The Question to Ask Before Writing a Strategic Plan

Strategic plans are essential tools for nonprofit sustainability. They map out goals and actions that enable an organization to achieve its mission and increase programmatic impact.

However, beginning a strategic planning process can lead to many questions. Who should be a part of the planning committee? How long should the process last? How do we start? If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a strategic plan, you are not alone. Some nonprofits go through the steps without paying much attention to the details to reduce stress related to strategic planning,

Nonprofits who think that one-size-fits-all when considering strategic plans overlook one of the essential details. The first question that organizations should ask themselves, before any of the questions above is What type of strategic plan do we need?

Strategic planning is commonplace for organizations and municipalities. Nonprofits use strategic plans to not only organize, motivate, and share the vision internally, but they also use strategic plans to recruit stakeholders and receive funding. Therefore, having the right plan is critical.

In Your Strategy Needs a Strategy, Reeves, Love and Tillmanns of the Harvard Business Review suggest that there are four types of strategic plans: a classical strategy, an adaptive strategy, a shaping strategy, and a visionary strategy.

Each approach has unique qualities that make it most effective in specific environments. For instance, is your organization experiencing significant change at the moment or are your operations reasonably stable? Do you need a checklist, or do you need to cast a vision? Is your organization new or did it recently celebrate its 25th anniversary?

Choosing the right approach for your strategic plan makes all the difference and reduces the chance of the plan growing dust in a file somewhere instead of enabling the organization to achieve its mission.

Paying attention to the details, in the beginning, leads to significant impacts in the end. So, what kind of strategic plan do you need?

Set up an initial consultation today to begin the process of creating a truly effective plan that will impress your clients and donors

Spark Group Consulting thrives on helping organizations to put in place the structures that enable success. Can we help you?

⭐ Join our weekly newsletter where we share tons of exclusive tips, tools, grant opportunities, and resources to our subscribers. Subscribe on the Spark Group home page.