Beyond the Balance Sheet Teaching Capacity Building as Capital Building

Financial sustainability is a persistent challenge in the nonprofit sector. Capacity building is sometimes presented as a way to address this challenge. This article proposes that the teaching of capacity building can be reframed as an economic construct, capital building. By understanding capacity building as the development and activation of capital in multiple forms (e.g., social, financial, reputational, process), organizations may gain new options for program design and strategic decision making to enhance their effectiveness and sustainability. This article reviews the construct of capacity building, relating it to various capital resources and how they generate capacity. It concludes with examples of how a capital-building approach can be integrated into existing university courses to support the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council's revised curricular guidelines.