I have had the privilege of actively contributing to the strategic planning initiatives of several remarkable organizations. Throughout this journey, I’ve identified five common challenges within nonprofit strategic planning and have crafted effective solutions to guide my clients in steering clear of these potential pitfalls:
Problem: Strategic Plan as a Marketing Tool
The strategic plan often transforms into a mere fundraising and marketing artifact, losing its essence as a tool for informed decision-making. In such instances, it becomes little more than an aesthetically pleasing PDF showcased on the organization’s website, featuring the mission, vision, and goals but lacking the substantive content necessary for an Executive Director to make pivotal decisions. In our unpredictable and volatile world, where even the best-laid plans are susceptible to uncontrollable forces, a robust strategic plan should transcend superficiality. It should stand as a reliable guidepost, empowering the organization to adeptly navigate change and make crucial decisions in response to emerging opportunities or challenges.
Solution: Integrate a comprehensive decision-making framework directly into the plan.
Assess its efficacy through collaborative discussions on plausible scenarios with the staff. While this level of detail might surpass the confines of a glossy one-pager, it’s crucial to bear in mind that a distinct internal version of the plan can be developed exclusively for organizational use. This ensures that the strategic blueprint not only looks impressive externally but also serves as a robust and functional tool for informed decision-making within the internal workings of the organization.
Problem: Lack of Measured Impact
Effectiveness remains elusive without the measurement and quantification of impact. Vague aspirations, such as “be the best at…”, lack substance without a tangible metric for success. Simply asserting superiority is insufficient—unless backed by a third-party ranking tool or a comprehensive survey, the claim to excellence remains challenging to substantiate.
Another common pitfall involves delving too deeply into operational minutiae, like “replace our CRM.” While this may be a necessary tactical move, it’s crucial to recognize that it serves as a component supporting a broader strategic objective. A quick litmus test for strategy versus tactic: if a single individual can check off the task within the next six months, it likely falls into the tactical realm rather than a strategic one.
Moreover, longevity poses a challenge in impact measurement. Endeavors with perpetual goals, such as “improve our programming,” demand clarity on how progress will be assessed. While continuous improvement is commendable, a strategic approach necessitates a defined framework for gauging success within the scope of the strategy’s timeline.
Solution: Determine how you define “impact” in your organization.
Then, outline the metrics used for its measurement. Acknowledge that not every aspect requires a numerical value; qualitative metrics hold equal importance. The barometer here is “how would your predecessor know you have achieved this goal?”
Problem: Absence of Prototyping
The concept of prototyping, involving the execution of small-scale tests or experiments before committing to larger endeavors, stands as a staple in design thinking and is commonplace in the for-profit sector. Strikingly, this crucial element is often absent from many nonprofit strategic plans. Since many nonprofits rely on philanthropy, it can be hard to admit you are experimenting with donor’s money. However, it is impossible to know if something will work until you have tested it. Responsible stewardship of donor funds necessitates the conduct of small-scale experiments, enabling the measurement of results before spending big bucks on something that could fail.
Solution: Explore ways of prototyping or piloting small-scale experiments before launching into large initiatives.
We will never have all the information we need at any given point of time, we are just making the best choices we can with that is known, and testing to get more information and inform future choices.
Problem: Limited Engagement of End-Users
While nearly every strategic planning process incorporates a “stakeholder assessment,” the term “stakeholders” commonly refers to the board, staff, and donors. Unfortunately, community members are frequently overlooked, and when they are involved, their input often takes the form of a survey, if at all. In the nonprofit sector, our existence is rooted in addressing the needs of the community.
Solution: It is crucial that the planning process goes beyond merely including community input to being profoundly shaped by it.
This entails not only conducting interviews with end-users but actively involving them in the strategic planning committee and even on the board. Recognizing that, in certain situations, direct engagement with end-users may pose challenges, it becomes essential to find alternative means of gathering their feedback and ideas. This proactive approach ensures that their perspectives play a pivotal role in shaping the plan well in advance of the strategic planning process. It’s not just about seeking feedback on past endeavors; it’s about soliciting ideas for the future, encouraging a forward-looking and community-driven approach.
Problem: Arbitrary Planning Cycles
Planning tends to follow arbitrary cyclical intervals, typically occurring every 3 or 5 years, rather than responding to urgent or imminent crises. However, when faced with turnovers in leadership, public relations crises, mergers, or unforeseen events like a pandemic, the existing plan can swiftly become obsolete. It lies dormant until the next scheduled 3 or 5-year cycle, at which point we begrudgingly acknowledge its obsolescence. This rigidity in planning fails to address the dynamic nature of organizational challenges and underscores the need for a more adaptive and responsive approach.
Solution: Each strategic plan should incorporate “Conditions for Re-Evaluation.”
These conditions typical triggers encompassing shifts in leadership, substantial fluctuations in revenue, or significant alterations to program structures.
In navigating the landscape of nonprofit strategic planning, my experiences have illuminated five pervasive challenges and provided innovative solutions to guide organizations toward success. By embracing these solutions, nonprofits can embark on a strategic journey that not only overcomes challenges but also cultivates adaptability and community-driven success.
