Organizational capacity development is considered a cornerstone of all sustainable development strategies. It entails enabling major development actors (e.g., civil society organizations, government entities, networks, and partnerships) to acquire and act on new knowledge and skills as well as to adopt new forms of interaction and reflection. Capacity development initiatives have traditionally focused on training and short-term technical assistance. Through a systematic introduction of tools and frameworks, we will present and critique the major capacity development paradigms over the last 30 years. The focus of the course, however, is the creation of new tools that support the most cutting edge thinking in capacity development. We will examine capacity development as behavior change and lead a “design lab” to create a comprehensive capacity development support approach (with associated tools) that reflects an ecosystems-based theory of change. Course activities will be packaged, with the participation of students, for online consumption by local development practitioners. Prior to our first meeting, students will be expected to complete a small individual assignment that includes readings and application of content to a real world problem.