If "strategic planning" sounds like a dusty corporate term you'd rather not touch with a ten-foot pole, hold on just a second.

Strategic planning can be your nonprofit's secret sauce, the magic ingredient that turns your mission into impactful outcomes. I know this because I’ve seen it happen over and over again for more than two decades.

At Mission Met, we've dedicated ourselves to simplifying this process for you. Get ready to dive into five proven strategic planning hacks that can truly revolutionize your organization.

1. It's a Journey, Not a Destination: Embrace a New Strategic Planning Mindset

Do you often find yourself caught in a cycle of failed strategic plans? Maybe you start with a burst of excitement but soon lose interest, leading to missed goals and lost faith in the process. It's time to break free from this vicious circle and discover a new approach that leads to success.

I’ve found that what typically causes those problems is that an organization’s leaders have the wrong mindset about strategic planning. They approach it as a one-time event. You hear it when people say, “We need a strategic plan,” or “Let’s go on a retreat.” 

What’s much more powerful is when you and your team members say “We need a strategic planning process, a component of which is a plan.” That, is a totally different mindset that, once planted, will sprout an entirely new set of actions that will help you execute your plan over time. 

To help our clients change their mindset, we’ve created a simple four-step strategic planning method – the CAPE Cycle. This model can provide you and your team with a practical way to think of planning as an ongoing process that leads to dramatically better strategic planning results.  

Takeaway Tip: To reinforce the idea that strategic planning is an ongoing process, put quarterly two-hour strategic planning check-ins with your team on your calendars right now. During these meetings you can assess how you're doing and make real-time adjustments. Use these meetings as mini-retreats to reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and what might need to change. 

Diving Deeper: What Should You Cover in Quarterly Meetings?

• Celebrate the successes and share them widely to boost team morale.

• Review your mission, vision, and values to ensure they align with your current actions and stakeholders.

• Evaluate your strategic focus areas to determine if they need adjustment based on changing circumstances.

• Ensure that everyone is tracking and measuring goals on a regular basis.

2. Co-Champions: The Dynamic Duo Your Planning Process Needs

Imagine it’s 6 AM and your alarm goes off for you to get up and go for a run. But you got to bed late and it’s cold outside and you decide to blow it off and go back to sleep. 

Now imagine the same scenario but with an added twist: at 6:15 you’re supposed to meet your friend out in front of your house so that the two of you can run together. Chances are, you’re going to get out of bed, get your running gear on, and maintain your commitment to your friend. 

That’s the power of mutual accountability and I’ve seen it work exceptionally well in the realm of strategic planning. 

One of the problems with strategic planning at nonprofits is that we expect the CEO or executive director to lead the charge on their own. However, they’ve got a ton on their plate and it’s easy for them to let the important but non-urgent strategic planning activities slip through the cracks. 

However, when the leader finds a partner to oversee the planning process, then their mutual accountability significantly increases the chances that the organization’s ongoing strategic planning process succeeds. I call this the “co-champion” model because both persons are championing – fighting for – the organization’s strategic planning success. 

Having a co-champion will transform your strategic planning from a dreaded chore into an energetic initiative. 

Co-champions provide the motivation and support needed to achieve your goals. These partners keep us on track, holding us accountable to the promises we make to ourselves and our organizations. So, if your sights are set on driving organizational growth, embracing the influence of co-champions might just be the missing piece to unlocking your organization’s true potential.

To learn more about the executive director’s role as a champion and the value of co-champions, read Chapter 1 of my book.

Takeaway Tip: Select co-champions who not only understand your mission but also have the drive to see it through. They should have a knack for project management, the eloquence to communicate updates, and the emotional intelligence to foster team engagement. 

Diving Deeper: Some Roles of Co-Champions

• Set a positive and inclusive tone for the planning process.

• Schedule and manage the quarterly strategy meetings.

• Act as point persons for any external consultants or software tools.

• Maintain the strategic plan documentation and ensure that everyone knows where to find it.

3. K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple and Straightforward

Complexity is the enemy of execution. If your strategic plan requires a magnifying glass and a decoder ring to understand, you're setting yourself up for failure. 

I learned a long time ago that those organizations that were struggling with strategic planning often had a plan that was entirely too complex. With that in mind we created a simple-to-understand strategic plan format that, at its core, is just two simple sections. 

Section One: Compass

This section serves as your north star and is the heart and soul of your organization. It clearly outlines your mission, vision, and values and serves as a reference point for all decisions and actions.

Section Two: Actions

Here's where you bring your mission to life. This section spells out your goals, assigns goal champions, sets timelines, and categorizes these under focus areas for better clarity.

Takeaway Tip: Take a gander at this video where I give you an overview of what this plan structure looks like. 

Diving Deeper: Read this blog article and see if you can capture your organization’s plan on one page, using the two-section format described above. 

4. Focus on Process Goals, Not Just Results Goals

Traditional wisdom might point you toward results-driven goals like "Increase annual donations by 30%." While this is a commendable aim, just hitting the goal won’t help you build the capacity that allows your team to hit your goals over-and-over again.  

Enter process goals. Process goals are a gift that keeps on giving. They ensure that you and your team are creating the valuable habits and systems that will lead to the results you’re seeking.

So, instead of setting a goal like “increasing annual donations by 30%”, your goal could be “Document and communicate our replicable process for donor engagement.” Once that goal is complete then you and your team will have the muscle to pursue the results you’re after. 

Takeaway Tip: Read pages 46-49 from my book where I share research that backs up the power of process goals. Then, set a time to meet with your team and review your team’s current goals to see if they would be more effectively written as process goals. 

Diving Deeper: How to Convert a Results Goal into a Process Goal

• Identify the end result you want to achieve.

• Identify the basic process that you need to attain that result on a regular basis.  

• Incorporate that process into a specific and measurable goal that you and your team can pursue.  

5. Leverage Technology: Consider Causey for Strategic Planning

In today's digital age, excellent software tools are available that can save you time, simplify tasks, promote accountability, and keep everyone on the same page. With that in mind, we created Causey, an online platform designed specifically to help nonprofit leaders make strategic planning much simpler and more effective.

Causey saves nonprofit leaders valuable time by:

• Streamlining the process of writing a plan

• Providing simple mechanisms to communicate the plan to the board, staff, and stakeholders

• Creating strategic planning reports in seconds, not hours

• Sending automated emails to remind your team members of goals that are due

• Providing an effective way to track and measure important metrics

Takeaway Tip: Invest in strategic planning software early on. This avoids the pitfalls and extra work of migrating your strategy to a digital platform mid-way through a cycle.

Diving Deeper: Features to Look For in Strategic Planning Software

• A nonprofit focus

• Time-saving reporting 

• User-friendly interface

• Multi-user collaboration

• Real-time tracking and reporting

• Secure data storage

• Compliance with your organization's IT requirements

Wrapping Up

Strategic planning doesn't have to be an energy-drainer. With the right approach and tools, it can be an empowering process that propels your nonprofit to new heights. Embrace a new mindset, have co-champions lead the way, keep it simple, focus on process over results, and utilize technology to make your life easier.

From us here at Mission Met, we're rooting for you every step of the way. Keep up the good work!