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Strategic Planning in Smaller Nonprofit Organizations
Western Michigan University, April 1999: Reference Source: Bryson, J. M. (1995).
Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers.
This short guide is designed to help board members and the staff of smaller nonprofit
organizations develop strategic plans that can help them strengthen and sustain their
organization's achievements.
The workload for nonprofit organizations has increased, and all the while resources have
grown scarcer. No longer-as if they ever could-can nonprofit organizations assume their
funds will arrive automatically from generous donors, nor can they assume they will have
dozens of capable volunteers available to work. Increasingly, funding organizations and
even individual donors want to see evidence that their gifts will be put to good use. One
piece of evidence they often demand is a strategic plan. So, what is a strategic plan, and
how can an organization prepare one? This short guide is designed to help board
members and staff of smaller nonprofit organizations develop strategic plans that can
help them strengthen and sustain their organizations' achievements.
This guide contains some suggested steps and methods organizations can use to complete
these steps. You will need a comfortable room with tables and chairs and space to move
around. It also helps if the room is one that has plenty of wall space that can be used to
tape sheets of paper that will come out of the strategic planning process. Supplies needed
include at least one 27 x 33 inch easel pad, markers for writing on the large sheets of
paper, masking tape, 4 x 6 inch pads of Post-it notes (one per person), and felt-tip pens
(one per person).
What is Strategic Planning?
Most of us know that planning is a way of looking toward the future and deciding what
the organization will do in the future. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce
decisions and actions that guide and shape what the organization is, what it does, and
why it does it (Bryson, 1995). Both strategic planning and long range planning cover
several years. However, strategic planning requires the organization to examine what it is
and the environment in which it is working. Strategic planning also helps the organization
to focus its attention on the crucial issues and challenges. It, therefore, helps the
organization's leaders decide what to do about those issues and challenges.
In short, as a result of a strategic planning process, an organization will have a clearer
idea of what it is, what it does, and what challenges it faces. If it follows the plan, it will
also enjoy enhanced performance and responsiveness to its environment.
Who Should be Involved?
Strategic Planning in Smaller Nonprofit Organizations
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