Preparing for Strategic Planning

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” - Alan Lakein, writer

I love this quote. It absolutely gets to the heart of why strategic planning is so important for any nonprofit organization. In almost every aspect of our lives we run through a similar process: envision, plan, then execute. Followed by: evaluate, readjust, and continue.

Having a plan for your nonprofit is critical for success. It’s your roadmap for how you are going to get to where you want to be. Without that map, you may end up someplace completely different than you thought, or nowhere at all.

I have been involved in nonprofit organizations for several years in a variety of capacities. Some of them had strategic plans, some didn’t. I can say with confidence that this isn’t always something we think about. We’re here to serve. To help. To support. To make the community a better place.

Often times we’re entrenched in the “right now” and don’t have the luxury to think about the “what’s next?”
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But I’m here to tell you: find the time. Make the time.

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Just about a year ago we began the process of actually planning for strategic planning. We laid out, as a board and CEO, the steps we needed to take. The Idaho Nonprofit Center has made great gains in the past several years but the time had come for us to take an organized approach to planning our future.

Here are the steps we took to just get to the point of planning. However, there’s never a one size fits all approach. Each organization should do what makes sense for them.

1. Board of Directors agreed unanimously that we needed to do strategic planning.
2. We agreed that we should budget for this expense. I surveyed several seasoned consultants to get an idea of what it would cost. I averaged it out and added that to our budget which was approved in December 2017.
3. We did some facilitated discussions in board meetings defining these things:
   • What we like and don’t like about strategic plans
   • What we want in a consultant
   • What end product we hoped to have and who would be responsible for putting it together
     1. Note: it was not me and it should not be you
4. We formed a task force of board and staff members to identify our consultant and see us through the RFP process
5. We borrowed an RFP from another organization that had recently undergone a search for a consultant to facilitate their planning. We updated it based on our wants and needs as an organization.
6. We sent out the RFP with clear instructions, fully defined process and a deadline for submission.
7. I requested two copies of each potential consultant’s RFP. One copy had the price tag, one did not.
8. I created a Google form for our task force to use in evaluating each proposal based upon the ideal we were looking for. I shared each proposal with the task force, but did not include the cost.
   1. Note: It was important to me and to the Idaho Nonprofit Center that our task force select and recommend the proposal that was most what we were looking for. Not the one that cost the least. I budgeted plenty based on my earlier research and am happy to report we came in on target. I cannot stress this point enough: do not look at price tag, look at fit and flexibility.

Once we selected our consultant we went to work immediately. I won’t dive into the details of our work with the consultant because each organization is unique in its needs and its place in this process. I mostly want to share the up-front work that went into this process and emphasize a few key points for all of us:
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1. Every organization should have a strategic plan.
2. It is worth paying for someone to facilitate this plan for the board, staff, and stakeholders
   1. Note: An Executive Director/CEO should be a partner at the table, not the facilitator for this process. You need a neutral outside third party for this work.
   2. If you can find some to volunteer to do this for you, that is great but also please remember that paying someone for their expertise shows respect for their knowledge and places appropriate value on their skills.
3. The cost of the consultant is less important than the fit and flexibility for your organization. You want your finished product to be something you can use, not something that gets put on a shelf because you paid too little (or too much!).

Finally, your strategic plan should be used every time you convene your board and your staff. It becomes your road map for where you want to be. I am using my strategic plan to draft annual operational plans that assign accountability to appropriate team members, whether that be the board or my staff or one of our committees.

The process for us took about a year from end to end, but it was totally worth it and I look forward to implementing the plan over the next three years. Everything we planned for is to serve you, our members, and the nonprofit sector better than ever.