Flexible Strategic Planning
We’re all familiar with the traditional, rigid Strategic Plan — the kind that sets specific outcome goals (and often tactics too) with no clear way of adapting to new opportunities or unexpected external shocks. And after the tumultuous past few years, we’re also keenly aware that those traditional Strategic Plans aren’t up to the task.
Setting outcome goals and being strategic about how you get there is important — don’t get me wrong. But building in flexibility can often sound good in theory and quickly get murky in practice. Let’s break it down in a practical way.
A Flexible Strategic Plan isn’t a single, etched-in-stone, document. Rather, to varying degrees (and with modifications specific to each organization), it’s a combination of:
Contextual Work,
High-level Outcome Goals (for the next 3 - 5 year period) and Scenario Planning,
Budget Alignment and Risk Tolerance Assessment,
Accountability Mechanism,
Opportunity Assessment Rubric, and
Communication Plan.
Contextual Work
This is the background work your organization needs to do to put your planning into context. Such work could include, for example:
an organization-wide Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, Belonging, and Justice (DEIABJ) Audit
research into potential partnerships to help you reach your goals or extend beyond them
delineating your unique value-add to your sector and community at this moment in time
gathering input from stakeholders (beneficiaries, donors, partners, funders, etc.)
ensuring a shared understanding of who/what is the beneficiary of your work and who/what is the ideal/most eager funder
review of your Bylaws and other board policies and procedures, Employee Handbook, etc. for needed updates to meet current best practice
employee and board engagement surveys
revisiting your Mission, Vision, and Values to ensure that they align with the current state of the world and your organization (you’d be surprised how powerful this can be, especially when you’ve never, or rarely, revisited them)
reviewing the program Return on Investment (ROI): which current programs need modification (or even retirement) in order to better align with the Mission, Vision and Values? Which programs are continually underfunded (do they need new funding sources or retirement?), etc.
High Level Outcome Goals and Scenario Planning
It is important to set outcome goals that align with the Mission, Vision, and Values and are achievable over the lifetime of the Strategic Plan. Without such goals, it can be difficult to assess progress against mission and rally a whole Board + Staff team around a vision (not to mention trying to create an Annual Operational Plan without goals). There should be no more than 3 - 5 of these goals, lest they become unwieldy or too rigid — and it can be beneficial for 1 or 2 of them to be internal goals (e.g. to do with staffing or improved infrastructure). The board (with staff collaboration) is responsible for setting the main outcome goals — leave the Operational Plan and tactics to the Executive and staff.
While goals are necessary, unforeseen opportunities and challenges can derail the whole venture without flexibility in the way of Scenario Planning. Scenario Planning can range from incredibly complex to a rough outline, depending on the size of your organization and your resources. In the simpler version, you want to map out a few realistic challenges and opportunities that could crop up over the next 3 - 5 years that could significantly affect reaching your goals; and then lay-out 1 or 2 alternate goals for each of your top outcome goals — can you descope or redirect while still staying true to core mission and core donors? — can you establish a partnership to jointly reach toward a goal? — is a merger something that should be considered over this timeframe? — if you suddenly received a 50% funding increase, would you know how to use it? — what process will you use to determine that a goal needs to be shifted or retired?
Budget Alignment and Risk Tolerance Assessment
Too often, Strategic Plans are created without fully considering what investments will be needed to realize those goals. Take a hard look at the outcome goals you’ve created and the current ROI of your programs and consider:
what is going to need more funding from where/whom?
do we currently have the capacity (in terms of soft and hard infrastructure, staffing, etc.) to meet these goals?
are we making sure to put competitive and equitable staff salaries and benefits at the forefront of our budgeting?
are we doing too much bootstrapping and metaphorical duct-taping? if yes, how do we descope ambition and later ramp-up?
what outcome goals need revisiting after this budget assessment?
Make time to have honest, open discussions about your risk tolerance as well. Give yourself room to experiment (and fail), but delineate what the room is so that there is no angst down the road from board and staff when it’s time to try something new — what amount of $$$ from what account(s) each year are you willing to use for experimental tactics toward reaching the outcome goals? Even if your budget is small, set an amount aside for this to create a culture of evolution and strategic risk tolerance, rather than risking rigidity and stagnation. Then give the leeway to the Executive and professional staff to experiment, rather than the board micromanaging this. Feeling out where your risk tolerance boundaries lie and how to delineate them effectively takes practice, trial-and-error, clear approval processes, and solid trust amongst the team.
Accountability Mechanism
As a nonprofit organization, you are accountable to your beneficiaries, donors, and funders. You owe them proper stewardship of their needs or investment by keeping track of how you’re doing with respect to your goals. Lay out for yourself:
What data do we need to track progress (and budget for its collection and analysis)?
How will we track progress? (a scorecard, e.g.?)
How often will we check-in on progress and revisit our goals, scenario planning, and budget? What will our milestones be along the way?
Opportunity Assessment Rubric
A key element of maintaining flexibility is the entire board and staff team being able to assess opportunities (or current programs) from small to organization-changing against a shared method. A rough example of such a rubric could be:
Does it align with our Mission, Vision, Values?
Does it serve our Outcome Goals (or present an opportunity for modifying/creating a new goal)?
Does it fit within the current budget and risk tolerance (or would it require realistically-attainable new funding or shifts in funding)?
Is the ROI high enough?
Could we measure its effect on outcome goals?
Putting this example rubric to an example test — assessing a new offer from a donor . . . .
Do the donor’s values and vision align with ours?
If the donor has a particular use in mind for the gift, does it serve our outcome goals?
(Any new $$$ by definition passes this test — but that doesn’t mean it passes the others)
Does the gift amount significantly outweigh the amount of staff time or infrastructure investment needed to cultivate this donor or meet their restrictions — ensuring that resources aren’t diverted from other programs?
Would the gift measurably affect our outcome goals (even if a small amount, as long as the ROI in question 4 passes)?
Every part of this rubric is necessary — failing any one question would mean that the opportunity should probably not be pursued. Make it clear when something rises to the level of needing board approval and when it doesn’t, and then empower the Executive and Staff to use the rubric effectively and independently.
Communication Plan
If any part of your Strategic Planning involves a significant shift for the organization, you’ll want to make sure that you have a plan for relevant stakeholder buy-in that goes beyond simply telling them about it post facto (and that starts with getting their input in the Contextual Work phase). Consider also what needs to be communicated within the staff and how, what is relevant for the general public to know, how all of these communications are phased, etc. You might want to have a 1-pager that lays out your outcome goals and can be provided to donors, community members, and partners; and work the goals into your brand sponsorship decks. How do you want all of this work to appear on the website so that visitors understand quickly your goals and progress toward them? How can you use your Strategic Planning work to rally support for and excitement about the organization? How can you use it to build a coherent organization brand and messaging across your social media accounts?
Find out more about our Strategic Planning philosophy and services.
