A governance checklist asks whether a policy exists. A governance maturity assessment asks whether it is current, applied consistently, owned, evidenced and embedded in decisions — and places the organisation on a scale from vulnerable to optimised.
This section explains governance maturity for NGOs and mission-driven organisations, how evidence-based assessment works, and what assessment findings reveal. It is the thinking behind the IGMA™ (Institutional Governance Maturity Assessment) method.
Curated by CA Sunil Kumar, FCA — Chartered Accountant and social-sector CFO with 30+ years in NGO finance, audit and governance.
The ideas behind evidence-based governance assessment, and how they connect.
A checklist asks "do you have a policy?" A maturity assessment asks whether it's current, implemented, embedded in decision-making — and what evidence demonstrates that.
Five observations from implementing an evidence-based Governance Maturity Assessment — on why governance frameworks define governance, but governance behaviour determines maturity.
Peer benchmark data (directional, not representative — based on 14 NGO assessments) showing strong correlations between Financial Stewardship and both Stakeholder Trust (0.92) and Operational Excellence (0.91) — and why a weakness in one pillar can weaken the others.
A look at the eight areas under Pillar 1 — board skills, independence, composition, diversity, evaluation — and why "we have the skills" is different from "we have assessed whether we have the skills, and can demonstrate it."
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