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What is nonprofit strategic planning? Nonprofit strategic planning is a step-by-step process that helps you set priorities for your organization for the medium term – generally 3-5 years. You gather insight from your stakeholders, identify the common themes, explore possible futures and make decisions about where you want to focus your organization’s future in service of your mission. As part of the process you will clarify your why, what and how. What your nonprofit can expect from strategic planningStrategic planning is not about predicting or controlling the future. It is about creating greater alignment across your team, board, volunteers and all those who support the mission of your organization – creating a shared understanding and agreement about where you are headed. And at each stage, consider how equity factors into who you are including, whose voices are being heard and how decisions are being made. With this shared agreement on direction, you will be better prepared to make informed decisions about where to focus your energy and what your priorities are. A strategic plan is a process, not just a documentIt is also not just about the document – the strategic plan itself. That is a product of the process certainly. Yet it is really about the conversations that stakeholders have over the course of the process. Those conversations are what build the alignment and that shared understanding and ultimately the buy in that can be so elusive. It would be much easier and faster to decide one afternoon to “write” your organization’s strategic plan. Efficient for sure. Perhaps even satisfying for you as you are writing it. But ultimately that plan will fall short because it only represents your vision for the nonprofit organization. Nonprofit organizations are a collective effort. Typically tackling some of society’s biggest challenges. Getting closer to your organization’s mission effectively takes everyone pulling in the same direction and not working at cross purposes. Does my organization need a strategic planning retreat?It is also not just a retreat. Oftentimes, people will reach out and ask whether I can come facilitate their strategic planning retreat. But without the preliminary and fundamental step of discovery – or the listening tour – you do not have the grounding you need for a truly comprehensive and deep strategic planning process. Our 5-Step Nonprofit Strategic Planning Process for intentional, insightful, inclusive goal setting1. Your Strategic Plan kick-off onboardingHow you start the strategic planning project really makes all the difference. Getting clear about your goals for the project itself, who needs to be involved, the time frame you are planning for, as well as the strategic questions you are grappling with as an organization will set you up for success. Orienting the system to the processConsider holding a few kickoff events with your stakeholders to ensure that everyone is clear about how you are approaching the strategic planning process. Often this include sessions for staff, board, and other volunteers. These events typically include an overview of the project and process, who will be involved including any consultants you have hired to support and guide the process, as well as a conversation about what people are hoping for in the process and what their concerns are. After the event, it is very helpful to send a written document to everyone that reiterates the same information so that everyone has something to refer back to as the project progresses. Assembling your teamOne of the first tasks is to pull together a group of staff and board that will form your strategic planning committee or task force. The job of this group is to steward the process and advise on key decision points along the way. It is NOT their job to make all the decisions about the final three-five goals that will make up the main elements of your actual strategic plan. Who should be on the strategic planning task force? Board, leadership, staff?The task force should include people empowered with the organization to make decisions. This typically means the executive director, the board chair and ideally the incoming board chair as well as staff and other volunteers who will be influential about your organization’s future. A smaller group will find it easier to make decisions (up to five people). With a larger group (up to nine people) you will be able to better represent different elements of the organization and your stakeholders, yet you may need to have a smaller group designated to have the final say on decisions. What is the role of the strategic planning task force?Some of the task force’s tasks at the beginning of the process include identifying the stakeholders who are vital to your organization's future, how input from them will be gathered and what questions you will be asking them. Who is important to shaping your organization’s future? Often stakeholders include staff, board, volunteers, community partners and allied organizations, as well as those your organization serves and funders. Have you fully considered power dynamics as you prioritize stakeholders? How do you plan to gather input from those stakeholders who are part of historically marginalized communities? What supports may they need to fully participate in the process How a nonprofit strategic planning consultant can helpWhen you are working with a consultant, they will help you sketch this out as well as support you in making decisions about how the information will be gathered. You will need to decide whether it is with one-on-one interviews, focus groups and/or surveys. Deciding what mix of approaches makes sense in your organization’s situation is one of the key tasks for the group during the kickoff phase. Once those decisions have been made, the discovery phase or listening tour can start. 2. Discover: Listen to your key stakeholders before you start making decisions!This step in the process you are going on a listening tour to discover what is the organization’s current state, what are its strengths, challenges, what is its history and what are the collective hopes and aspirations for the organization’s future. One of the benefits of working with a consultant is that they can take on the time-intensive work of talking one-on-one with people, facilitating focus groups and developing, launching and analyzing surveys. In addition, consultants will often have a bank of questions that they will use as a spring board to customize for your situation. If you choose to conduct the input process yourself, be sure to orient your volunteers to how to conduct interviews and be clear about the process for capturing notes so that the results can be analyzed into themes. How are you making participation in your accessible for community members?Another consideration when you are conducting your listening tour is to think through the systemic barriers that may prevent those you serve and support from participating in your listening opportunities. How will you make it possible and accessible for people you serve to participate? Will you offer stipends, feed people, provide or reimburse transportation and child care? If your input sessions are being held virtually, do people have the digital access needed to participate? 3. Explore your stakeholder insights, wider trends and your potential futuresOnce you have a solid picture of where you are as an organization, your strengths and challenges, what some of the aspirations are that people have for the organization, you will need to share these findings with your planning group so that they can make meaning of them. The planning group should include your board and staff. This is the group that you will gather at a strategic planning retreat or over a series of strategic planning sessions. What can you expect during a strategic planning retreat or strategy planning sessions?A strategic planning retreat will typically start with an overview of the findings from the listening tour and then time for small group and large group discussion of what meaning the group makes of the findings. Other agenda items will likely be an exploration of wider trends, envisioning the organization's future, identifying major goals, action steps and success indicators, identifying key criteria for future decision making as well as a review of your organization's mission, vision, values to update them as necessary. The retreat itself will be a mixture of small and large group conversations and activities. Multiple ways of knowing and communicating should be included, such as drawing, skits and other ways to tap into everyone's imagination. There should also be time for individual reflection and group dialogue to be inclusive of varying thinking and communicating styles. A series of online strategy sessions will typically range from 90 minutes to three hours at a time and use a combination of a video conference platform such as Zoom with work being done digitally through a google doc or Mural board or other online white board tool. Why its important to explore the wider environment and trendsWith the foundation of what the current state of the organization is, the group should also look wider and identify the wider trends impacting your organization. Your organization does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in a wider ecosystem of the community you are in, the field you are in, as well as the wider society and world. What trends does the group see politically, economically, socially, environmentally, and technologically? Of those trends, which ones will most likely have an impact on your organization furthering its mission. Imaging the future of your nonprofit organization With this wider perspective in mind, lead the group in a variety of exercises to help them imagine a new future for the organization. Think about how you can integrate different ways of knowing into your exploration process. Get beyond just words and integrate opportunities to bring in different senses and modalities such as drawing, skits, and songs. This is the part of the exploration process when you can let the imagination fly freeing and think audaciously. All these possibly wild ideas and aspirations will likely not make it into the final plan yet they help uncover new options that the group might not otherwise consider. 4. Decide your nonprofit priorities, based on mission, vision & valuesYou now have fun and inspiring pictures of potential futures for the organization. Unfortunately too often this is where people often stop. And then they wonder why they feel overwhelmed by a ‘plan’ that looks more like a wish list. Setting priorities for your nonprofit organizationYou then need to lead the group through a series of exercises to set priorities and make decisions about which of these options you will put your energy behind. You cannot do everything. This is another element of the process that is especially helpful to have the support of strategic planning consultants. They have no agenda about what ultimately gets decided and prioritized – instead they have expertise in helping groups have effective conversations about options and actually make decisions. As you are making those decisions, consider whose voice is being prioritized and how each decision might impact different groups you serve. Update your mission and visionYou may have noticed that I did not start the process with a mission and vision exercise. This is where many other strategic planning consultants start. I recommend instead that groups refine their mission and vision statements at the end of the process. You then benefit from all the conversations that the group has had over the course of the process, and it is more a matter of confirmation. Does your current mission statement accurately reflect where the organization is going? Does your vision statement accurately describe the change you are trying to make in the world? What needs to be updated or refined? 5. Plan & Act: Turn your strategies into action steps not a wishlistSuccess indicatorsOnce you have decided on three and up to no more than five big goals, lead the group through conversations to identify what action steps will move those goals forward. Provide ways for feedback to be gathered. You may need to go through several iterations. For each action step, also define what success will look like. How will you know you have made progress? The strategic planning task force will take the rough draft created by the larger planning group, clean up the language and do the final refinement so that it is clear. Check one last time for shared agreement with the larger group. Operationalizing your nonprofit strategic planUsually your board will vote on the final version of the plan and approve it. Having been closely involved in each step of the process, and provided multiple opportunities for input and feedback, this approval ideally is a straightforward process. Staff then need to operationalize the plan and decide who is going to do what, by when, in Year one. The process of creating an annual implementation plan will include what are you focusing on in year one – what needs to happen first? And what are more specific tasks that need to happen to move your action steps forward? Keeping the plan freshYou now have a strategic plan and a year one implementation plan that captures the shared agreement among your stakeholders about where you are going to put your energy to move your mission forward more effectively. Yet the world does not stand still – new opportunities and challenges will emerge. Before you are finished with your process, work with your strategic planning task force to agree on how you keep track of the plan. How will you integrate it into regular planning practices? Board meetings, staff meetings? Keep track of progress? Evaluate when you need to make adjustments and updates? Get clear and come to agreement about what your practice is for keeping the plan relevant and front of mind. You will be continuously learning and adapting. Goals that truly help an organization forward are dynamic and require ongoing effort, reflection, and adaptation to changing circumstances and new understandings. Reconnecting with your external stakeholder groups You also need to think about how you will share the summary of the input gathered to your wider stakeholders who may not be part of the planning sessions themselves. You asked for their input – help them understand how you are going to use their information. Your goal in gathering input from them is not only to gain their perspective but also to engage them in the future of your organization. Do not undermine the trust you have built by asking them for input and then not closing the loop and sharing some version of the findings summary. Building buy in through engagementStrategic planning is an opportunity to do a deep engagement with your stakeholders to get them excited about and shape the future of your organization. Using the five-step process – kick off, discover, explore, plan and act, plus deciding on a process for keeping the plan fresh will create the level of buy in you need to have your plan be relevant and usable for guiding your organization’s future.
 In episode 11 of Mission: Impact, some of the topics that Carol and her guest, Nyacko Perry, discussed include:
Additional Resources:
BoardSource 2017 research on demographics of nonprofit organizations - Leading with Intent report. Guest Information: Nyacko Perry utilizes a systems-thinking approach to assist individuals, community groups, and organizations, in creating more inclusive cultures. Her decade long career as a transformational change agent includes national and international facilitation with non-profit, corporate, and government agencies. Nyacko is the founder of Yin Consulting, a collaborative focused on personal, organizational and systemic healing. She is the Organization Development Partner at the much-anticipated Comfort Kitchen, a restaurant, community meeting space, and a food incubator dedicated to fostering collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, and community engagement. Nyacko also serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Action Boston Community Development, Inc. Roxbury/N. Dorchester Opportunity Center. Nyacko holds an M.S. in Organization Development, with distinction, from American University. She is also a 500-hour professional level yoga teacher, an Afro Flow Yoga® certified teacher, and weaves her mindfulness expertise into her consulting work. Links:
Click "Read More" for transcript:  Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels One of the things that facilitators worry a lot when shifting from facilitating in the room to facilitating on line is not being able to “read the room.” But what if they've been “reading the room” inaccurately? Sometimes people's body language is super obvious yet most of the time in the nonprofit workplace it tends to be more subtle. Facilitators may have been engaging in mind reading when they think they are reading the “vibe” in the room yet they really did not know what the participants in the group were thinking and feeling. "Reading the room" onlineWhat if facilitating online actually meant you paid more attention to “reading the room”? How might you track it?
One of the tips for facilitating online is to check in more frequently with the group that you're working with. Here are four ways to think about monitoring progress. Getting connectedThe first is to make sure that you're establishing connections and setting expectations at the beginning of your meeting. What is some pre work that people could engage in so that they could do some thinking beforehand? How might you spend a few minutes to help people get to know each other a little better? How might you use a tool like OARR - Outcomes agenda roles and rules --to orient people as you start out? Signaling your turnsThe second category is making sure that you're helping people track your progress in your process. You might use polling to assess your engagement, understanding and effectiveness. You might do a quick “POP” check in on purpose, outcomes and process. You need to ”signal your turns” so that you are clear about when you're moving from one agenda item to another. Take a pause to make sure everyone is with you especially if you are moving from using one technology tool to another. You can also use visual tools to help you track progress Are we in agreement?A third category is checking for understanding or checking for consensus. You'll likely want to do this more often in an online meeting than you would in person. This means that you need to allow more time to achieve the outcomes then you might have normally budgeted in an in-person meeting. It's slowing down and questioning your assumptions. Taking the time to make your thought process more explicit. Some tools that you might use included a quick check in what's called a “fist to 5.” You ask people to make a show of hands/fingers where they are. You designate what the fist means and what 5 fingers mean. Let's say 5 fingers means high agreement or understanding. This can be used in lots different ways. Another is the gradients of agreement which helps breakdown what consensus looks like. I've described using this tool another post. Carol, how are you doing?The fourth way to approach monitoring group progress online is to check in with individuals. In some ways online platforms makes this easier than in person. When I am in front of a large room of people it's unlikely that I'm going to be able to see all their name tags. But on a Zoom call I can usually see at least a first name or some kind of identifier to ask people individually how they're doing. You will want to have some discussion around group norms about whether it’s ok to ask people who haven't talked much to chime in and share. This may depend on the where your group is in terms of its evolution and development. Getting helpYou could also share the job of paying attention to and monitor the group. You might have a co-host who's monitoring reactions and gallery view while you're focused on facilitating the meeting. You will want to come to agreement beforehand that they can interrupt you and ask questions of the group. Most important (this certainly is true in an in person as well but even more so online), do not assume that silence means consent. Or assume it means discontent.
Need to learn more about how to work with groups effectively online? Check out my program. Nonprofit organization often value participatory decision making. Yet often nonprofit leaders think the only way to achieve participation is to strive for consensus. Groups often fear working on a consensus basis because they are afraid of the time it will take to make a decision. They are afraid of being caught in a spiral of discussion, more discussion and yet more discussion and no resolution. They may be afraid of this because they may assume that everyone has to be 100% behind a decision for the group to move ahead. When a group is considering an issue, ideally there is a discussion that considers a wide range of options. Then the discussion comes to a clear end point with a decision. Once a decision is made the group moves to action. This image illustrates this ideal.  Sam Kaner’s Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making Americans tend to be quite action oriented and in our culture we can get impatient easily, wanting to jump to a decision. And thus more frequently it feels like this:  Sam Kaner’s Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making Part of the group thinks a decision has been made and others thinks the item is still up for discussion. And still others may not be clear what decision is on the table. Consensus continuumOnce the nonprofit group is clear about what they are deciding, a useful tool for testing the level of agreement is the consensus continuum.  Sam Kaner’s Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making Applying the continuumI was part of a nonprofit board that used this continuum when it was deliberating about a very challenging situation. There was no good solution to the high stakes problem we were facing. There were only several bad choices to choose from. Which bad choice was better than the other? We deliberated for a long time. Deliberation happened over multiple meetings, over multiple weeks. Ultimately we were able to make a decision that everyone in the group could live with even if it was not their preferred option by using this tool. How many people you need to have in the 1-3 zone will depend on how high stakes a decision it is. Using this as a check in can move along even decisions that may seem like they are low stakes but are taking a long time. You may find it is higher stakes for some in the group. There was no good solution to the high stakes problem the nonprofit board was facing. There were only several bad choices to choose from. Which bad choice was better than the other? We deliberated for a long time. Deliberation happened over multiple meetings, over multiple weeks. Ultimately we were able to make a decision that everyone in the group could live with even if it was not their preferred option by using this tool. Making time for processNonprofit groups often want to jump to action and resist taking time on ‘process’ issues. Being clear about how the group makes decisions is a core process issue that rarely gets discussed. Taking the time can actually save the group both time and angst in the long run.
Have a group that needs help with how they are working together? Reach out for a coaching session.  Despite the popularity of Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why,” nonprofit leadership groups often have trouble staying at that level. Think of a time when your nonprofit board or leadership team was meeting and someone brought up a new idea for a new program. It’s likely that without a lot of discussion about why you should or should not do the program, the discussion jumped into how you would do the program. Is this new initiative strategically important?I was working with a nonprofit organization and another organization had come to them with an idea for a partnership. The senior leadership charged with managing the strategic direction of the organization assembled to consider the proposal. Rather than staying in the ‘why’ – why should we enter into this partnership? Is it in alignment with our mission? Does it support the goals articulated in our strategic plan? Will it help us reach a key audience? Will it build our brand and reputation? Does it capitalize on our core competencies? Will it help us strengthen key capacities? Will we be filling an important gap in the market? Instead they skipped right over those questions and had a long discussion about how the partnership could work. Who would be involved? When would be good timing to get started? So the key question of whether the partnership was important for the organization was missed. Rather than staying in the ‘why’ – why should we enter into this partnership? Is it in alignment with our mission? Does it support the goals articulated in our strategic plan? Will it help us reach a key audience? Will it build our brand and reputation? Does it capitalize on our core competencies? Will it help us strengthen key capacities? Will we be filling an important gap in the market? Why are we working on this project?Too often when teams start working together on a project they make the same mistake. Without talking about why they are assembled, what is important about the project, what they each bring to the project, they jump to project management. They start outlining and assigning tasks. This is why I find the Drexel-Sibbet model of team development particularly useful. It reminds the group to start with why. Its second stage considers who is in the group and takes some time to get to know each other. Only after why and who has been answered is the group truly ready to shift into what and how.
So the next time you are starting something new – considering a new idea for a new program or initiative or starting a new project, spend some time discussing the why. Why is this important for us? And if there is not enough ‘there, there’ when you answer why, remember you can also choose not to pursue the new idea! Need help with an important conversation in your organization? Reach out for a coaching call. |
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Grace Social Sector Consulting, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the Mission: Impact podcast, as well as the Mission: Impact blog with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.
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