identifies the intended outcomes of each strategy and discusses some of the implementation challenges or tensions. The chapter reviews the different roles or functions that organizations play in a community. The primary vehicles for strengthening organizations in the first case are technical assistance and other forms of support, such as training and peer learning, small grants or core operating funds, and help in gaining access to new relationships and financing sources. In the second case, when organizations are less amenable to change, the more common approaches are advocacy and other forms of pressure that stimulate organizational change, combined with the organizing efforts. The chapter ends with a discussion of the relationship between the strength of the organizations in a community and the community's overall capacity.
