Creating a strategic plan for any venture involves several steps. When your organization is a nonprofit, your written plans can have a substantial impact, not only on your team’s ability to meet goals but also on whether or not you receive funding and other types of support.
You should consider creating both a business plan and a strategic plan for your nonprofit. A business plan typically describes what an organization’s purpose is, what products or services it offers, who is involved, how the organization is structured, a competitive analysis and an overview of the financials. A strategic plan, on the other hand, addresses how the goals laid out in the business plan will be achieved and how success will be measured. Although there is some overlap between these two documents, they are unique and play different roles in the operation of your nonprofit.
Mission, Vision, Objectives and Goals
Begin by getting input from all stakeholders. Your strategic plan should be an inclusive document, taking into consideration the needs and interests of everyone involved. The mission and vision statements are the foundation pieces for the rest of the text, so craft these carefully. If you have completed a business plan, you may already have these sections finished and ready to copy over.
Once you have your mission and vision statements in front of you, work as a group to further refine these statements into specific objectives, and then to measurable goals. Include timelines for goal completion, especially regarding anything that you want to accomplish in the next three to five years. Include longer-term goals in this section, but do not worry too much about specific dates for items more than three to five years in the future.
Resource Assessment
Listing your organization’s assets is a major step toward figuring out where you stand and what you still need. Remember to consider all of your assets, not just money. For example, list what skills and experience your board members or volunteers have as well as how many people have already committed to working with you. Community resources, buildings and other property, equipment and means of transportation should all be included. If you can think of anything else that could be considered a resource, list it.
Environmental Analysis
Your environmental analysis or situational assessment will go a bit deeper than your resource assessment by listing not only your organization’s strengths, but also its weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses in this context are elements from within your organization, whereas opportunities and threats exist outside, in the community.
Strategy
Now that you have your mission, vision, goals, assets and so on laid out in detail, you can pull everything together to create strategies to leverage your strengths and opportunities to overcome weaknesses and threats. Work to reduce the negatives and highlight the positives to get things done. When documenting strategies for meeting a specific objective, remember to list who will do what and when. Then revisit and reassess when the allotted time has passed.
A Fluid, Working Document
Although your nonprofit’s strategic plan is an internal document, it will also represent the organization to potential backers, other agencies and the general public, so it should be accurate and clear. Because the document will serve as a roadmap for your organization’s activities, it is important to revisit and revise your strategic plan frequently. You may want to include an opportunity for plan discussion during each regular staff or board meeting.
Drafting lengthy, detailed documents such as business and strategic plans may seem like a chore at first, but having them done well at the beginning provides your people and your organization with a starting point toward reaching their goals. Putting in the time and effort at the planning stage is well worth it as your organization grows.
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