Ethical considerations in strategic planning

As a board member and senior manager of a nonprofit you are responsible for creating and participating in the development of your organization's strategic direction and implementing the change associated with delivering upon that strategy. While there are few ethical...

Realistic budgeting

The reality for most nonprofit agencies today is an increasing demand for services as funding shrinks and costs escalate. In this environment of constant change, organizations need a plan to help them manage. In most cases, this plan takes the...

Seven tips for successful strategic planning

Tip 1: Develop specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited objectives that cover the time horizon of your strategic plan. For example, "Increase gross revenue from all sources by 27% by May 30th 2005". Tip 2: Produce a written plan. This...

Budgeting basics

If you are like most nonprofit agencies today, you are finding it more difficult to make ends meet. In this environment of scarce resources, one of the most important tools at your disposal is the budget. In the publication Cost...

How to conduct a SWOT analysis

What is a SWOT analysis? Many people see SWOT as synonymous with strategic planning. In fact, a SWOT analysis is only one of many tools that can be used in an organization's strategic planning process. SWOT is short for "Strengths,...

Avoiding groupthink and strategic blind spots

What Is A Strategic Blind Spot? A strategic blind spot is something that is known to those outside the organization but is not known to those within the organization and can be positive or negative in nature. What Is Groupthink?...

Best practices in strategic planning

While each organization’s strategic plan should be specific to its needs, our research and experience has determined that organizations that follow best practices in strategic planning have a greater probability of achieving their objectives. To see how your organization stacks-up...

Translating vision into action

A vision is a clear and ideal picture of what your organization will look like in the future. Many organizations have a vision. For some it is represented by a vision statement, for others it a written description. Regardless of...

The Role of the Executive Director & Board in the Strategic Planning Process

I'm often asked what the role of the Board is in the strategic planning process. The most common answer is that the Board is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization and therefore should set the strategy. Few people...

Assessing your organization’s financial health

If you are like most nonprofit agencies today, you are finding it is more and more difficult to make ends meet. You have probably experienced funding cutbacks that have forced you to reconsider your activities and do things differently. In...