Boiling it down to two key takeaways:
All nonprofit executives recognize corporate strategy development is important. But it’s a safe assumption that most also find the creation of their organization’s strategic plan to be daunting, sometimes scary. When making decisions on the path ahead, you will cut off other possibilities and opportunities. Those choices become a reflection of you as a leader and what if they don’t pan out?
So it’s time for strategic planning—the process that typically involves three to six months of meetings and splinter groups and task forces.
And just what is a strategic plan?
Typically, it begins with comprehensive agendas ruling the day, along with copious note-taking and prolonged brainstorming that drifts off-target. The management team tries to assess the organization’s position using market data and employee feedback and a SWOT analysis.
Whether developed annually or every three to five years, a strategic plan involves lots of time and money. Three to six months is the norm for, say, mid-sized nonprofits, while the average price tag in outside fees and inside labor can range well over $200,000.
So what’s the purpose of this costly endeavor?
Well, the standard answer may be that it’s a roadmap for organizational growth. Or, it’s a blueprint for achieving long- and short-term goals.
For many, the end of a year brings opportunity for reflection, followed by resolutions to guide the months ahead. Perhaps you’ve got a new practice or habit in your life you plan on starting. Maybe you have a word that will guide your decision making over the next 12 months.
At CauseMic, we’re moving into the new year with increased resolve to strengthen our existing commitment to making our world a more just place to live in.
Years ago, with a vision of assisting nonprofits to become fully funded, CauseMic was founded by two women of color and me.
We knew we wanted a socially eclectic team, giving us the benefit of divergent views when seeking new business opportunities and dealing with clients of varying makeups.
So we hired accordingly. Today, diverse hiring remains a core pillar of CauseMic and a critical component of our success to date.
When you surround yourself with good people, whether you hire them or hang out with them, you can’t help but want to discover the best version of yourself.
For me, I enjoy learning from people smarter than me or drawing comfort from those who walk in similar shoes or being inspired by victors over enormous odds.
Few can argue the importance of a nonprofit’s year-end campaign.
Historically, 63 percent of donors give only on November’s Giving Tuesday. Almost one-third of all annual giving occurs in December, with 12 percent of that in the last three days.
And more than one-fourth of all nonprofits raise as much as half of their annual funding in December.
Ah yes, year-end planning — arguably, the best time for nonprofits to solicit donations.
But there’s greater concern for successful results now than in recent years.
While overall donations in 2021 remained strong and as late as April 2022 most donors stated they’d continue giving, their confidence in the direction of the economy is decidedly down.
Forget about brainstorming.
The telegraph was just fine, until Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. So were covered wagons for cross-country travel, until George Stephenson’s successful train. And after that, the Wright brothers’ plane.
The point is, the status quo is only good enough until someone’s bright idea for improvement takes hold. I don’t mean Apple’s greedy fascination for making whatever iPhone I have obsolete.
You’re doing attribution wrong.
And it’s stunting your organization's growth.