3 Steps to Strategic Planning for Your Nonprofit

If you run a nonprofit, you have minimal time and a lot on your plate. Effective strategic planning can maximize your time and resources, and building your strategic plan doesn't have to be a burden. This blog post outlines three steps to make the process simple! 

Benefits of Strategic Planning for Your Nonprofit

As a nonprofit founder, you know the importance of having a clear vision and purpose. A strategic plan ensures that your organization executes its mission and realizes its goals. Creating a solid strategic plan can help you stay focused on your mission, anticipate potential challenges, and allocate resources effectively. 

These are some of the benefits of developing a strategic plan:

• Provides a clear roadmap for success. A good strategic plan lays out the necessary steps for your organization to achieve its long-term objectives. It also outlines how the organization will measure progress along the way. This clarity can help keep everyone in the organization aligned with shared goals and outlooks. 

• Anticipates changes and challenges. The nonprofit sector is ever-changing and highly competitive, so it's important to expect possible changes or challenges that may arise. A comprehensive strategic plan addresses all potential risks and opportunities that could impact your organization's success, such as competition from other nonprofits, changing trends in fundraising techniques, etc. By anticipating these potential changes, you can be prepared to adapt if needed while maintaining focus on your overall mission and goals.  

• Allocates resources wisely. Effective resource allocation is critical to running a successful nonprofit organization. A good strategic plan will enable you to identify which resources are most vital so you can focus efforts where they are needed most. 

• Attracts donors. A strategic plan helps ensure that resources are used efficiently and are spent on activities or tasks with a high return on investment (ROI). This reassures funders that resources are being put towards activities that have real value for the organization and its stakeholders. 
  
  

What Is a Strategic Plan?
A strategic plan outlines how a nonprofit should execute against its mission – and it's essential for any organization that wants to succeed. A strategic planning process is critical to enabling nonprofits to progress toward their missions. It defines the mission and vision of your organization, sets goals and objectives, and outlines strategies for achieving those goals.

What Should You Include in Your Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan effectively aligns all levels of your organization and gets them moving in the same direction toward your mission. Every strategic plan should include the following:

• Your mission statement 

• Your vision

• Your values statement 

• Your backstory 

Step 1: Define Your Mission and Vision 

The first step in creating a nonprofit strategic plan is to define your mission and vision. Your mission statement should be a clear, compelling answer to the question, "What does your organization do?" It must be clear and understandable, as it will guide all decision-making within the organization. 

Efficiently conveying your work's scope, activities, and importance makes it easier to draw people to your cause and activate potential donors, volunteers, and stakeholders. 

Key components of a mission statement include:

• Why your nonprofit exists

• Who it serves

• How it serves them

Once you have defined your mission, you can create a vision statement that outlines what your organization's future looks like in 10 years or more. This will help you set long-term goals and objectives.  

Mission and vision statements work hand in hand. 

Vision statements answer the question: "What will the world look like when you've achieved your ultimate goal?" Mission statements get more in-depth, explaining precisely what the organization plans to do to achieve that outcome. These two statements are often combined to provide a complete overview of your purpose, goals, and values.

Creating a Value Statement 

Creating a value statement for your nonprofit organization’s strategic plan ensures that you have a clear path forward. A value statement is the central goal of your organization, and it helps provide purpose for all of the activities that you engage in. It should reflect the core values of your organization and be broad enough to encompass all the potential activities that you may pursue.

In creating your value statement, you will want to consider the mission and vision of your organization, as well as any goals or objectives that have already been established. You will also want to take into account the current environment in which you are operating: 

• Who are your primary stakeholders? 

• What is the overall context and culture of your organization? 

These factors will help you to craft a value statement that is realistic and meaningful, and that can serve as a guide for your long-term strategic plan.

Once you have identified a core value for your organization, it’s important to communicate this clearly and consistently in all public materials and communications. This will help ensure that everyone understands the purpose of your organization and what to expect from it. 

Make sure you review your value statement periodically to determine if it still accurately reflects the mission and values of your organization. Doing so will help you stay on track with your strategic plan and ensure that you are working towards achieving your goals.

Share Your Backstory 

To ensure a successful strategy, it's important to incorporate your organization’s backstory into the planning process. Your backstory provides valuable insight into why you exist and what makes your mission unique. By understanding and leveraging your history, you can create a strategic plan that will help move your nonprofit forward in achieving its objectives while staying true to its roots.

The first step in incorporating your backstory into a successful strategic plan is to identify key elements of the narrative behind why you started or joined the organization in the first place. 

• What led you here? 

• What inspired you? 

• Who helped make it happen? 

Collecting these details helps provide clarity on what sets this particular venture apart from other nonprofits with similar missions or goals—this could be anything from personal relationships with partners or volunteers, a unique set of skills possessed by staff members, or even access to resources not available elsewhere. All of these provide invaluable context as well as potential opportunities for growth down the road. 

Step 2: Set Goals & Objectives

Now that you have defined your mission and vision, it's time to set specific goals and objectives. 

Well-thought-out goals will help your nonprofit achieve its desired outcomes and ensure that you can make the most of both resources and time. 

Start with Research 

The first step in setting up your nonprofit's goals and objectives is conducting research. This should include collecting data about stakeholders, analyzing existing programs, researching similar nonprofits, assessing current resources, and understanding the current environment. This research will provide valuable insights into what your organization needs to do to reach its goals. 

Set SMART Goals

Your goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely). For example, instead of setting the goal of "raising awareness about our cause," set the goal of "increasing website visits by 20% over the next year" or "raising $5,000 in donations by the end of 2023". 

These are specific, measurable goals with timelines attached, making it easier to track progress throughout the year. 

Setting goals and objectives for a successful nonprofit is integral to creating a strategic plan that will help your organization succeed. By researching stakeholders and similar nonprofits, defining a clear mission and vision statement, and setting SMART goals with measurable milestones, you can ensure that you are setting your nonprofit up for success.

Step 3: Outline Strategies & Tactics 

As a reminder, a nonprofit strategic plan defines the mission and vision of your organization, sets goals and objectives, and outlines strategies for achieving those goals.

So once you have identified measurable objectives and goals for your organization, it's time to outline strategies for achieving them. Think about how you will achieve each goal: 

• What tactics will you use? 

• Who needs to do what? 

• What resources do you need? 

Make sure each strategy has measurable outcomes so that progress is easy to track throughout the year. In addition, be sure each approach aligns with your overall mission and vision. The following are tips to develop your strategies.

Gather Input from All Stakeholders

As you create your strategic plan for your nonprofit, it's important to seek input from all stakeholders—from board members and staff to donors, beneficiaries, and other partners. Listen carefully to their perspectives to incorporate their feedback. This will ensure buy-in from all stakeholders and make it easier for everyone involved to stay focused on working toward the successful implementation of the strategies you outline.

Develop Relevant Strategies

A key focus in developing relevant strategies is to ensure each will help you reach at least one of your objectives. Start by breaking the achievement of each goal into smaller steps or approaches so that each strategy is specific and actionable. For example, if one of your goals is "Increase visibility among potential donors," then one approach might be "Create a social media campaign targeting potential donors in our target audience" or "Develop a series of print ads highlighting our mission and successes in local newspapers."

Use SWOT Analysis in Strategic Planning

A SWOT analysis is a strategic methodology that can help you measure your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It can be a powerful exercise to use during the strategic planning process in that it helps you develop an honest assessment of your organization and where you need to focus your efforts in order to achieve your goals. In some cases, insights you extract from the SWOT analysis may lead you to take your nonprofit in another direction or refocus your mission.

The four elements of a SWOT analysis—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats— help organizations make decisions and inform their strategies. Strengths identify what an organization does well, weaknesses identify what an organization needs to improve upon, opportunities identify changes in the environment that could benefit the nonprofit, and threats identify changes in the environment that could potentially harm the nonprofit. By examining the four elements together, organizations can gain insight into how they can best move forward with their strategic plans.

How Do Nonprofits Use SWOT Analysis?

Nonprofits can use SWOT analysis as a tool to create strategies that will help them reach their goals. For example, if a nonprofit identifies its strengths as strong relationships with donors and volunteers, it can use those relationships to create new fundraising campaigns or recruit more volunteers. Likewise, if a nonprofit identifies its weaknesses as limited resources or lack of expertise in certain areas, it can look for ways to strengthen these weaknesses by seeking out new capacity-building partnerships or finding consultants who have the skills they need.

Using Opportunities and Threats Effectively

When using SWOT analysis for strategic planning purposes, it's important to take note of external factors such as opportunities and threats. Nonprofit leaders should bear in mind that opportunities are not always positive; sometimes they involve risks. Similarly, threats are not always negative; they can present new possibilities for growth or development. By paying close attention to both external factors–opportunities and threats–nonprofits can make informed decisions about how best to move forward with their plans.

Drawing Conclusions from SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a powerful exercise for nonprofits that want to make informed decisions about their strategic plans. By examining both internal (strengths/weaknesses) and external (opportunities/threats) factors, you can develop strategies that will help reach your goals while remaining true to your core mission and values. With careful consideration of each element in the SWOT analysis, you can stay on track with your strategic objectives while also minimizing risk along the way.

Consider Other Organizations as Models  

Many other nonprofits have successfully implemented strategic plans to reach their goals. Use these organizations as models when creating strategies for your organization—look at what they did right (and wrong) so that you can learn from their experiences and create an even more effective plan for yours.

Developing an effective strategic plan requires careful consideration of short-term and long-term goals, and it requires input from various stakeholders, including board members, staff members, donors, beneficiaries, partners, etc. With the tips outlined in the article in mind, you can create an actionable plan that will help your nonprofit succeed!

The Resilia Nonprofit Platform includes the online Resilia Academy, which includes courses and templates to guide you step-by-step through developing your strategic plan, as well as 50+ additional courses, 70+ templates, videos, and more to help you run and manage your nonprofit.  Sign up for the Resilia Nonprofit Platform today!