What's the problem? The role of diagnosis in building the capacity of voluntary and community organisations

By identifying the support needs of voluntary and community organisations, diagnosis is commonly understood as an initial stage of effective and targeted capacity building. This paper offers a broader reflection, suggesting that diagnosis can play two other functions: as a selection mechanism for access to capacity-building resources, but also as a market-making device in bringing together potential providers and would-be customers to discuss an intangible and difficult to describe process of organisational support.