Nonprofit Strategic Planning: Why It's Important and Where to Start

Nonprofit strategic planning is the backbone of organizational formation and growth. While both for profit and nonprofit organizations can benefit from strategic planning, this process plays a uniquely important role in the nonprofit sector. Strategic planning is an intentional process that helps guide who an organization is, what they do, how they make their decisions, and more. Since nonprofit organizations are mission-driven, this process is key in developing their vision and relevant metrics to avoid mission drift. While for-profits may aim to increase revenue or profit, nonprofits must rely on this process to shape the soul of their organization and maximize their impact, however they choose to define that impact. 

Steps to Include in Your Strategic Planning Process 

Where do we begin with strategic planning? Third-party providers can be effective tools to utilize when implementing a strategic planning process, especially if it is the first time for an organization. To begin, John Bryson, in his book Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (2004), offers a model with clear steps. These steps urge organizations to set direction, assess context, address key issues, and then implement the strategies with a plan to reassess in the future. 

This is a comprehensive, and at times, overwhelming process, but manageable step by step–especially with resources and models such as this to use as a guide. 

A Tool to Try

A myriad of strategic planning tools exist that can be adopted to work effectively in nonprofit organizations. To start, you could consider a SWOT analysis that helps you map out your organization’s strengths and potential growth areas. To conduct a SWOT analysis, create four sections to write out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. What does your organization do well that distinguishes it from other organizations? Where do you lack ability, infrastructure, or buy in? Where can your organization look to find growth areas? What challenges might you run into as you continue forward in your work? For example, a women’s shelter might list dedicated staff as a strength, limited bed capacity as a weakness, a new connection with their state senator as an opportunity, and recent federal funding cuts as a threat. Follow the link in the photo below for more information. 

Start small and intentionally. Find tools that work for you. Commit as an organization to clarify your goals and processes. Avoid mission drift and maximize your impact. 

Where is your organization in their strategic planning process right now? Let us know in the comments, and follow along for more tools in upcoming posts. Next time we’ll take a closer look at some of those specific steps you can take in your strategic planning process.