8 Strategy Basics for Nonprofit Organizations

When you think about creating a strategy for your nonprofit or school, do you imagine high-stress meetings with a whiteboard and sticky notes, with your team hashing out a large-scale plan to set your whole organization on a path forward?

Strategy planning doesn’t have to be so dramatic. In fact, you already strategize every day! Whether you are embarking on a capital campaign, increasing your annual fund goal, navigating leadership changes, or simply trying to stay up to date and modern, you’re developing strategy.

Strategy is a shared vision for what’s ahead, with the flexibility to accommodate disruptions, innovations, and challenges. Because change seems to be happening more often and at a faster pace than ever before, now is the perfect time to employ these eight basics to build an effective strategy for your nonprofit or school.

Stack the Odds of Success in Your Favor

A new strategy can mark big changes for your organization. And change can be hard. According to the Nonprofit Change Management Toolkit, 70% of change initiatives fail. So, what can you do to improve your odds?  

First, recognize that strategy is more than just making a plan or setting a goal. Your strategy is your vision for what’s next, adjustable for real-time circumstances and opportunities. Before you begin to brainstorm (whiteboard and sticky notes are optional), outline areas of importance: sources of revenue, sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and staff expectations. Applying a future-focused vision to these issues can help you build a strategy that sets up your entire organization for success.

Here are eight strategy basics to get you started:

1. Become an Expert in Change Management

The first step in developing a strategy is to think about how you will manage the change within your organization. Your organization is made up of humans, and change will affect their experience. They may need to commit time to training or learning a new workflow, or they may find change stressful and difficult to accommodate.

Pro tip: Put your employees first. Strategize with a human-centered approach to change that prioritizes your employee’s experience, helps them see the positive in change, and encourages them to try something new.

2. Focus on Your Mission to Earn Your Team’s Investment

Your mission is powerful. It drives people to give to your organization, but it also drives people to work for your organization. Show your team why a change in strategy is important to their work and aligned to your mission.

Pro tip: Avoid a top-down decision-making process. It’s not always met with enthusiasm by employees who have devoted their careers to your cause. Staffers have day-to-day experience with your current strategy and a passion for your mission. Ask for their input if you want your new strategy to stick.

3. Set Achievable and Believable Goals

While building a strategy is not the same as goal-planning, setting goals is an important part of strategizing. If your mission is the “why” behind your strategy, goal-planning is the “how.” The goals you set can make or break your strategy, so use goals wisely to divide your strategy into easy-to-digest pieces. Remember, your team is integral to your strategy’s success, so consider their experience during this process as well. They will, in fact, be the boots on the ground bringing your strategy to life. Set goals that they believe they can achieve.

Pro tip: No need to start from scratch when defining your goals. Customize a template and make your goals SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

4. Don’t Just Collect Data: Use It!

SWOT analysis, KPIs, benchmarking…oh my! There is no end to the amount of data you can collect. And you need it to build an effective strategy. Sometimes, though, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Time and resources may be limited, so use them both wisely before going all in on data. Collect only that which has value in driving decisions for your organization—metrics that you know you are going to use.

Pro tip: Data is most beneficial in three key areas of strategic planning:

• When assessing your current state
• When setting goals for your team
• When creating a plan to achieve those goals

5. Leverage New Technology (and Do it Early)

Technology is at the core of everything we do today, so it will be a vital tool in your strategy. You will use technology to achieve your goals, collect data, and make your strategy a reality. Evaluate the technology you currently own and make sure you’re using it to its fullest potential. Check for any features you haven’t been using and for new releases that will support your work. You might already have what you need at your fingertips, or there may be new technology you need to implement.

Pro tip: If you plan to adopt new software or no-code/low-code extensions of your current tech stack, don’t hesitate. If possible, participate in Early Adopter Programs. A recent Blackbaud Institute report found that 41% of early adopters of new technology have exceeded their fundraising goals, and nearly 60% of early adopters report higher total revenue.

6. Become a Resistance Manager

Push-back is normal, so be prepared to manage resistance on your team. If your colleagues are resistant to your new strategy, this doesn’t mean they aren’t team players. In fact, people who care the most about their roles and the organization resist the hardest. If they’re feeling rushed by new timelines or stressed by the memory of a previous strategy that floundered, they just might need extra support and encouragement.

Pro tip: See the positive in resistance. Include employees (especially the resisters) early in your planning and give them time to share their concerns with you. If you win over the slow-to-change, you’ll have real momentum on your side.

7. Get Specific About What Will Start, Stop, and Continue

Let’s say you’re planning a strategy focused on efficiency, getting all of your departments aligned on a single platform—finance, fundraising, programs, the board, and administration using a seamless system so everyone’s work is visible and usable by every other team. You’re going to have to set priorities to help your teams adopt this new technology and efficient way of working.

Pro tip: Simplify the broad concept of “efficiency gains” by applying three labels for what your team is already doing.

• Start: These are new tasks and activities (start training on the new system, start pushing notifications to major gift officers, etc.)
• Stop: These are tasks and activities that will be ending in the new strategy (stop recording donor details on a personal spreadsheet; stop requesting one-off reports from finance, etc.)
• Continue: These are tasks and activities that won’t change (continue planning events; continue sending personalized thank-you letters to new members, etc.)

8. Don’t Let the Plan Gather Dust

You did it! You came up with a strategy, got your team on board, studied the data, and leveraged the technology. Don’t lose momentum. The process of building a strategy is just step one in your journey. Now you need to put it into action.

Pro tip: Revisit your strategy periodically, check in on your goals and your team’s progress, and make adjustments as needed.

Strategy Basics Can Help Define Your Future  

As you use these basics to start crafting a new strategy, you will see a principled plan take shape. Even if you only make small changes to your current strategy, strategic planning can help you set a proactive course for sustainability while ensuring your organization (and your team) is prepared to seize new opportunities for growth.