Make 2024 Your Year to Succeed
Strategic Planning for Your Nonprofit
An old fundraising story tells of a wealthy donor prepared to write a $1,000,000 check if an organization could meet one criterion. She asked the four executive officers to sit in different corners of a room. She asked each one, “What is your organization’s current priority?” After hearing each answer, she announced she could not make her donation because their answers were all different.
?This donor visited one board meeting after another and ran the same test until she found an organization whose four officers gave the same answer. She donated $1,000,000 on the spot, knowing her money would be put to good use because everyone in leadership embraced the same priority.
?This is just a parable, but if your organization doesn’t take the time to set priorities and figure out how to share them with others, moving your mission forward will be difficult, if not impossible.
?Do your board, executive director, and key staff members know your organization’s priority? I dare you to do a quick survey. If everyone gives the same answer, kudos! If not, do something!
If you want 2024 to be the year your organization goes from getting by to executing a powerful vision, then you need strategic planning. It gets you to the next level and prepares you to fundraise effectively. Savvy donors need to understand your plan of action, so use a strategic plan as a blueprint for your organization's growth and to share with potential funders.
A Strategic Plan Is Dynamic
First, don’t think of a strategic plan as a polished piece of art, suitable for display. A strategic plan is a list of actionable steps that can be identified as either incomplete, in progress, or complete. It changes as your organization reaches achievements or moves into a new phase and develops new goals. It’s a tool for organizing the ways your organization will grow.
Start Where You Are
Before you work on the vision, your organization needs to know where it is: what’s working, what needs improvement, and where you need to go. A strategic plan isn’t about looking back to assign blame; it’s an opportunity to understand how you got where you are. Only then can you clarify where you want to go and how you’ll get there.
Everyone Has An Opinion
Getting a picture of where you are can be as simple as asking your board and staff for input. The following steps are effective with a pool of participants of any size. Or depending on how comprehensive a process you’re ready for, you might want to hear from everyone possible. [1]?A private school might ask for input from alumni, former and current parents, students, teachers, and board members. They might even reach out to elementary feeder schools or admissions directors at colleges to which their students regularly apply. A performing arts organization could call on current and former actors, audience members, donors, and community members. Think broadly because the more participants in the process, the more insight you’ll gain.
The Survey Approach
Using more than one method to gather feedback can get a wider array of opinions. For more anonymity you can use third-party agents and online tools. Often the more anonymity, the more honesty.
?You can also gather information through snail mail, email, Zoom, or phone surveys. The broader the scope of input, the better the perspective you gain. Ask participants both binary and open-ended questions or to write personal narratives about their experiences with the organization.
?The Focus Group Approach
Besides using surveys, you might invite key stakeholders to participate in focus groups or one-on-one interviews. Conducting face-to-face conversations increases your understanding of a participant’s intentions and emotions, which writing may not readily convey. Focus groups allow you to ask clarifying questions, encourage participation, and get feedback that leads to participants’ meaningful memories.
?Gathering people in one room, for a few hours or days, for a deep-dive conversation can be intense but effective.
?Analyzing the Data
Once you have everyone’s views, it’s tempting to focus on the biggest challenge and start there. If there’s a problem, you might want to fix that before you do anything else. What’s better is to acknowledge the strengths and successes along with what needs improvement. The foundation for a productive planning process begins with a celebration of your strengths and taking advantage of present opportunities.
One of the most common analysis methods is called SWOT:
?Areas of Focus
As you analyze, the following will become clear: aspirations, concerns, and themes. These are the areas for you to focus on. Evaluate all policies, procedures and programs for how they strengthen your mission, expanding those that do and identifying those that are problematic.
?In the earliest stages of strategic planning, as you establish focus areas and create goals, avoid the limitations imposed by financial concerns.
?Pretend You Have All The Money
I wish I had a quarter for every time someone challenged this approach by asking what the point is of creating goals when they “have no money.” Yes, some elements of your plan will require financial or personnel resources, but if you allow your current reality to limit your goals for the future, it will be tough to envision anything new.
?Ask “In five years, what do we want our reality to be in this focus area?” State your goals in the present tense. Think of your desired “state of being.” Your strategic plan declares your vision and the steps that will get you there.
Assign Responsibilities
Once you know where you want to go and what the priorities are, it’s time to make plans to get it done. You’ve undoubtedly heard that SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-limited. SMART goals can be very effective in making a plan, but you must also empower people to do the work. Nonprofits are notorious for killing every idea by committee rather than empowering individuals to make decisions within their responsibility scope.
The RACI Process articulates who is responsible, who is accountable, who is consulted, and who must be informed of progress. It helps sort out who is doing the work and if they have what they need to get it done.
Report Progress
Without a simple method for updating progress, your strategic plan will become a dust collector. Report on progress at predetermined intervals (monthly or quarterly). This allows leadership to maintain oversight without micro-managing and to take action if critical work isn’t being done.
A More United Organization
When you have a strategic plan in place that genuinely drives your actions, everyone in the organization, from the boardroom to every office, knows the current priority and works towards it.?
A strategic plan shows key stakeholders and potential supporters that you’ve taken the time to assess your current reality and detailed how you’ll reach your goals. With your ever-evolving strategic plan, you tell the story of your why, the problem your organization addresses, and how you plan to get there.
?Then when the donor walks in asking for your priorities, you’ll all know exactly how to respond to receive that million dollar check.