Strategic Planning for Sustainability

Often confusing and even intimidating, strategic planning is nothing more than setting an organization’s long-term goals and the plan to achieve them. It clarifies purpose and direction, focuses the organization’s activities and resources, and helps ensure sustainability.

Basic Strategic Plan

A basic strategic plan is:

• a governance activity entrusted to nonprofit boards
• a set of goals and tactics designed to help an organization perform its mission and ultimately achieve its vision
• a guide to balancing often conflicting priorities and allocating resources

Developing Your Strategic Plan

High-level process for developing your strategic plan

• Start with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) or similar analysis
• Draft a plan
• Discuss, test, modify and then accept goals
• Develop action plans for implementation

Implement the Plan

Strategic planning often gets a bad name because organizations fail to implement the plan. Recent studies show that only 12% of strategic plans are fully implemented. So, it’s vitally important to allocate leadership’s time to implementing and managing the plan after it’s approved. Here’s a suggested model:

• Leadership team takes a day away every 90 days to an off-site location to avoid interruptions and temptations to go back to your desk
• Cell phones off and no emails – be fully present at the meeting
• Review past 90 days and set course for next 90 days
• Ensure the organization is furthering the goals of the strategic plan

Goals of Strategic Planning

• A single, clean, up-to-date database – the life blood of the organization. There are up-to-date policies governing its use and procedures that ensure the data stays up-to-date.
• Fund development plan that reasonably projects revenue needs and strategies for meeting those needs for the next three years.
• Clear program policies and procedures as well as the supervision to ensure they are followed.
• Regular measures, assessments, and evaluation of program and administrative effectiveness.
• Communication plan that uses all available media to best reach their target audience(s) with appropriate frequency.
• Succession planning for key roles in the organization (staff & board) – both short-term for sudden absences and long-term for planned absences.