5 Nonprofit Strategic Planning Tips for Senior Leadership

Strategic Focus: 

Focus on the big picture, meaning organization-wide initiatives. Capacity is critical to successful implementation so focusing on a smaller number of large initiatives will achieve the greatest impact. 

Structural Alignment: 

Be sure to align organizational structure to strategy. In order to drive change and alignment to strategy, there are instances when organizational structure must be fundamentally shifted. While this can create tension and challenges, it will ultimately create a solid foundation for continued growth and future viability. 

Staffing Talent: 

Develop a nonprofit talent acquisition strategy for hiring from outside the organization. The process of fulfilling strategy can, at times, require organizations to bring in talent that cannot be found internally. Introducing new talent, which brings different skills or management style, can disrupt or generate change in organizational culture. Having a comprehensive strategy for integrating new talent in to an organization is critical to implementation success. 

Systems: 

Consistently assess whether the right systems are in place to manage from and to deliver outstanding service. The systems we use to govern operations have the ability to alter behavior and shift workflow into new directions. The advancement of technology means these systems are constantly evolving 

Resource Allocation: 

Move resources to areas of strategic investment to ensure proper utilization and return. With many of the big paradigm shifts happening in every sector and industry, designing nonprofit strategic plans can involve a significant amount of risk taking with new business models or services. Establishing the proper utilization of resources will help ensure investments are forecasted and understood thus increasing the speed of decision making