Nonprofit Strategic Planning … Simplified
Last week, in Is Your Nonprofit Sustainable?, I touched on some of the elements of strategic planning in the nonprofit context — defining priorities, organisational challenges, succession planning etc.
One of the questions Bloomerang asked 600 nonprofits in the study I was reporting on was: “Did your organization fully utilise a strategic plan last quarter?” A majority of respondent nonprofits (54%) said No.
The way the question was framed, one can’t tell whether these nonprofits lacked strategic plans entirely, or simply ignored the ones they had. In any event, not a reassuring response.
The very next day I noticed this article, by Marilyn Donnellan in NonProfitPRO: 5 Guidelines for a Simplified Nonprofit Strategic Planning Process. Many smaller nonprofits probably find or imagine the process of strategic planning to be too daunting to attempt.
But I thought Mrs Donnellan did a good job of offering a very basic process that even smaller outfits could undertake and benefit from. As she advised:
“For those of you in larger nonprofits with sophisticated planning processes and lots of resources, you probably do not need to read any further. But for small to mid-sized nonprofits with limited resources or for anyone who has never done strategic planning, this process might be just what you need to jumpstart a never-ending strategic planning process.”
Her approach is boiled down to one-day session, although a bit of prior homework is required — a ‘Core Elements Assessment’ to be completed by board members and senior staff which covers over 100 benchmarks for various facets of nonprofit management.
This is accompanied by an ‘environmental assessment’ in which senior staff present information on external issues — positive and negative — impacting the organization.
All of this informs a SWOT exercise undertaken by the leadership group, from which goal-setting follows.
Nothing slick here. Just a simple, logical, concise process worth looking at if ‘strategic planning’ tends to scare you. Here’s her book.
Tom
P.S. For more information, Marilyn Donnellan can be reached at mldonnellanauthor@gmail.com.
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