This assessment compared to BoardSource
The short answer
BoardSource has been doing this for decades and their instrument is well built and widely respected. It is also priced as a consulting engagement and runs on their timeline. If your board has the budget and wants a facilitated process with an established name behind it, buy theirs. If you want to run one this month for nothing, and to be able to run it again next year and compare, this is the closer fit.
Side by side
| This assessment | BoardSource | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $975 standard ($549 to $749 with memberships or bulk pricing) |
| Anonymous by design | Yes | Not stated |
| Peer benchmarking | Yes, filtered by budget and focus area once enough organizations have taken part | Yes, but cannot be filtered by budget or mission area |
| Staff and community feedback | Optional, add anytime | Board-only |
| Year-over-year comparison | Yes. The wording never changes once published. | Recommends reassessing every 2 to 3 years |
| Time to report | Ready as soon as your survey closes, on your own timeline | About one month from purchase to report |
Pricing as published by BoardSource, checked August 2026. Benchmark filtering by budget and focus area unlocks once 30 similar organizations have taken part. Until then a report shows the raw numbers and says so plainly.
Choose BoardSource if
- You want a facilitated process with an outside party in the room, not just an instrument.
- The board needs an established name behind the exercise to take it seriously, which is a real dynamic and not a failing.
- You are doing a full governance overhaul and the assessment is one piece of a larger engagement.
- Your organization is large enough that a four-figure line item is not the deciding factor.
BoardSource publishes the best governance research in the sector, including the Nonprofit Governance Index, and their assessment has a track record that nothing here can claim yet. If you are choosing on depth of institutional experience, choose theirs.
Choose this one if
- You want to run one now rather than after a purchase order.
- Anonymity matters and you want it built into the architecture rather than promised in a policy.
- You want to compare against organizations of a similar budget and focus area, not against every nonprofit at once.
- You want to hear from staff and the people you serve, not only the board.
- You intend to do this annually, which means the wording has to stay fixed.
Common questions
- Is this a BoardSource product?
- No. It is built by Upspire Studio and has no affiliation with BoardSource. We link to their research because it is good, not because there is any relationship.
- Can we use both?
- Yes, and some boards should. A facilitated BoardSource engagement every few years with a free annual check in between is a reasonable pattern, as long as you do not treat the two sets of numbers as directly comparable. Different instruments measure different things.
- Why is this free when theirs costs money?
- Theirs includes people. Ours does not. The cost of running an assessment through software is close to zero once the software exists, and there is no paid version of this planned, so nothing is being held back to sell later.
Judge it yourself
Every question is published in full, so you can read the instrument before deciding anything. Setting one up is free and takes a few minutes.