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Strategic planning is one of those things every nonprofit knows they should do but few do well. If you are leading a small or mid-sized organization, you probably have questions about where to start, how long it should take, and whether it is even worth the effort.

This FAQ guide answers the most common strategic planning questions we hear from nonprofit leaders. No jargon, no fluff – just practical guidance you can act on.

What Is Strategic Planning for Nonprofits?

Strategic planning is the process of defining where your organization is going and how you will get there. It produces a document – your strategic plan – that lays out your mission, vision, priorities, goals, and the concrete steps to achieve them over a set timeframe.

For nonprofits specifically, strategic planning connects your mission to your operations. It answers questions like: What programs should we invest in? Where should we grow? What should we stop doing? How do we measure success?

The Council of Nonprofits describes strategic planning as a process that “implies a formula for how the organization will compete” – except in the nonprofit world, competing means maximizing your impact with limited resources.

Why Does Strategic Planning Matter for Small Nonprofits?

Some leaders at smaller organizations think strategic planning is only for big nonprofits with dedicated planning staff. That is backwards. Smaller organizations actually need strategic plans more because they have less margin for error.

Here is what a good strategic plan does for you:

Forces alignment. Your board, staff, and key stakeholders agree on priorities instead of pulling in different directions.
Guides resource allocation. When you only have a $500,000 budget, you cannot afford to chase every opportunity. A plan tells you what to say yes to and what to decline.
Strengthens fundraising. Funders want to see that you have a roadmap. A clear strategic plan signals organizational maturity and makes grant applications stronger.
Prevents mission drift. Without a plan, it is easy to wander into programs and activities that sound good but do not advance your core mission.
Creates accountability. Named goals with timelines and owners mean people actually follow through.

How Often Should a Nonprofit Do Strategic Planning?

Most nonprofits create strategic plans covering three to five years. A three-year plan works well for organizations in fast-changing environments or those going through significant transitions. A five-year plan suits more established organizations with stable programs.

But here is the important part: your plan should not sit on a shelf for three to five years. Build in annual reviews where you check progress, adjust timelines, and update priorities based on what has changed. Some organizations do a lighter mid-cycle refresh at the 18-month mark.

You should also consider a new planning process if your organization experiences a major change – a leadership transition, significant funding shift, merger discussion, or a fundamental change in the community you serve.

Who Should Be Involved in the Strategic Planning Process?

This is where many nonprofits either go too narrow or too wide. You need the right mix.

Must be involved:

Executive director or CEO
Board members (at minimum, a planning committee of 3-5 board members)
Senior staff who lead programs and operations

Should be consulted:

Front-line staff who interact with the people you serve
Key funders and donors
Community members and program participants
Partner organizations

A common mistake is making strategic planning a board-only exercise. Your staff knows things about daily operations, client needs, and program effectiveness that the board simply does not see. Leave them out and you will end up with a plan that looks good on paper but falls apart in practice.

Do We Need a Consultant or Can We Do This Ourselves?

Both approaches can work. Here is how to decide.

Consider hiring a facilitator if:

There are significant tensions between board and staff or among board members
Your organization has never done strategic planning before
You are going through a major transition (new ED, post-crisis, merger)
Your executive director needs to be a full participant, not the person running the process

You can likely do it yourself if:

You have a board member or staff person with facilitation experience
Your organization has been through the process before and has a template to follow
Relationships among stakeholders are generally healthy
Budget is extremely tight (though many consultants offer nonprofit rates)

If you go the DIY route, the Funding for Good strategic planning guide is a solid resource for walking through the process step by step.

What Should a Nonprofit Strategic Plan Include?

Keep it focused. A 50-page strategic plan is a 50-page paperweight. The best plans are concise and actionable. Here are the core components:

Mission and vision statements. Your mission says what you do and for whom. Your vision describes the future you are working toward. If these need updating, the planning process is the right time to do it.

Core values. The principles that guide how your organization operates. Keep the list short – three to five values that genuinely shape decisions.

Environmental scan or SWOT analysis. An honest assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This grounds your plan in reality rather than wishful thinking.

Strategic priorities. Three to five major focus areas for the planning period. More than five and you are not really prioritizing.

Goals and objectives. Specific, measurable outcomes under each priority. Use the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Action steps. Who does what by when. This is where plans either become operational tools or gather dust.

Resource requirements. What funding, staff, technology, or partnerships do you need to execute the plan?

How Long Does the Strategic Planning Process Take?

Plan for three to six months from start to finish. Rushing it leads to shallow thinking and weak buy-in. Dragging it out past six months causes planning fatigue and the world may shift under you before you finish.

A typical timeline looks like this:

Month 1: Preparation – gather data, survey stakeholders, review financials and program outcomes
Month 2: Discovery – conduct interviews, hold focus groups, complete your environmental scan
Month 3: Strategy sessions – usually two to three half-day or full-day retreats where you hash out priorities and goals
Month 4: Drafting – write up the plan, circulate for feedback
Month 5: Refinement and board approval

Smaller organizations with fewer stakeholders can compress this. Larger or more complex organizations may need the full six months.

What Are the Biggest Mistakes Nonprofits Make in Strategic Planning?

After seeing hundreds of nonprofit strategic plans, these mistakes come up again and again:

1. Setting too many goals. If everything is a priority, nothing is. Pick three to five strategic priorities and go deep rather than spreading yourself thin across ten.

2. Skipping the data. Planning based on assumptions instead of evidence leads to bad strategy. Look at your program data, financial trends, community needs assessments, and stakeholder feedback before setting direction.

3. Ignoring capacity. A strategic plan that requires doubling your staff and tripling your budget is not strategic – it is fantasy. Be honest about what you can realistically accomplish with the resources you have or can reasonably obtain.

4. No implementation plan. The strategic plan says “increase donor retention by 20%.” Great. Who is responsible? What specific actions will they take? By when? Without this detail, goals stay aspirational. As Bloomerang’s nonprofit blog frequently emphasizes, execution is where most organizations struggle.

5. Failing to communicate the plan. Your strategic plan should not live in a board binder. Share it with all staff, key volunteers, and major stakeholders. People cannot align with a plan they have never seen.

6. Treating the plan as permanent. The world changes. Your plan should adapt. Build in regular review points and give yourself permission to adjust course.

How Do We Track Progress on Our Strategic Plan?

Create a simple dashboard or scorecard that tracks each goal with clear metrics. Review it quarterly at minimum. Here is a practical approach:

Assign each strategic goal to a specific person (the “goal owner”)
Define two to three key performance indicators per goal
Set quarterly milestones, not just annual targets
Add strategic plan review as a standing agenda item at board meetings
Use a simple spreadsheet or project management tool – you do not need expensive software

The goal owner should provide brief written updates before each review meeting. This keeps everyone honest and surfaces problems early enough to address them.

What Is the Board’s Role vs. the Staff’s Role?

This trips up a lot of organizations. Here is a clean division:

The board sets strategic direction. They approve the mission, vision, priorities, and high-level goals. They monitor progress and hold the executive director accountable for execution. They also bring outside perspective, community connections, and fiduciary oversight to the process.

The staff drives implementation. They develop the detailed action plans, manage day-to-day execution, track metrics, and report progress to the board. The executive director serves as the bridge between board-level strategy and staff-level operations.

Problems arise when boards try to micromanage implementation or when staff set strategic direction without board input. Good planning processes make these roles explicit from the start.

How Do We Get Board Buy-In for the Strategic Plan?

Board members support plans they helped create. The single best thing you can do is involve them meaningfully from the beginning – not just rubber-stamp a plan that staff wrote.

Specific tactics that work:

Form a board planning committee to guide the process
Survey all board members early on for their input and priorities
Hold at least one retreat or work session where board members actively participate
Share drafts and genuinely incorporate feedback
Present the final plan as a product of collective effort, not a staff document

What If We Cannot Afford a Full Strategic Planning Process?

A lighter approach is better than no approach. If time and money are tight, consider these alternatives:

Mini strategic plan. Focus on just your top three priorities for the next 18 months. Skip the lengthy environmental scan and work from what you already know about your organization and community.

Strategy on a page. Condense your entire plan into a single page with your mission, three priorities, and two to three goals under each. This forces clarity and is easier to communicate.

Annual strategic retreat. If a multi-month process is not feasible, hold an annual one-day retreat where board and senior staff review mission alignment, set priorities for the coming year, and agree on measurable goals.

The Council of Nonprofits recommends that even the simplest planning process include some form of stakeholder input and environmental awareness. You can scale the process down, but do not skip those elements entirely.

How Do We Know If Our Strategic Plan Is Working?

Ask yourself these questions at each quarterly review:

Are we making measurable progress toward our stated goals?
Are our programs and activities aligned with our strategic priorities?
Are we saying no to opportunities that do not fit the plan?
Can staff and board members articulate our priorities without looking at the document?
Has our fundraising improved because we can clearly communicate our direction?
Are we making better decisions faster because we have a framework to guide us?

If the answers are mostly yes, your plan is working. If not, it is time to figure out whether the problem is the plan itself or the execution. Often it is execution – the plan was solid but nobody built the habits and systems to actually follow through.

Strategic planning is not magic. It is a disciplined process of making choices about where to focus your limited resources for maximum impact. Done well, it transforms how your nonprofit operates. Done poorly – or not at all – you are just hoping for the best. Your community deserves better than hope.

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