Resiliency Guide

The Resiliency Guide is designed to help funders and nonprofits engage in candid dialogue about the complex, turbulent environments nonprofits operate in, and to reflect on organizational strengths as well as areas that may benefit from attention. As a tool for grantmakers, it can prompt new thinking about where, when, and how to invest in capacity building.

The Guide was originally developed in 2014 by the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, which, as a limited-life foundation, had an especially strong interest in helping nonprofits develop the resilience to thrive long beyond its 2020 sunset. In the years since, the Guide has been through several iterations as our understanding of resilience has evolved.

This version represents Foundation leadership’s latest thinking, informed by findings from Resilience at Work, a study of resilience published in spring 2020.