This document discusses strategic planning and strategic thinking for nonprofits. It defines strategic planning as a formal process by which an organization studies its vision for the future and develops a set of concepts, procedures and tools to help leaders think and act strategically. The purpose is to help organizations account for changes in their environment and position within it. Benefits include being proactive, addressing real problems, building relationships and increasing organizational knowledge. Costs include money, time and potential conflicts. Strategic planning requires support, staff commitment, money and knowledge to identify goals, objectives and plans to evaluate progress annually. Issues include the need to adapt plans as the environment changes and ensuring plans are used rather than just documentation. The key difference between strategic

1. Nonprofit Management &
Strategic Planning

2. Strategic
• What does it mean to be strategic?
– How an organization will go about its efforts
– Seeking to match the needs in the external
environment with the NPs internal competencies

3. **How to Do it
• SWOT Analysis
– Internal
• Strengths
– What is the organization good at—what does the org do well?
Resources and inputs of the org that help you do well.
• Weaknesses
– Where is the organization lacking
– External
• Opportunities
– Linked to strengths. Org similar to my own is going out of
business so that’s opportunity to take their clients/market share
• Threats
– Linked to weaknesses

4. Strategic Planning
• Definition:
– Formalized process by which an organization
makes a study of its vision for the future
– A set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed
to help leaders, managers, and planners think and
act strategically

5. Strategic Planning
• Purpose:
– Management tool that accounts for changes in
the environment and the organization’s place
within it
• Technology
• Markets for Services
• Funding Sources
• Competition

6. Benefits
• Proactive rather than reactive
• Addresses “real” problems and forces them to
be considered
• Builds relationships (ideally upward and
downward communication)
• Increases knowledge of organizational
activities
• Broad focus

7. Costs
• Money (opportunity costs)
• Time
• Possible conflict within org

8. Impetus
• Board
– Board members push for the process (cross-over
board members)
• Funders
– Often required for grants (want to know you have
a vision for the future so you need strategic
planning)
• Change in leadership (ppl from other orgs are
mad that things are run differently so they
want to do it another way)
• Crises within the organization

9. Developing a Strategic Plan
• What is needed
– Support
• Top members of the organization: board, execs
– Staff commitment
• Time/energy and desire
– Money
– Knowledge

10. Identifying Goals
• Working backwards from the ideal future or
vision of the organization (3 to 5 years):
– Goals for the upcoming year
– Objectives for each goal
• Specific
• Measurable
• Action-oriented
• Responsible
• Time-targeted
– Need to review plan annually to evaluate and possibly
revise objectives

11. Issues with Strategic Planning
• Best laid plans…
– Must be ready to adapt with an ever-changing
environment
• History repeating itself
– Those involved must believe that plans will be
used and not just window dressing
• Use as a learning tool
– Tendency to assign blame or hide from failure

12. Strategic Planning vs.
Strategic Thinking
• What is the difference?