Nonprofits need a concrete plan to achieve their long-term goals to fulfill their mission. Suppose you are like other organizations with great people, deep commitment to the organization, and hard work. In that case, you believe the best outcomes should be happening. Yet fundraising results could be better, frustration is common, many feel overworked, and communication challenges with tension and discontent exist. A strategic plan is required to maximize your team and fundraising success, and this guide will set you on the right path.

What Does Strategic Planning Look Like for a Nonprofit?

Strategic planning for a nonprofit organization is a systematic process designed to align the organization's mission and vision with actionable strategies. Strategic planning ensures that the nonprofit can effectively address current and future challenges, meet its objectives, and maximize its impact. Here's a simplified outline of strategic planning:

Establish Vision and Mission:

• Vision: Define what the organization aspires to achieve in the long term and the ideal state it aims to reach.
• Mission: Clarify the organization's purpose and primary objectives, which guide its internal decision-making and public activities.

Conduct a Situational Analysis:

• Internal Analysis: Assess the organization's strengths and weaknesses, including resources, capabilities, and processes.
• External Analysis: Examine opportunities and threats in the external environment, such as economic trends, the competitive landscape, and regulatory changes.
• While many tools can support your effort, the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) approach can be particularly useful here.

Define Strategic Goals and Objectives:

• From the insights gained in the situational analysis, set clear, measurable, and achievable strategic goals that align with the mission and vision.
• Break these strategic goals into specific SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

Develop an Action Plan:

• Implement specific action plans for every facet, including specific actions needed, resources required, responsible individuals or teams, and timelines.
• Ensure a clear understanding of the workflow, dependencies, and communication channels.

Implement and Monitor:

• Execute the strategic plan according to the outlined actions and timelines.
• Regularly monitor progress against objectives through predetermined metrics and performance indicators.
• Make adjustments as necessary, based on ongoing review and evaluation, to adapt to changes in the internal or external environment.

These steps provide a framework for a nonprofit to plan strategically. The process is iterative and should involve continuous engagement and feedback from various stakeholders, including board members, staff, volunteers, and the communities they serve. This process ensures that the organization remains focused and adaptable to achieve its desired impact.

What Are the Key Components of a Nonprofit's Strategic Plan?

A nonprofit's strategic plan typically includes several key components:

Mission Statement: This defines the organization's purpose, why it exists, and the impact it aims to achieve.

Vision Statement: This outlines the organization's long-term aspirations and the desired future state it seeks to create.

Values:  The guiding principles that inform the organization's actions and decisions.

Goals and Objectives: Goals and objectives often need to be clarified. Goals are considered the wider, overarching aim the organization seeks to accomplish, while objectives are specific, measurable steps to achieve those goals.

Target Audience: Identifying and understanding the primary beneficiaries or stakeholders the organization serves or engages with.

Strategies and Tactics: Strategies outline an organization's paths to achieve its goals, while tactics are specific actions or initiatives undertaken to implement those strategies.

Performance Metrics: Details matter, and clearly defined data points are necessary for tracking goals and assessing the validity of the organization's activities.

Budget and Resource Allocation: This outlines the financial resources needed to implement the strategic plan and how those resources will be allocated across different programs or initiatives.

Risk Management Plan: Recognizing possible risks and implementing strategies to overcome the obstacles to success help ensure the organization's sustainability and resilience.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan: Establishing processes for continual review, monitoring, gathering data, and reporting on the impact is necessary to avoid emotional connections to activities for the organization.

Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: Outline how the organization will communicate its mission, goals, and achievements to various stakeholders, including donors, volunteers, partners, and the community.

These components work together to provide a roadmap for the nonprofit's activities and guide decision-making to advance its mission and achieve its goals effectively. Strategy must be centered on your mission, vision, and values with clarity, alignment, and focus. When an organization develops its strategic planning and aligns with hardworking, caring staff, one can expect unparalleled results!

The Four Pillars of a Successful Strategic Plan:

1. Mission Matters

The mission is often overlooked and yet is the center of all an organization does. Clarifying or confirming the mission may feel unnecessary, "Haven't we established our mission already?" but it's the best way to dodge two threats: Mission Creep and Mission Loss. Every mission-oriented organization is started by people who share a defined mission. Over the years, though, the board, leadership, and new hires may develop disparate conceptions of the mission. The mission starts to creep . . . and can eventually be lost entirely. Revisit the organization's stated mission and refine it, if necessary. It should be short, memorable, inspirational, and reflect apparent movement toward a goal. With an updated mission statement, you can ensure that all plans support it.

Bonus Tip: Track the time you spend on work that fulfills the organization's mission. Note how much time "extra," non-missional work is consuming.

2. Vision

While three—to five-year plans may have a bad reputation for being hard to track or even a waste of time, the truth is that those who successfully follow the vision will reap the rewards of staying the course.

Your organization can achieve substantial goals in this timeframe with a strong plan and a staff entirely on board. To underpin your plan with a solid vision, you must answer two key questions:

ONE:  What's the point of this plan?
TWO:  What difference does it make? 
In other words, how will the plan further your mission or make a difference in your sector? Individual leaders may have very different conceptions of the plan's purpose, so making the implicit explicit is essential. Start by having key decision-makers write down why they think the organization exists. This approach may seem rudimentary, but it's a simple, effective way to expose differences and foster collaboration.

3. Values Need Your Attention

Values have the same problem as mission: your organization's values may creep away from the original intention over time. It's essential to get your values down on paper. Otherwise, you run the risk that some values end up being overemphasized in the type of work your organization does and the staff it hires. To ensure your 3–5-year plan succeeds, you must ensure that your staff and priorities reflect a well-rounded vision for the future. When starting the strategic planning process, list up to 20 non-negotiable values in bullet points. You would rather the organization fail than stray from these tenets. Ensure the tasks and priorities in the strategic playbook reflect these values.

4. Confirm the Strategic Planning Process

During the strategic planning process, you must confirm where you're starting, where you want to go, and what obstacles you may encounter. We'll call these difficulties "boulders" that must be removed from the path. Once you've identified boulders, you can move on to building bridges—the resources your organization needs to cover gaps in the road to success. Those "bridges" might include new talent, systems, equipment, experience, etc. Don't miss that task ownership with clear direction and will ensure your plan is more like an action agenda than a ponderous work of literature that gathers dust.

With the support of these four pillars, you can build both a long-term strategy and an action plan. The process should only be considered complete once you've established straightforward tasks, accompanying metrics, and a person to own each step.

Critical Nonprofit Strategic Plan Component: Strategic Development Planning:

A strategic development plan for a nonprofit is a comprehensive roadmap that outlines the organization's mission, goals, and strategies for growth and impact. It begins with clearly articulating the nonprofit's mission statement, defining its purpose, and the positive change it seeks to achieve in the community or the world. A few key components that have to be a part of your nonprofit's strategic development plan: 

• A thorough analysis of fundraising operations
• Review of donation trends, benchmarks, collateral, mail, advancement staffing, gaps, and capacity
• Comprehensive staff and donor interviews

Building on the mission, the plan identifies goals and subsequent objectives that align with an organization's overarching vision. These goals are often informed by a thorough analysis of the nonprofit's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis), ensuring that the organization capitalizes on its strengths while addressing potential challenges.

Strategies and tactics are then developed to achieve these goals, outlining the approaches and activities the nonprofit will undertake to fulfill its mission effectively. This may include expanding programs, forging strategic partnerships, increasing fundraising efforts, or enhancing organizational capacity through staff development and infrastructure improvements.

The plan also includes a budget and resource allocation section detailing the financial resources required to implement the strategies and how they will be distributed across different programs and initiatives.

A strategic development plan also incorporates performance metrics and evaluation mechanisms to track progress, measure success, and adapt strategies as needed. A development plan places the required significance upon continual monitoring and learning to ensure responsiveness and adapting are in motion in the client's needs and the broader social landscape.

A strategic development plan is a guiding document that empowers the nonprofit to focus its efforts, mobilize resources efficiently, and maximize its impact in advancing its mission and serving its community.

Nonprofit Strategic Planning Resources

• The Five Questions to Ask About Nonprofit Strategic Planning (article)
• Strategic Planning:  The Ultimate Process Guide (article)
• Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template (thanks to Donorbox)
• Strategic Planning Guide (thanks to the Nonprofit Association of Washington)
• Strategic Planning Timeline Guide (Word Document also thanks to the Nonprofit Association of Washington)
• Three Steps to Write a Stellar Nonprofit Development Plan (article)
• Build a Strategic Fundraising Plan for Your Nonprofit (video)